Coney time!

<p>Yk Gordo and I went for a day trip Saturday to the inconnu and monster pike spot we discovered in the North Arm of Great Slave Lake last year. Weather was crappy, waves were scary, fishing ... absolutely fantastic! The coneys aren&#39;t at maximum thickness yet (meaning, we were hooking them only on every third cast as opposed to every cast last year) but there were some nice, big 20-pound-plus females around and the Northern pike fishing was just amazing. I personally landed at least a dozen 40-plus inch pike in eight hours of fishing. Only three fish between us were under 35 inches. And they were biting everything: ciscoes under a float to 12-inch rubber swim baits to smallish spoons cast for inconnu. Hands were hamburger after handling so many fish. Back, arms and hands so sore, but good sore. Here&#39;s some pics. It rained hard all day and my hands were constantly covered in slime so it was hard keeping crap off the camera lens. A few of the shots are a bit blurry.</p> <p>Yk Gordo with a babe of a coney<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4940_zpsb830e786.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 387px;" /></p> <p>Hogged out pike stuffed with whitefish and inconnu<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4933_zps509c1894.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 501px;" /></p> <p>We did a lot of our fishing right from shore by the rapids. Inconnu were hanging tight to the middle; pike stuck largely to the margins.</p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4924_zps26bf622e.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 482px;" /></p> <p>The pike were so fat. Gord weighed one that was only 35 inches long but weighed 20 lbs! This one was 43 inches long and I&#39;m guessing 21-22 lbs.<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4916_zps038d8f5a.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 577px;" /></p> <p>My camera was effing up so I didn&#39;t get a good shot but this black bear was at the river when we showed up. It stayed by the river in this position 30 feet from where I was fishing for the first couple hours until it caught it an inconnu (didn&#39;t have the camera ready!) and then sat down, ate it, and went to sleep. Didn&#39;t care that we were there at all.</p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/DSCF4911_zpsc1158ddb.jpg" style="width: 1024px; height: 768px;" /></p> <p>So many big pike.<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4927_zpse01aa9ca.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 508px;" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4925_zpsb6bbcbee.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4943_zps9baae7fb.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p>One of two 45-inchers I landed Saturday<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4931_zps758ca337.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 533px;" /></p> <p>Glad to be back among the coneys<img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/coney1_zps5afb1580.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 569px;" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz229/salvelinus2003/Marion%20River/DSCF4938_zps6f72e0e2.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>