Surprise of a “burly” pike while smallmouth fishing off Navy Pier

It’s been a year for bonus and deliberate catches of northern pike on southern Lake Michigan, from shore and boat.

Justin Meyer added another one.

“I caught this burly 39-inch northern pike [Saturday] morning just off Navy Pier,” the Warrenville man emailed. ”My friend Tom Baxa helped net it. We were fishing for smallies so it was a bit of a surprise. It smashed a jig tube.”

That’s my kind of Fish of the Week account with “burly” as an adjective and “smashed” as a verb.

Pike have been caught on southern Lake this year by anglers like Meyer while targeting smallmouth bass. Others have caught them while trying for coho, Chinook, lake trout and perch. There’s good reason that more are specifically targeting pike.

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside), Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or Blue Sky (@BowmanOutside).