It was a little bit cool and a lot wet but that didn’t deter the 44 teams that set out on Huntsville’s lakes early Sunday morning for the 6th Annual Huntsville Pike Challenge in support of the Huntsville Fire Department Association.
The goal of the live-release tournament is to catch five of the longest Northern Pike you can find. The highest cumulative score in inches wins the tournament. This year’s winners are Kevin Knox and Ian Duncan, both with the decided advantage of being from Huntsville. Their winning score was 181 inches of slimy pike.
The secret to winning, according to Knox, is never giving up. “You just keep fishing and fishing and fishing,” he said. Beyond that sage advice, Knox is not revealing anything else. Well he did reveal one other thing: he doesn’t fish with his wife, Jocelyn, because she always out-fishes him.
First place finishers, Ian Duncan and Kevin Knox of Huntsville, who hooked and landed 181 inches of slimy pike.
The third place team was also made up of local boys, Dave Kennedy and Ward Edmonds, who managed to hook and land 172 inches of Northern Pike.
Dave Kennedy and Ward Edmonds of Huntsville finished third with 172 inches of Northern Pike.
Watching the magnitude of the prizes being given out had this writer thinking, how hard could it be? It’s tougher than you think, says Knox.
There’s a fair bit to it. When you come in off the water after a day of doing a tournament you are exhausted. You’re just physically beat up from casting. I don’t know how many casts we would make in a day, but I’ll bet it’s over a thousand. Your arms are sore, your hands are sore from handling the fish, and then you add the weather in. Either you’re beaten down by sunshine or, like Sunday, raining all day long. People go, you get tired from fishing? Are you kidding me? Whereas I say, it’s exhausting. It’s a long day and there are no time outs.Angler Kevin Knox
The fish are ‘fin-icky’ too. According to a number of anglers, the pike were biting very lightly. Some competitors said they lost more fish than they caught. That also showed in the scoring, with 16 boats not able to bring in the five fish complement.
“They were doing weird things,” said Knox. “Normally pike are quite aggressive and when they bite something they really chomp down on it. Yesterday they were just nipping at baits. The mood of the fish changes. Sometimes they become very neutral or even inactive, whereas other days when they are on the prowl feeding you can throw the kitchen sink at them and they will bite it.”
The largest fish of the day was caught by Eon Lam and Jayme Cook of Keswick. It measured 39 inches and probably weighed between 16 and 18 pounds.
Rob Andrews, a volunteer firefighter and tournament organizer said about $2500 was raised that day that will be put back into the community through fire safety initiatives and helping people who have suffered a loss due to fire. “The day went really well,” Andrews said. “Despite the temperature and the rain, everyone was still clapping at the end. There was a really good feeling out there.”
For complete tournament results go to www.huntsvillepikechallenge.com.
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