Smoke your thread moves right along. Back to fishing for a moment. First, I hate fricken pike. On a fly rod you have to use a completely different set up that for trout. For pike you need a steel leader which trout can see and won't have anything to do with it. I fish for trout which involves a small leader that the pike easily bite through on the strike. I have to use really small flies so the pike wont' bother with the fly. Even then the basturds still bite off my fly.
I fish before sun up until the wind comes up as I use a belly boat and not a boat. So, when the wind comes up and it is bad here I am done. I have fished this lake since the 80's so I know where the fish are with my limited ability to reach thine. Quarter mile is a long way in a belly boat especially in sub freezing temps at 70 years old. The lake is at 9500 ft and cold even in the summer time before sunup. Gotta be tough.