Monster pike takes the bait

SEELEY LAKE – "What do you need a 10-in auger for?" asked the salesman when Randy Teague was shopping in Missoula. "I said, 'Well you never know if you are going to get the opportunity for a big one that you need to have that big hole to get them through.'"

Despite continued critique and editorial comments from the salesman, Teague relied on his experience. He remembered when his father was ice fishing in Seeley Lake with a six-inch hole years before northern pike were introduced. He hooked into a rainbow trout that they never landed because its head was too big for the hole.

"There are fish in there that you might even have trouble getting through an eight-inch hole," said Teague as he left the store with his 10-inch auger. The salesman just rolled his eyes.

Teague was thankful for the larger hole when he landed a 42-inch, 23-pound northern pike Sunday, Jan. 19, less than two weeks since purchasing his new 10-inch auger. The pike was 8.75 inches at its thickest point.

Teague was fishing on Sunday with his son Matt, Shelby Stigman and Don Skillicorn and his son Bridger. Matt was lowering the bait down on the tip up just after 12 p.m. when the pike hit. Matt called his dad over.

"Everybody else had already had their turn and it just happened to be my turn," said Teague.

Teague said when he set the hook, it took off and he could hardly hold it.

"The line was cutting my hands so I needed to get gloves," said Teague. "My son grabbed the line and kept pressure on it while it was running until I got leather gloves and I could bring it in. That fish was definitely ripping and you couldn't stop it with your hands – it just cut you up."

Teague said he was able to get it to the hole pretty quickly. Once he saw it he knew it was a big fish. Since it had done a few log rolls to get free, it was wrapped with line from its head to its tail. They worked its head to the hole and Matt gaffed it. Teague said it would have been really hard to pull out of the hole without the gaff since they have so many teeth.

"I had no idea how big it was until we got it out of the hole. That thing was so heavy that it straightened my gaff out to a 90-degree angle," said Teague. "It is just a pig."

This is the biggest freshwater fish Teague has ever caught. The only thing larger has been a tuna that he caught in the ocean. He is going to have it mounted.

Teague was happy to see it removed from the lake since pike were introduced, are non-native and have been so destructive to the fishery.