Spring fever pike

Spring fever has been setting in the last few weeks and I've had the itch to catch anything in open water. I tried targeting white suckers a couple times last week, but had no success. With the warm February weekend we had here in MN, I took advantage of it and went out searching for pike. Since it's still winter my standards were low. I just wanted to feel something alive on the end of my line, and if that meant a 15" hammer handle, that was ok with me. Well I got what I asked for and then some by landing a thick beautiful 40" pike. I went on to catch 2 more pike, one around 20" and a 24". Great way to kickstart the open water season of 2017!