Northern Manitoba is famous for its big pike. Any pike over 41-inches long qualifies as a trophy with the province and will get the angler a place in the yearly record book and a nifty badge. For most guys who come to this region to fish, catching one trophy in a week makes a trip to remember. Dunlop reminded me this when I caught this 44-incher (above) about 20 minutes after my first trophy. Then he caught his own 45-incher.

It's a little uncouth to keep score on a fishing trip, but as we continued to nail big fish after big fish in this one small bay, it became clear that we were in the middle of an epic day. I decided I better write it down or no one would believe us. When the afternoon was over, we had landed 9 trophies between 42 and 46 inches. Even Dunlop, who has been guiding for trophy pike for 15 years, had to admit it was one of the best days he's ever had.