Pike problems!

[Airman4754]

On 2/18/2016 at 8:22 PM, WI_Angler1989 said:

I'm not saying anyone here is like it, but I cant stand when people get mad for catching the "wrong" fish. I've seen people kill a pike because it "deserved to die" for killing good fish. I don't understand. I like fishing and that means any fish.

If we had pike I would bass fish a lot less. I've never caught or seen one but I would love to catch some. 

[WI_Angler1989]

5 minutes ago, Mosster47 said:

If we had pike I would bass fish a lot less. I've never caught or seen one but I would love to catch some. 

They're a lot of fun, but I do agree the little ones can be a pain. Mainly because they're so often hooked wierd of took trebles in a small mouth 

[Bigskinny]

15 hours ago, webertime said:

Grab behind the head with or with a boca-type grabber.   The stink is not like Smallie Livewell stink but it's close.  Pike do have some great names though...  Hammer-handles, Supertankers, horse coques... Catch enough of them and you can tell from the bite, immediately what you have.

Just wanted to add a couple of names we use.

Snakes, head shakers and my favorite snot rocket

[A-Jay]

2 minutes ago, Bigskinny said:

Just wanted to add a couple of names we use.

Snakes, head shakers and my favorite snot rocket

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

Good Names

A-Jay

[Bigskinny]

3 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

Good Names

A-Jay

Thanks, i need to stop by the introduction thread.

[WIGuide]

On 2/19/2016 at 6:52 PM, Smokinal said:

I don't understand how people put their fingers in the gills?! I tried that once; once. My fingers came out like shredded carrots. I almost went to the ER for it; blood everywhere. What did I do wrong?

 

On 2/19/2016 at 7:33 PM, Josh Smith said:

I saw this question and started following the thread just to learn the answer. I have never caught a pike and am curious about them.

Josh

To the two above, You don't actually put your fingers in the gills. If you do you'll get sliced. Your fingers go in between the outer most gill and the gill plate. What you're actually doing is grabbing their jaw bone. As WIangler said it's almost like a little pocket on the back side since the jaw bone is almost L shaped. This method easier done with bigger northerns. The smaller ones you can grab around the back and put you pointer finger and thumb under the gill plates on both sides. If you don't slide your fingers under the plates the fish can still get you because they have a sharp bone that basically traces the outline of the gill plate on their body.  

On 2/21/2016 at 10:02 AM, Josh Smith said:

I've heard of people eating pickerel. Are they any good?

Josh

 

On 2/21/2016 at 3:12 PM, gimruis said:

I've heard you can pickle them.

^ To these next two you can definitely eat them and they're pretty darn good. We do both with them. Because they have so many bones we keep part of the fish to eat regular, and another part to pickle because it dissolves the bones in the meat.  Unless it's a pretty decent northern (probably 24" and up) it takes more time and you waste a little bit of meat. We just open them up, remove the rib cage, take the boneless tail section, and everything below the y-bones. The top portion that has the y bones gets frozen in water until we have enough to make a batch of pickled northern. 

 

To the OP, the best way to work around them is to harvest some. They inhabit waters from shallow to deep and consume a lot of forage. By harvesting some of the smaller fish in the system, you'll be helping to keep the population in check, and be taking home a delicious meal. 

[shimmy]

17 to 20 pound line is the only solution. In Minnesota, you can catch a lot of fish and a having to retie a leader frequently can be obnoxious and inconvenient. So, 20 pound fluoro line gives you a chance of not losing your lure, even though you will still lose a lot (especially if it is a jig or worm. I lose few surprisingly on moving baits. Trilene's 20 pound line is a great diameter for not losing baits. Northern are my nemesis. People wishing they had them in their region are like those who wish they could get in a fight to find out what it feels like. 

[MidwestF1sh]

Fish deep structure. I live in MN too and find if I fish deep structure there are way more bass than pike. With that said you still catch some but if I catch a pike out deep I generally move spots. Shallow can be tough but I do feel that there are certain spots shallow or certain weeds and what not that hold more bass than pike. 

[FrogFreak]

I call em hammer handles (the small ones) or Toothies in general. Yes, I can tell quickly that I have a Toothie on because they seem to take off sideways quite quickly. The big ones have a different head shake than a bass does as well. Tackle Warehouse should love em cause they break off lures all the time.

[Ratherbfishing]

The only suggestion I have is to upgrade the size of your baits.  If the forage base of smaller fish has been "picked clean", than use larger baits.  This might keep a few of the hammer handles off and the bass may have adjusted to eating larger forage.  I have used 1.5 ounce rattle traps in Canada to catch smallmouth so a largemouth can easily eat something that size. 

[BigSkyBasser]

We feel your pain over here in Montana! Probably the most frustrating thing about pike is when you're fishing a finesse bait deep and you feel a nice fish load up on your rod. From that deep a pike and a smallmouth fight very similarly, so you get your hopes up and get the crushed by a stupid 3 pound monster. And then you have to retie!!!

[fishwizzard]

On ‎2‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 10:25 AM, A-Jay said:

Yup ~ But I will admit that when I keep my fingers out of their mouth & gills - the chances of leaking are greatly reduced.

A-Jay

Here is mine:

Caught an unexpected pickerel and in a moment of deep foolishness, I deliberately lipped him to get the hook out.  There was a lot more blood as I used the pocket of my shorts to compress the wounds, it looked like I had 4-5 small razor slices on my thumb.

Still made my girlfriend take a picture of him before I dropped him in the water and waddled back to the car for the first aid kit.  

 

Funny thing, on the way back to the car we passed another fisherman walking in, he saw the blood and asked if I needed any help.  I said "no" and explained what happened.  He wished me luck and started to walk away, then stopped and shouted back "Where did you say you caught that pickerel at?" 

[AQUA VELVA]

My lake has a fair number of stunted pike. I use a thin wire leader on all my crank baits. They also seem to like my spinner baits so I just bumped up my line weight (Trilene XT) and get very few bite-offs now. They don't bother most of the other lures I use,much. Some pike will roll in the water and wind your line around their head. If it gets into their gills or crosses a tooth, their gone. I carry a pike tool kit, lip grippers, jaw spreaders, 12'' needle nose pliers and a pair of welders gloves. I don't like dealing with them because they are mostly lure wreckers but if you fish where pike are you have to accept the fact that you will catch them.

[Tlauz]

I fish Northern Minnesota and there are pike in all the lakes.  I spent time learning to remove y-bones and they are really good to eat.  I am not a fan of the slime, but my biggest complaint is the small ones can be really slippery and they flop like crazy. You need to really be careful when fishing with cranks.  Nothing worse than a hook in the hand while still connected to a pike.  I will say that when you are fishing with kids and the fishing is slow, aggressive pike have saved many a trip.

[FluffChucker]

On 3/3/2016 at 9:30 PM, Tlauz said:

I fish Northern Minnesota and there are pike in all the lakes.  I spent time learning to remove y-bones and they are really good to eat.  I am not a fan of the slime, but my biggest complaint is the small ones can be really slippery and they flop like crazy. You need to really be careful when fishing with cranks.  Nothing worse than a hook in the hand while still connected to a pike.  I will say that when you are fishing with kids and the fishing is slow, aggressive pike have saved many a trip.

 

Isn't that the truth?  Pike have saved the day more times than I can count when I bring out less patient anglers. If it's slow, I've got no problem trolling weedlines with deep running cranks to put a few fish in the boat.

Pike, prepared properly, is a poor-mans lobster. I tend to keep a few pike over the course of the ice fishing season as they are some really good eating. Anything over 25 usually goes right back into the water, while the smaller ones come home with me for a date with the kitchen.

While I'm a C&R fisherman almost always, I firmly believe that on many of the lakes in my area you're almost doing a disservice to the lake by not bringing a couple home once in a while. Many of our lakes are overpopulated by an abundance of hammer handle pike. If more people would take a few small pike home, there would be a lot more BIG pike which are about as fun to catch as anything that swims in fresh water (behind smallmouth, of course).

[River Dave]

My dad had a great way of cooking Pike where he would cube the meat into bite sized chunks, dip in beer batter, and then deep fry them. They were delicious and the hot oil would dissolve the bones so they were never a problem. He always refered to them as "fish balls" so after a few beers the jokes would write themselves. Some of the best fish I've ever had. 

[A-Jay]

10 minutes ago, River Dave said:

My dad had a great way of cooking Pike where he would cube the meat into bite sized chunks, dip in beer batter, and then deep fry them. They were delicious and the hot oil would dissolve the bones so they were never a problem. He always refered to them as "fish balls" so after a few beers the jokes would write themselves. Some of the best fish I've ever had. 

Never heard of that ~ must be some pretty hot oil.

A-Jay

[BILLYsobx]

One interesting thing I've noticed fishing late winter/ early spring here on Eastern NC rivers is that we seem to catch a lot of pickerel right before the pre spawn- spawn period.... They seem to be the first fish to get active.... I.M.O....... Also tells me, since bass and pickerel prefer the same food, that there are bass in the area, just slow down a little maybe..... And yes they are excellent diced on the grill!!!!

 

[gim]

On ‎3‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 4:33 PM, FluffChucker said:

While I'm a C&R fisherman almost always, I firmly believe that on many of the lakes in my area you're almost doing a disservice to the lake by not bringing a couple home once in a while. Many of our lakes are overpopulated by an abundance of hammer handle pike. If more people would take a few small pike home, there would be a lot more BIG pike which are about as fun to catch as anything that swims in fresh water (behind smallmouth, of course).

That's because many anglers over the course of many years now have done the exact opposite of what you just indicated - they throw back the snakes and keep the gators.  Especially on smaller bodies of water, removing large pike basically eliminates the apex predator (unless there are muskies of course) in the system.  What's the biggest controller of small pike?  Yep, big pike.  Then there's the winter spearing.  Those guys NEVER target small pike, and there's no such thing as catch n release using a spear.

[Hurricane]

Best thing about Fishing.  You never know what your going to catch. Especially when you are fishing for Smallmouth with a Spinnerbait and a Musky comes along.. Love it. The fish of my lifetime. .. I'll take it any day..

[Ski]

These work GREAT !

Cheap, light, float, secure bite.

[River Dave]

Nice one Lastcast! If you're where I think you are I caught one right there last year too but not near as big. Had a big girl like that to the boat in that same spot earlier in the day too. Most of the ones we get come out of the weeds in front of the beach at Beaver or right where you are there but haven't boated any big ones in years now. One of my favorite things about the River, you just never know.......

[BassThumb]

The only thing you can do about the slime dart problem is to buy duplicate lures. 

You're gonna lose and few and shred a few some days; it's part of Minnesota fishing.

One day I lost three brand-new Phat Frogs in about in hour in three different patches of slop, just hours after I received them in the mail from TW. 

[punch]

Small pike overrunning our MN lakes is a problem. I think the only real way to help lakes heavy with pike (if the DNR doesn't do something helpful) is to start taking fish out for eating. One of my favorite lakes near my house has been overrun with pike the last few years, so I try to take a dozen pike out every year for dinner. Might help the lake AND they taste really good. Win win. 

[Scott F]

17 minutes ago, punch said:

Small pike overrunning our MN lakes is a problem. I think the only real way to help lakes heavy with pike (if the DNR doesn't do something helpful) is to start taking fish out for eating. One of my favorite lakes near my house has been overrun with pike the last few years, so I try to take a dozen pike out every year for dinner. Might help the lake AND they taste really good. Win win. 

I'm curious as to what you think the DNR could do to help?