A good angler usually has a handful of favorite honeypot fishing spots. A place where fish consistently bite and tourist will never know about.
Joel Hoerner has just such a spot on the lower Flathead river. Last Saturday he took his son fishing with him, expecting the normal 9 to 10 lb. pike he usually catches, but instead bagged himself a MONSTER! Weighing in at a 29.7 lb. and 49 inches; this beast was almost as tall as his son and weighed more than his dog!
Hoerner and his son Lane were working shallow water, maybe around two feet, with the only catch being a 3-inch perch Lane hooked. Fortunately Hoerner was prepared for much bigger fish, he was using a wire leader and stout rod when he got the bite of his life.
“It jerked really hard a couple of times,” said Hoerner. He thought he had a snag, but the snag started to move.
That’s when his sturdy line came in handy. Then he reeled in the trophy catch, and without a cooler big enough to put it in, he took it straight to the taxidermist.
While likely the biggest pike taken from the lower Flathead, this fish was still shy of the state record perch from 1972. To see record pike from each state click here.
