Hot sultry days of summer have hit the prairies of Northwest Canada and no self respecting trout can be found feeding in daylight hours. This heat makes for prime feeding time for pike. They sit below the surface of the water like camouflaged solar panels soaking up the suns energy. They need this energy to feed in the shoulder hours of the day. That is where I come in. Just as the sun was setting behind a huge thunder head two buddies and I made our way down below the local hydro dam outflow to a virtual lake below the emergency spill gates. This area had been known to me to hold huge pike. Stories from the guys that operated the control buildings told of the huge pike they saw on their daily patrols of the catwalks could be heard in the back of my mind. This fly fishing trip was two fold as I was lending one of my friends my 8 weight Winston to take to the Northwest Territories on a fly-in fishing trip. I too was going to show him all I knew about pike fishing and fly casting. We made our way through the long grass to the edge of a shallow bay. As I rigged up I explained how to build a pike leader and what knot to use. We talked about fly selection and the difference between poppers, sliders and conventional pike flies. That night I chose a white and black popper with a long silvery tail. There were many whitefish in this river so I was sure pike dined on them regularly. The first cast into the shallow bay yielded a huge wake to my now gurgling popper but no takers. This was a good sign that pike were actively feeding. My second cast was about 40 feet and I let the popper sit for a few seconds before the third strip water exploded around my fly. The fight was on. I was into my backing in seconds it seemed, as the monster rocketed away from me on the surface. Its massive back displayed for my heart to start pumping even faster. This was for sure the largest pike I had ever hooked and on a dry fly. The fight ensured and 15 minutes later I barked out orders to my apprentice to “tail the thing” which he did with much consternation. I whooped and roared and my other buddy came running. 43 inches of muscle held in my hands as I retrieved my prize. The darkness was setting in so we took some pictures and unfortunately for the pike he had engulfed the 1/0 hook and was bleeding badly so I quickly dispatched the beast. (Completely legal) We then found a sturdy pole to run through the gills to carry our quarry to the truck. He was the king of his under water world and now on his way to a fishy afterlife in my freezer. As luck would have it my student caught the largest pike of their group on a fly which earned him 500 bucks so out of the kindness of his heart shared his earnings for the 42 incher he caught. Pike fly fishing reigns supreme in the the northwest territories in the heat of the summer.