Title: No Fish Story

Redfield boy, Haider, catches Northern Pike over 30 pounds

By Parry Sterner

All too many times you hear some of the "Old Boys" come in with some whopper fish stories that seem to get better every time they tell the story. After a few years, the fish in the stories get bigger and bigger.

Well, the photo pretty much tells the story here.  Jerron Haider was out fishing with his dad, Justin, near Pollock on the Missouri River when one of the tip-up flags released, indicating a bite or at least some action on the bait (in this case it was a large smelt). Anyone that does much ice fishing on the river knows there are several different species that could be biting, but usually it's a Northern Pike, and in Jerron's case it was a BIG PIKE. Justin (Jerron's dad) told me that it took nearly 20 min. to land the monster and it wasn't easy to "squeeze it" through the ice hole. The fish's weight was 30.08 pounds and it was 47 inches long. The father and son anglers called the GFP officer and he told them that was one of the largest Northerns caught in some time.