Having trouble trying to explain my experience and not sound like I am blowing smoke up a bunch of ticklish orifii...

I have had opportunity to fish some of the best pike waters known to man; many, many times for a very long period of time... The largest pike ever recorded by Man was netted, tagged, and released back into Alexander Lake in SC AK. It weighed more than ten pounds more than the All-Time World Record pike. My son and I flew into Alexander every year for many years in search of that pike and we spent about a week every year. We caught thousands upon thousands of Alexander Lake pike, all on flies. We never caught the "Big" one, but we caught an incredible number of huge pike.

I have fished some of the best sloughs on the Yukon, Six-Mile Lake down by Illiamna, and many more remote lakes with pike fame attached. I have been beyond lucky... I have caught a ridiculous number of "Once in a Lifetime" pike.

I also spent a season in Plattsburgh, NY and fished the pike along the edges of Lake Champlain in early spring.

They are an over-rated fish... Does not diminish my love for them but I am an ultimate realist.

Their teeth are no sharper or more numerous than lake trout teeth... And forget about comparisons to saltwater fish!

Their juice is gone after the first attack... Cutting the points off hooks and just watching the pike tear into flies is worth the price of admission...
art