[Editor's Note: This fishing report forwarded to us by [name redacted], and because it contains so much useful information, we couldn't resist...
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Northerns have been described as being designed solely for the assimilation of other living organisms, often by forceful means.

Naturally, that's not the whole story.

They also breed. And like so many inhabitants of the Rocky Mountain west (including the cowboys), the females represent the larger of the two sexes.

Northerns are voracious and carnivorous; enduring traits when you're hucking 7-inch streamers on steel-tipped leaders.

The flies we used were tied on marvels of metallurgy, 2/0 Gamakatsu B10S Stinger hooks.

Helpful Hint: Most "Pike on the Fly" articles recommend prodigious use of rabbit, yet throwing sopping wet rodent remnants is extremely taxing.

What you want is a long fly with a deep but not wide body that doesn't hold water.

Extremely long saddle hackle tails, three a side with the fluff left on them for an even deeper look provide the basics. The hackles are much more durable than you would expect.

We fashioned thin, deep bodies of various synthetic materials. Pure black and all orange, both with a fair amount of predator-exciting flash, were our best producers.

A pike's metabolism really starts to kick in at about 55 degrees, and like many things in nature, timing is everything.

Still, even though the water temperature was just 46 F at [undisclosed] Lake - and the pike weren't as voracious as normal - we still caught plenty of the primeval creatures, proving once and for all that there are few dieters on nature.