This report comes from Casey Hayward and was submitted as part of our 2012 Contributor Contest.
The MuskiesNB Chapter of Muskies Canada held our annual “exploratory outing” on September 9th, on the St John river at Oromocto. The exploratory is a club outing to an area where we have not been before for an organized fishing derby (catch and release). After 5 years of attending almost every club outing I finally got the winning fish. It was 39.5″ x 17″ and was 1 of 4 caught in the derby. I was trolling a blue fox, tandem inline spinner in about 4′ of water, actually heading for deeper water where I thought my chances would be better. The muskie put up a pretty good struggle but I finally got it boat side (I was alone). When I tried to get it into my huge Frabill muskie net, the front hook on the spinner got caught on the netting. The muskie really began to thrash about and I was sure I was going to loose it as it was not in the net at all. It gave a huge flip and landed right in the net as the lure came free from the net and its mouth. I just sat down to rest a bit as I was shaking like a leaf. A guy who was just launching his boat at an old wharf came over to see what all the splashing was about. He took some pics for me but they were not too good. Well I finally got to the podium and received a $300 Okuma, 8’6″ telescoping musky rod and an Okuma Isis 400 baitcast reel. For an old dude I was pretty excited and I am looking forward to doing it again.
- Casey Hayward






















Re: World Record Pike