Timothy Hicks and his brother Steve are die-hard northern pike fishermen. On June 13 they were catching a banner morning of sizable pike that spawned in vast Lake Pend Oreille in northwestern Idaho.
“They spawn late on Pend Oreille because it’s so deep and cool,” Hicks tells Outdoor Life. “The fish had come out of the creeks and were anchored on deep grass banks in 15 feet of water.”
The brothers worked the deep edges of the weed with big spoons, making long casts and tossing them off the bottom. By mid-morning, they had caught more than a dozen nice pike up to 35 inches when Hicks made a long cast parallel to the edge of the deep weedbed.
“I’ll let my 5/8-ounce chartreuse-green spoon sink to the bottom,” says the 44-year-old owner of 3V Plumbing in his hometown of Post Falls. “I tossed it off the bottom, causing it to flutter back down, and felt a slight ‘tick’ of a strike. I set the hook and I knew it was good.”
Hicks believed the fish was at least 40 inches long. He fought the pike using a 7.5-foot Loomis bait-casting rod rigged with a Sharmano Curado reel spooled with 15-pound test Maxima monofilament line. An 80-pound test fluorocarbon leader kept the pike from biting.
He says, “The fish made several big runs around my boat, and then finally a strong power run pulled my boat.” “My brother caught our net, and when I came closer to him we put the fish in our boat.”
They photographed the pike and took its measurements, then released it.
Hicks didn’t think about his pike catch and release becoming a state record until he showed a photo of his fish to friend Brock Morrow.
“They thought it might be a state record, so we looked it up on the Idaho website, and sure enough it was,” says Hicks.
Hicks’ fish topped the previous Idaho catch-and-release pike by ¾ inches, which Scott Blahnik caught from Lake Coeur d’Alene in 2020. Idaho has now officially certified the Hicks pike as the new state catch-and-release record of 49.75 inches.
His pike wasn’t weighed, but Hicks says it was about 35 pounds and would certainly have weighed more if it hadn’t just come out.
“I’ve been looking for this fish for more than 30 years – ever since my father Dennis caught an Idaho record 49-inch pike weighing 38 pounds, 9 ounces in 1992,” he says. “His pike may be heavy, but my pike is long.
“I’ll get a replica of my fish made and hang it on the wall in my living room, right next to my dad’s fish.”
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His father’s big pike was caught from Lake Coeur d’Alene. But Hicks says Lake Pend Oreille is now a hot spot for giant northerns.
“They’re considered an invasive species that somehow got into Lake Pend Oreille, and the state wants them gone so they don’t impact other fish species,” says Hicks. “But the lake is full of pike, and the habitat for them in Pend Oreille is perfect – cool, clear, deep water, good weed growth and plenty of food. I love fishing for them, just like my father and brother do.”
