Monster pike

An angler tugged a 44-inch, 30-pound northern pike out of Seeley Lake last weekend, the biggest he’s seen in about 17 years of fishing in the area.

Jaylund Rammell was fishing with his daughter, Kaylee, when he hooked into the big one.

“We were just fishing tip-ups like we normally do on Seeley Lake and using smelt for bait, which is pretty standard for pike,” Rammell said. “Actually it was pretty slow. We caught one that was about two pounds.”

Rammell said he told Kaylee that she could reel in the next one once he set the hook. But the next strike was obviously different.

“I knew as soon as the line was down that it was more than she could handle,” Rammell said. “It made two or three runs ... by that time there were several people gathered around because they knew it was a big fish.”

A man offered to gaffe the fish once the chance came.

“The guy who was going to gaffe it never did. He just kind of froze because it was such a big fish,” Rammell said.

Once Rammell had the pike’s head out of the hole, another man grabbed the line just above the steel leader and tugged it about halfway out of the hole before the line snapped. By that time, though, the group was able to get the pike on the ice.

Rammell said he’s been fishing on Seeley Lake and the surrounding chain of lakes for 17 years and the biggest pike he’s caught was a 20-pounder. The biggest he’s aware of is one that was pushing 30 pounds that came out of Salmon Lake about 15 years ago.

Rammell was uncertain about whether to have the fish mounted until he took it to a taxidermist to be weighed and measured at 44 inches, and 30 pounds, seven ounces. The girth on the female fish was 22 inches.

“I was definitely wanting to mount it then,” he said.

The state record for northern pike is 37.5 pounds, caught in 1972 in the Tongue River Reservoir.