The Boundary Waters Canoe Space Wilderness spanning northeast Minnesota and southern Ontario has been a haven for generations of outdoorsmen. This consists of Jacob Skorloken, who caught one of many greatest northern pike in state historical past throughout his twenty first annual canoe journey by way of the realm final month. The 39-year-old was paddling, fishing, and tenting the BWCA along with his father, Steve, and some different buddies.
“It was the third day of our 10-day journey, and we’d stopped at a favourite deep gap in Crooked Lake, a part of the Basswood Lake system,” Skorloken tells Out of doors Life. “I used to be alone in one in every of our three canoes once I dropped a 3/8-ounce blue-and-black jig over the aspect.”
He says he let the jig sink right down to the underside. After one carry of the rod tip, he felt one thing big hit the lure in about 18 ft of water.
“My dad and brother-in-law had been in one other close by canoe, and I instructed ‘em immediately it was a giant one,” Skorloken says. “However I believed it was only a good walleye.”
Photograph courtesy Jacob Skorloken
After combating deep for a couple of minutes, the fish made the primary of three scorching runs. It peeled off 50 yards of 6-pound line and put a deep bow in Skorloken’s 6-foot 6-inch spinning rod.
“It’s a miracle my 6-pound line didn’t lower in the course of the 20 minutes I fought that pike,” Skorloken says. “I simply obtained fortunate. The jig hook was barbed completely in its mouth. The high quality line should have match between its massive sharp tooth, so it didn’t lower the mono.”
The fish was too sturdy and onerous to show with mild sort out, so Skorloken needed to paddle after the pike simply to maintain it from spooling him. His dad and brother-in-law stored up alongside him, holding their canoe in opposition to his personal to supply some stability.
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“I finally labored the fish to the floor, however I couldn’t pull it in,” Skorloken says. “We lastly obtained it in our internet, and began to carry it, however the internet deal with began to bend. That’s once we paddled to shore, and [my brother-in-law] grabbed the online hoop to maintain it from breaking.”
After reaching shore, Skorloken held up the massive northern for a number of images and took some fundamental measurements. He says it was 47.5 inches lengthy with an 18-inch girth, which might have beat the standing Minnesota catch-and-release file by three quarters of an inch. (That file is definitely a tie between two 46.25-inch pike, one in every of which was caught in Basswood Lake.) However as a result of they didn’t {photograph} these measurements, the Minnesota Division of Pure Assets can’t take into account the fish as a possible state file. Nonetheless, that didn’t preserve the company from bragging about Skorloken’s pike on social media.
“We had been so excited in regards to the fish, so happy to see such a remarkably big pike, that we simply didn’t take into consideration taking images of its measurements,” Skorloken explains.
Photograph courtesy Jacob Skorloken
After they returned from their 10-day tenting journey, Skorloken contacted the DNR in regards to the pike. That’s when discovered in regards to the file technicality he’d ignored in his pleasure.
“It might have been nice to have the file, however I have already got a reproduction mount of the pike being made by a taxidermist, so I’ll be capable of re-live that reminiscence each time I see it on my wall,” Skorloken says.
The mount may even be a continuing reminder of the draw that the Boundary Waters nonetheless has, even after all of the years he’s explored the realm.
“I’ve fished there for 21 years, and I really like that space greater than wherever else on the earth. I first went there with my dad once I was 18 years outdated, and I’ll be going again to the Boundary Waters for a few years sooner or later.”
