Pike Fishing

The lad was not even pike fishing when the slash at the red-headed plug skipping along on a short line back of the boat caused the pike to hook itself. Dropping the oars, he grabbed the rod just in time to prevent its loss, brought it up high with both hands clutching rod and line tightly together. This was more than the cheap, jointed steel rod would stand, and it snapped at one of the joints. Fortunately the line was new and strong and it held while the fish broke and slashed around at the surface. With heart pounding, the lad horsed the fish in hand over hand and finally had it thrashing around in the bottom of the boat. It wasn’t a large fish as pike go, maybe five or six pounds, but it was the largest game fish the lad had ever caught to that moment and his first one on an artificial lure. The excitement was only dampened slightly by the fact that the rod couldn’t be replaced for a long time, not until he could save the money necessary to purchase a new one.

Thus was I introduced quite a while ago to the fighting qualities of pike and how they may be fooled with artificial lures. Since then I have fished for them in many places in this country and in Canada, in heavily fished lakes as well as in wilderness waters. Taken at their best, from cold water, they have few peers as fighters among freshwater fishes.

Big pike aren’t suckers.

They are inclined to be solitary individualists and, as such, their behavior is not always predictable. Normally they are knock-down-and-drag-’em-out fighters and will hit almost anything of reasonable size. But they are not suckers, at least most of the adults are not. The young ones take more chances of course, as do the young of other species. But most of the older ones, especially in waters that are fished regularly or where food is plentiful, have learned to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Outwitting these smarter ones consistently under various conditions requires knowledge, skill, the right kind of pike fishing tackle and a variety of lures.

Any type of baitcasting rod is suitable but it should be of good quality inasmuch as the action often gets rough and the rod should be capable of taking punishment. My preference is for a rod that is 5’2″ or 5’6″ long with medium action, not too whippy and not too stiff. Such a rod is good for either trolling or casting and will handle lighter lures as well as the heavier lures sometimes employed for larger pike and muskies.

Fifteen-pound-test is sufficiently heavy even for large pike. Some experienced fishermen use even lighter lines. When fishing in snag-filled waters (where pike often are found), 20-pound-test line or even 24-pound often provides the margin of safety necessary to avoid loss of a fish or a lure. Any good level wind reel is satisfactory, but I like one that will hold a hundred yards of line.

Successful pike fishing lures vary all over the map in size, shape, action and coloration. Among the earliest types used for pike fishing is the revolving, fluted spoon with a gang hook concealed by colored feathers, usually red and white, or bucktail. This is still a good lure under some conditions, especially for trolling, although it is a little difficult to cast due to its high wind resistance.

A small cousin to the original revolving spoon is the weedless, weighted spinner with pork strip or rubber skirt. These, cast well, are good all-around lures and are especially valuable where it is necessary to go right into the weeds for pike.

Wobbling spoons are easy to cast and some of these have movements that seem irresistible to pike. Pork strip often adds to their attractiveness, but care should be taken to see that this does not interfere with the action. In general spoons should be flashy. Among successful finishes are silver, nickel, copper, yellow, red-and-white and black-and-white.

Underwater plugs as a rule are more effective than surface plugs for pike. Oversized plugs (heavier than 5/8 ounce) are not necessary for big fish, although occasionally they will succeed when other lures are being boycotted. One summer day on Big Mantrap Lake in Minnesota, the pike liked a red-eyed copper spoon. The next day they wouldn’t touch it, but a large Pikie Minnow proved an effective substitute. Little diving, darting plugs take their share of big fish, And plastic plugs in small and medium sizes, with coloration and action to simulate live minnows, cause many an old pike to leave home and family.

Leaders are more important in pike fishing than most fishermen realize. This was proved to me at a fishing camp in Minnesota. A pier extended some distance into the lake, ending just short of the drop-off. A box containing bait minnows was anchored in the water at the end of the pier. Occasionally minnows escaped through breaks in the wire mesh sides of the box. Sometimes the attendant spilled a few in dipping them out for fishermen. Several pike from about three to seven or eight pounds hung near the drop-off, heads pointed toward the minnow box, waiting to pounce upon the escaping minnows. A fisherman tossed out his walleye rig baited with a live minnow in an effort to snag one of the pike, but they completely ignored the offering. I did not blame them. The hook was too large for the minnow, which caused it to appear unnatural. Then the hook was attached to a long, heavy piano wire leader that included a spinner almost as large as the minnow. The camp owner told me that the pike had stayed there for several days and that numerous fishermen had tried and failed to hook any of them.

Out of curiosity I rigged a baitcaster with a light 4-foot nylon leader and a small hook to which I fastened a lively shiner minnow. I tossed the minnow out and immediately two of the fish flashed in for the kill. The one that nabbed the surprise package was the largest of the lot, and after some little fun I netted him.

Now I do not recommend nylon leaders for pike, especially where large ones are known to be present, although I often use it. Pikes’ teeth have cutting edges and occasionally a nylon leader will be severed (not as often might be supposed, however). But the leader should be as light and inconspicuous as possible. Leader material of fine, twisted stainless steel wire is excellent for the purpose.

Usually pike fishing is best early in the season and again in the fall. The pike spawn early in the spring and come off the beds hungry. Forage and other small fish which compose most of their diet are not yet numerous, and consequently they will strike eagerly at either live bait or artificial lures properly presented to them by fishermen.

In spring, early summer and fall, pike will be found in fairly shallow water or near the surface in deeper water. They like to station themselves in, near or over weed beds. Other favorite spots are near points of land, around exposed or submerged bars and near or among heavy snags. At these times it rarely is necessary to fish more than two or three feet deep for them.

As summer progresses and natural food becomes increasingly plentiful, pike become more difficult subjects for the fisherman. Until the water becomes too warm they usually will be found in the same places, but with the cupboard full they are not quite so eager to chase the fisherman’s offerings. Then more than ever the inconspicuous leader, the careful approach and retrieve are important. Sometimes small, weedless spoons with pork strip retrieved from within the weed beds will bring action when plugs and large spoons fail.

Abundant food supply is only one reason for poor fishing in midsummer. One other reason applicable in some lakes is that feeding ceases entirely when the water becomes too warm. The temperature at which this occurs, according to experiments performed by biologists at the University of Minnesota, is 80 degrees. So if you would catch pike in the hottest weather, seek them in water under 80 degrees, preferably in the range from about 60 to 75 degrees.

Another reason for fishless days during the warmer months has to do with the means by which pike normally locate their food. While other senses, such as vibration perception, may play a part, pike seek their prey mostly by sight. This is borne out by the fact that they feed entirely or almost so by daylight. In many lakes during midsummer the water loses some of its transparency due to the presence of bloom, consequently the sight range of fish is lessened and they do not easily see the angler’s offerings. Then it is important to use flashy lures that show up through the gloom.

Three friends and I were fishing from two boats for pike in northwestern Ontario. On this trip we found the water temperature satisfactorily low, but the lake was blooming with algae. The water wasn’t opaque but it was far from being clear.

To start with, fishing was fair by ordinary standards despite the condition of the water. Best lures were bright copper and nickeled spoons of the wobbling type, with light colored plugs a close second. Most of the fish taken during the first few hours ran under ten pounds. We were looking for 30-pounders.

Then I remembered something: a little packet of applique “eyes”, circlets of yellow pigment on square patches of black adhesive to be placed on the front end of the spoon or plug. The yellow pigment was the so-called “fire-lacquer” which, activated by the ultra violet component of sunlight, glows several times brighter than ordinary color.

I placed one of the “eyes” on the same spoon I had been using, a nickeled spoon that wobbled slowly in a wide arc. Near the end of the first retrieve I saw a medium sized pike rushing toward it from at least ten feet away. He tackled it head-on viciously, like a hard-charging fullback, and virtually hooked himself.

The one-eyed lure continued to have the same hypnotic effect on other pike, something like a “whammy”. They fell for it in a big way and apparently were attracted from considerably greater distances than they had been without it. Is is entirely possible that the light range of the pike’s eyes is greater, or different, than ours, and that this somewhat mysterious lacquer appears even brighter to them than it does to us.

After the initial success of the “whammy,” I divided the few I had among the others. Our luck lasted until the pike actually chewed those eyes right off the lures! The largest fish weighed better than 30 pounds, and there were several between 15 and 25 pounds. Not bad for August.

Just to make the picture more difficult to explain, and to understand, one of the boys remembered that he had a recently purchased spoon finished entirely on one side with fire lacquer. Based upon our experience with the glowing eye, this lure should have been sure fire. But it was not. In fact it wasn’t any better than the other spoons had been without the eyes. There are at least two possible explanations. This lure had a different movement than the others, perhaps not as attractive to the pike. And the bright pigment was reddish instead of yellow; to the pike the red may not have appeared as bright as the yellow.

Later, after obtaining a new supply of the yellow eyes, a friend and I tried them on a Minnesota pike lake, using the same spoons that had proved so effective during the Ontario trip. The pike refused to be hypnotized. We were fishing fairly shallow in crystal clear water under bright sunshine, where the added brilliance of the eyes apparently was about as useful as automobile headlights on a sunny day. A few fish followed the lures to the boat, but they were merely shopping around. We switched around and finally found what they wanted, a jointed plastic plug scaled black and silver that moved through the water like a scared minnow.

This last experience just points up a rule with regard to pike as well as other fishing, and that is that you cannot depend upon any one trick or lure to catch fish under all conditions. You must be prepared with a boxful of tricks in order to ring the bell more than occasionally.

Update to this post – Nov. 5, 2009

A reader pointed out that the picture in this post does not demonstrate a safe way to handle a pike. The article here describes a safer way to handle a pike. Thanks to the commenter for pointing this out.

Tagged as: pike fishing, pike fishing lures, pike fishing rods, pike fishing tips, pike lures