I've had the photos for a week, but Bob asked if I could hold off release until the story came out in the press. I sent the photos to Will.

Muskegon Lake yields another trophy pike

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01/02/08 By Bob Kingsley
The Pastors reeled in a late Christmas present Thursday.

The walleye fishing was unusually slow as Gary Pastor Sr., his son Gary Jr., and Mark Jozsa trolled from early evening until 11:30 p.m. without so much as one hit.

"We had been doing pretty well the last few weeks, usually averaging about a half-dozen walleyes a night," said Pastor Jr. "The pike have been in there pretty good too as some nights we just couldn't keep them off the hook. But that night we couldn't even get a pike to hit."

"That was also my first fishing trip with the new net I got for Christmas," he said. "I wanted that first fish in my new net to be a walleye, not a slimy pike … those fish are ones I usually take the hooks out of while they're outside the boat."

It was getting pretty late, close to 11:30 p.m., when they got their first hit, said the younger Pastor. "The strike came on a No. 12 deep diving Rapala Husky Jerk in the fire-tiger pattern set 40 feet behind a planer board.

When the elder Pastor grabbed the rod, "it looked to be a decent fish but the fight was more like pulling in an old log … that is, until it got close to the boat."

The fight lasted about five minutes, but once the fish came to the surface Mark put a spotlight on it. "I got ready to slip the first fish into the new net," said Pastor Jr.

It may have been the size of a log, but it was a pike, said Pastor Jr. "The biggest I had ever seen … this fish was something special."

Rumors and "fishing stories" about huge pike being hooked and lost on Muskegon Lake have been told, retold, and embellished for decades. One of the best known certified catches was a 22 pound 8 ounce pike caught by John Peters.

But the monster pike caught by Gary Pastor Sr., and netted by his son, may be the largest pike taken out of Muskegon County waters in decades.

The official weight of the Pastors' monster pike was a whopping 24 pounds 9 ounces and the length was 46 inches.

That's no fish tale: The paperwork has been completed, which includes pictures and an official weighing on a certified scale, for a state Master Angler Award.

"It was pretty exciting having the opportunity to catch a fish like that," said Pastor Sr. as he hefted the trophy pike. "This was my chance and I'm sure my son will have many more chances in the years to come."

Making the catch even more impressive was that this fish wasn't "egg heavy" — the eggs hadn't fully developed — that plus the fact that she had at least another two months in which to feed on the abundance of forage, gizzard shad for the most part, found at the east end of Muskegon Lake.

Only one pike taken in 2007 out of Michigan waters was heavier and that was by just a few ounces. Also of note is that fish was "only" 41 inches long.

Muskegon Lake has been widely touted for producing trophy fish and Pastor's huge pike is another prime example as to why that reputation is well-justified.

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