There’s rarely a warning. Not with pike. When a striped bass attacks a topwater fly, you often see a boil or a swirl before the toilet flushes. Snakeheads will track a foam frog and wake the surface ...

Despite the algae bloom on the lake’s surface, I could easily see the red-colored head of my fly and behind it the fly’s silver mylar tail. The fact that the fly was large didn’t hurt, but its size ...