Beginner Fishing for Pike and Pickerel

[SmallieKing7]

Hello everyone.  In about a week, I am travelling up to West Point to see my twin brother after he is finished his summer training at the Military Academy.  While we are up there, he asked if I could take him fishing while he has some free time off.  Local ponds/lakes contain LMB, pike, pickerel, sunfish, perch, and bullheads.  He seemed interested in targeting pike and pickerel as well as the usual bass, and is expecting me to help him unwind and catch some fish, but I have no idea how to fish for either species.  Any advice for what lures to use, cover/structure to target, and time of day to go fishing?  Will 20 lb mono/braid with a steel leader suffice, or will I need to upgrade?  Thank you.

[Vilas15]

That line should be fine. Leader is not a bad idea either. In my experience they love white, or flash. White spinnerbait is a great pick. They'll be in/near the weeds. If the weeds come up to within a few feet of the surface and you can fish over the top thats a great spot.

[Further North]

Leader is critical, unless you like donating lures to the fish gods.

To avoid running them into the guides, I build my own: Tieable wire (20# - 30#) tied directly into the main line with an FG or Alberto knot, with a Mustad Fastach swivel tied into the business end with a Perfection loop.

I have several of these in use that have lasted over one season.

As far as lures:

Look at #5 Mepps (red and white is a favorite here, but brown trout works well too), spoons (I prefer Doctor spoons over Daredevils, but both work) in both one ounce sizes and the next size down, regular spinner baits, and any noisy soft plastic (I rig mine Texas style, with a wire leader to the hook, and pink or orange plastic bead between the weight and the eye of the hook).

I hope that helps.

[gim]

2 hours ago, Further North said:

I build my own: Tieable wire (20# - 30#) tied directly into the main line

 

What leader material do you use?

[Further North]

30 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

What leader material do you use?

I have several.

My favorite, Tyger Leader, is no longer in production.  I have a big stash of it, but will run out, sooner or later.

AFW Surflon is almost as good (IMO) as Tyger Leader, and I have that in weights from 13# to 50#.  The coated 7 x 7 is the best, for my applications.

Rio also makes a coated, tieable wire that's aimed at fly anglers, and I have some of that.

All of the above are much more flexible than heavy (80# - 100#) fluorocarbon that some folks like, and ties a heck of a lot better, again, IMO.  I find the FG knot to be the best way to attach all of the above to the main line.  It's the smallest knot available, and I've never had one fail.

For some specific set ups - I have a rod built to throw #5 Mepps as an example - I run single strand nickle-titanium from Knot-2-Kinky.  This stuff - if tied in right, you must use an Alberto knot and go at a least 8 wraps up and down - is freakishly durable.  I won't kink, and I've had it last two full seasons without damage.

...as you might be able to tell...I've put a fair amount of time into thinking about this, and trying different things. ?

[gim]

Thanks @Further North.  Tying up 80 to 100 pound fluorocarbon sounds difficult.  I have to assume its very stiff.  I have trouble even with much smaller test strength.

[Further North]

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Thanks @Further North.  Tying up 80 to 100 pound fluorocarbon sounds difficult.  I have to assume its very stiff.  I have trouble even with much smaller test strength.

Yeah, it's a PITA.

A lot of the folks that use it use crimps and such, like with commercial steel leaders...which are an obvious fail point, to me...but if they like it that way, that's fine.

One of the biggest drivers for me, going down this path, was to eliminate the swivel at the top of commercially available steel leaders.  Anyone who has fished with them has run the #(&% things into their guides, and I know of of more than one person who has broken a tip guide, or knocked the insert out...then cut their line on a cast, or when setting the hook on their next Esox.

I run a similar leader on all my fly rods, but those are 40# or 50# Maxima Alberto knotted to a foot long piece of tieable wire, with just a Mustad Fastach clip (no swivel, I don't want the weight) on the business end.  Some of these are on their 3rd season.

 

[MassBass]

I would recommend floating jerkbaits fished erratically around weeds for the pickerel. In the summer season they are very aggressive and have a strong reaction to an erratic minnow bait. Big pickerel can be difficult in the summer however, if you want a trophy you must ice fish.   

[Further North]

3 hours ago, MassBass said:

I would recommend floating jerkbaits fished erratically around weeds for the pickerel. In the summer season they are very aggressive and have a strong reaction to an erratic minnow bait. Big pickerel can be difficult in the summer however, if you want a trophy you must ice fish.   

I'll die before I'll ice fish...

?

[Biglittle8]

Use the most expensive lure you have, they will crush it... Literally. Seriously though, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, lipless cranks and jerkbaits have all been effective Pickerel baits for me, all while not even fishing for Pickerel. ?

[billmac]

I love using buzzbaits in the weeds for pike.  It's fun, with explosive strikes on the topwater. I like to add a trailer hook with a texas rigged curly tail grub on the trailer hook.  That gives you more hooking power and keeps the fairly weedless nature of the lure.  Unless you are using a really small buzzbait, or targeting really large fish, you can usually get away without a leader.

 

If you like to eat fish, pike and pickerel are excellent if you fillet around the Y bones.

[Functional]

The pickerel and pike you will catch around WP aren't nearly big enough to warrant 80lb mono. Tie on some 12-20lb mono and you are good. Berkley big game and a 2ft leader is plenty and easy to find. 

 

White spinner baits, weightless paddletail flukes fished like a jerkbait, jerkbaits, buzzbaits and slow rolling double jointed floating jerkbaits have all been the most effective. Either shad color or white for everything. 

 

Weeds and timber are the prime places you will find them and sunrise to sunset. 

[Further North]

4 hours ago, Functional said:

The pickerel and pike you will catch around WP aren't nearly big enough to warrant 80lb mono. Tie on some 12-20lb mono and you are good. Berkley big game and a 2ft leader is plenty and easy to find. 

The smaller pike here in WI will cut that 12 - 20# mono like it's not even there.

[gim]

7 hours ago, billmac said:

If you like to eat fish, pike and pickerel are excellent if you fillet around the Y bones.

I agree, they aren’t bad if you get a smaller sized one out of cold water and you know how to properly filet one. The daily bag limit here in most of the state is 10 of them. They are common and easy to catch, but most people don’t keep them very often. We really should be harvesting more of this abundant resource, as many of our lakes have too many of these aggressive eating machines.

[Functional]

8 hours ago, Further North said:

The smaller pike here in WI will cut that 12 - 20# mono like it's not even there.

 

Never had a problem being cut off with the 12-20. I will say majority of the time I'm targeting them I'm using a spinner or buzz bait. Wire in the lure may help keep the teeth from the line better than a fluke type lure. 

[Further North]

11 hours ago, Functional said:

 

Never had a problem being cut off with the 12-20. I will say majority of the time I'm targeting them I'm using a spinner or buzz bait. Wire in the lure may help keep the teeth from the line better than a fluke type lure. 

It might help that the hook is way back in that rig.

[gim]

12 hours ago, Functional said:

Never had a problem being cut off with the 12-20.

I've been snipped off twice this season.  First time was 30 pound braid and the second was 40 pound braid.  I will say that the smaller pike usually don't cut my line.  Rather, they just ruin lures.  The bigger ones are the pike that completely inhale the lure and cut it clean off.

 

If I had a dollar for every time this happened over the years here, I'd be rich.

[Further North]

16 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I've been snipped off twice this season.  First time was 30 pound braid and the second was 40 pound braid.  I will say that the smaller pike usually don't cut my line.  Rather, they just ruin lures.  The bigger ones are the pike that completely inhale the lure and cut it clean off.

 

If I had a dollar for every time this happened over the years here, I'd be rich.

I've been there...

There's very little that I don't fish with some kind of wire...Senkos and Ned Rigs are two of them.

Everything else, including pitching jigs, gets wire.

Fish don't care...

[gim]

36 minutes ago, Further North said:

Everything else, including pitching jigs, gets wire.

Ya I am going to try some thicker fluoro leaders on my moving lures.

[Further North]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

Ya I am going to try some thicker fluoro leaders on my moving lures.

I'm curious why fluoro rather than wire?

[gim]

I could use wire too.  I use steel, titanium, and fluoro leaders when I specifically muskie fish but when I'm actually bass fishing in places with somewhat clear water I prefer to use fluoro.

[MassBass]

Most pickerel that are caught are caught as by-catch by bass anglers. The small/medium pickerel might not break you off because they are just teeth, no weight. A 4lb pickerel will be far more likely to snip you off because you have weight + teeth. If you are going out there to target pickerel (which few do) you should use some kind of leader material like if you were targeting the larger Esox. However targeting big pickerel in open water is fickle business. Pike and Musky lures will get their attention, but they will usually only bite very realistic presentations. I have considered that in very clear water, they may shy from a heavy wire leader.   

[Further North]

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

I could use wire too.  I use steel, titanium, and fluoro leaders when I specifically muskie fish but when I'm actually bass fishing in places with somewhat clear water I prefer to use fluoro.

Interesting - I use wire, mostly Tyger Leader, or Knot-2-Kinky, but there's some light AFW in the mix lately.

I find Tyger Leader and AFW much more flexible than heavy fluoro.

5 hours ago, MassBass said:

Most pickerel that are caught are caught as by-catch by bass anglers. The small/medium pickerel might not break you off because they are just teeth, no weight. A 4lb pickerel will be far more likely to snip you off because you have weight + teeth. If you are going out there to target pickerel (which few do) you should use some kind of leader material like if you were targeting the larger Esox. However targeting big pickerel in open water is fickle business. Pike and Musky lures will get their attention, but they will usually only bite very realistic presentations. I have considered that in very clear water, they may shy from a heavy wire leader.   

Interesting to get that info.

We don't have pickerel here, that I know of.

[Tatsu Dave]

On 8/4/2021 at 11:02 PM, Further North said:

I'll die before I'll ice fish...

I used to catch smelt all winter on the ice and it cured me from ever wanting to ice fish again. 

[Tatsu Dave]

We catch around 20 or so pickerel a trip and I use cheap plastic lures so the bite-offs don't hurt so bad. Pulled a 4lb'er in the other day and my whopper plopper was totally in his mouth ,YIKES!! No more ploppers without a leader. If I was a different type of fisherman I would feed every pickerel to the hawks and eagles.....but I can't do that so we endure the frequent interruptions and line reties ?