Are Pike Line Shy?

[Scott F]

This video shows pike don't seem to care about visible line at all!

 

 

[Team9nine]

A friend of mine from up that way refers to pike as “the white bass of the north.”  I don't think he was saying they’re stupid...just that their aggressiveness tends to make them easy to catch, I think ?

[Further North]

Pike are not line shy, IMO.

There's too many other variables:

1. Tremendously effective lures (Mepps, spoons, spinner baits, hard plastic lures in colors like Firetiger, big surface baits that mimic nothing natural, and so on...) that don't occur in nature and look nothing like food.
2. Big metal hooks hanging off lures.
3. Weather/water conditions
4. Presentation
5. Placement

...that impact the equation to even begin to focus on the leader/line. 

 

For example: anyone who thinks a pike (or a musky) that doesn't hit a #5 Musky Killer Fire Tiger Mepps because there's a metal leader attached to it hasn't thought that all the way through...

[Further North]

BTW: Caught several yesterday, all with leaders.

Just for fun, I also caught over two dozen smallies, all in super clear water, with above normal pressure...all on rigs with with steel leaders...

[TnRiver46]

Kind of similar to how their esox cousin the muskie aren’t boat shy 

[Further North]

Caught a 35" pike on the fly yesterday.

50# mono to 30# wire to an 8" black/purple/red collection of fur and feathers that looks like nothing that ever has, or ever will swim in that water.

A young guy who was with us, had two musky follows, one right to the boat.  First was on a #10 double cowgirl - fluorescent green and black - ain't no line shy going on there, the 2nd one was on a Firetiger top-water thing with more hardware on it, and attached to it,than a kid's bike...

[J Francho]

10 minutes ago, Further North said:

A young guy who was with us, had two musky follows, one right to the boat.  First was on a #10 double cowgirl - fluorescent green and black - ain't no line shy going on there, the 2nd one was on a Firetiger top-water thing with more hardware on it, and attached to it than a kid's bike...

LOL, yep they bite when they are hungry.

[DaubsNU1]

I was fishing a small area and believe I hooked and lost this pike two times in the span of about 30 minutes. Hooked him a third time and finally managed to land.

 

Was fishing 40lb PowerPro braid...didn't bother this fish one bit. Water was gin-clear, you could see the bottom (4' deep).

 

I don't think Pike or Musky are line shy at all. I've had them hammer lures right by the boat...always fishing heavy braid or braid to steel leader.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Does anyone want to list all the times they’ve had a follow and the esox didn’t bite? I’ll hang up and listen to your answers ……..

 

No BS now, I know muskie guys count follows 

[Further North]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Does anyone want to list all the times they’ve had a follow and the esox didn’t bite? I’ll hang up and listen to your answers ……..

 

No BS now, I know muskie guys count follows 

I don't count follows*, but it's somewhere between "a lot" and "metric f-ton." ?

*...but I don't measure fish, weigh them, or take pictures of 'em either, unless they're exceptional, so I'm an outlier on the musky-angler curve. ?

 

 

 

3 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

I was fishing a small area and believe I hooked and lost this pike two times in the span of about 30 minutes. Hooked him a third time and finally managed to land.

We had one on a well known Wisconsin flowage a couple years ago...came out and ate my buddy's jerk bait twice on successive casts, got off...then went to hide for a bit, then came out and hit a green and black #5 Mepps I was throwing...then hid for another few minutes, so I swapped in a #5 Mepps in Brown Trout...It came blasting out from the weeds, missed, then hit and missed 4 more times on the same retrieve before it finally ate right at the boat.

This was all within about 20 minutes.  That fish was gonna eat.

[billmac]

I've had pike bite off (or break off) a lure, and catch the pike a few minutes later, and get the lure back.

[Further North]

On 8/28/2021 at 10:39 AM, billmac said:

I've had pike bite off (or break off) a lure, and catch the pike a few minutes later, and get the lure back.

Yep.  I've not had that happen, but have heard of it.

[PondHunter]

On the contrary, I have actually heard that they're Attracted to Black leaders, and have caught them on those cheap chrome leaders so No, I don't think they're line shy at all.

[slonezp]

Pike don't care about anything. I've had them literally jump into the boat chasing swimjigs. I've caught them while bluegill fishing and by bluegill fishing, I was reeling in bluegill and the pike grabbed on to them. I will say these are generally immature snot rockets that feed without concern. Almost like a freshwater shark. Big pike are not so easily lured.  

[Further North]

1 hour ago, slonezp said:

Big pike are not so easily lured. 

'Zactly.

Harder to catch than musky.

I'm over a dozen musky for the season...only two big pike...

 

[Dwight Hottle]

9 hours ago, Further North said:

'Zactly.

Harder to catch than musky.

I'm over a dozen musky for the season...only two big pike...

 

 

What's your definition of big pike? I have caught a large number of pike over 20lbs while targeting them in northern Canada. I do agree that pike over 20lbs are tougher to catch than those under 20. Pike over 25lb are even tougher yet to catch but your lack of success could be based on numbers available rather than difficulty to catch. Also waters that yield musky & pike are usually dominated by musky. Statistically pike over 30lbs are more rare than a musky of the same weight. Large pike frequent colder water & greater depths than musky from my experiences. 

[gim]

22 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

What's your definition of big pike?

Canada doesn't count lol.  The abundance of large pike and the lack of fishing pressure/harvest makes Canada a top destination for large pike.

 

We have a crap load of pike here in Minnesota and a large one is defined as being over 30 inches.  I catch up to 30-40 pike sometimes when I'm bass fishing and the ratio of small aggressive hammer handles compared to a bigger one is about 15 to 1.  They are so abundant that they have contributed to a major problem in many or our lakes here and the daily bag limit is 10.

 

11 hours ago, slonezp said:

Pike don't care about anything. I've had them literally jump into the boat chasing swimjigs. I've caught them while bluegill fishing and by bluegill fishing, I was reeling in bluegill and the pike grabbed on to them. I will say these are generally immature snot rockets that feed without concern. Almost like a freshwater shark. Big pike are not so easily lured.  

 

I agree, although when we had a warm, dry, hot stretch of summer in June and July, I caught almost none whatsoever.  I think the water was so freaking warm that they all went deep or buried into weeds.  The small ones are annoying lure wreckers, and that is almost exclusively what I catch nowadays.  A 35 incher would be enormous for around here now.

[Further North]

On 9/16/2021 at 7:26 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

 

What's your definition of big pike? I have caught a large number of pike over 20lbs while targeting them in northern Canada. I do agree that pike over 20lbs are tougher to catch than those under 20. Pike over 25lb are even tougher yet to catch but your lack of success could be based on numbers available rather than difficulty to catch. Also waters that yield musky & pike are usually dominated by musky. Statistically pike over 30lbs are more rare than a musky of the same weight. Large pike frequent colder water & greater depths than musky from my experiences. 

Pike much over the mid 20" range go deep when the water warms...but for the sake of discussion, let's say over 35".

In places where musky are not a factor (much of northern Canada) bigger pike are easier to catch...the water doesn't warm as much, and there's no competition.

Fishing in water that has both...I catch far more big musky than big pike.

[slonezp]

On 9/17/2021 at 9:26 AM, Further North said:

Pike much over the mid 20" range go deep when the water warms...but for the sake of discussion, let's say over 35".

In places where musky are not a factor (much of northern Canada) bigger pike are easier to catch...the water doesn't warm as much, and there's no competition.

Fishing in water that has both...I catch far more big musky than big pike.

On my home water in Northern IL, there is a decent population of musky in the 35-45" range and a few 50" swimming around. Same water, the pike population is much larger and a 35" pike would be huge. 

I tend to catch bigger pike on water void of musky.

[Further North]

10 hours ago, slonezp said:

On my home water in Northern IL, there is a decent population of musky in the 35-45" range and a few 50" swimming around. Same water, the pike population is much larger and a 35" pike would be huge. 

I tend to catch bigger pike on water void of musky.

I read something a while back - I can't recall where - that this is the norm.

Musky will take over the dominant feeding spots in a system with both fish, making it a slower process for pike to attain larger sizes.

An interesting counter-effect (I think) is that pike spawn earlier, and eat musky fry...reducing musky numbers.  Ma Nature tends to be all about balance unless people foul it up.

[PaulVE64]

I live in Ontario, Canada.

 

We routinely catch 24"  pike while smallie fishing.  No jerkbait is ever safe and they love bubblegum trick worms.

Further north you can get into epic 48"  pike.

 

[Further North]

9 minutes ago, PaulVE64 said:

Further north you can get into epic 48"  pike.

Thanks, I have, in Western Ontario...back to back on consecutive days, once.

One on gear, one on a fly.

[cyclops2]

All the pike that I catch & release ?  Become cautious followers in bright light days. I also have them arrive  if I am catching a lot of perch in 1 spot. Most perch stop except for a few. They really learn how to hold their breath in the pikes mouth. The pike is not overly excited as I slowly reel him to the edge of the boat. He just stays calm as we look at each other. 2 to 5 seconds of gentile pulls & he opens his mouth. The perch is motionless. Pike moves off slowly. 

I used a 14" perch to see how big a pike lived along side a rock wall on the edge of the freighter channel.

I live lined the perch . Perch starts zipping and stops. I slowly reel up the big perch I see him coming up very horizontally.   ODD  Then I see the HUGE jaw holding the perch.  My hairs stand up in several places. I am thinking Muskie that big. Almost the spread of my hand. He has the perch from just past the gills to almost the tail.  I stop reeling as I see his little belly fins paddling rapidly.   Later he releases the perch and slides backward & straight down.

 

Almost forgot 60# braid & 18" black wire leader.  I sent the perch down again. Same result. 3rd time the perch was not bothered. 4th time I unhooked the perch and released the perch.  4' down the pike does a non focusable high speed up & down.  Oh well  I came back several more times to try to catch him again for a picture.  Too smart  

[Further North]

I have had 2 ft pike get T-Boned by musky...the musky didn't let go until I stuck the net in her face...

 

[WRB]

Musky are not shy about anything. I had a big Musky bite the trolling motor prop. A favorite Musky trick is follow the lure then wait under the boat for the lure to return on the next cast then dart out and strike just before lifting out if the water. 

I found Big pike love big flashy spoons and blades and big Musky tend to prefer big wooden lures looking like fish.

Line shy hell no, they rip fish off stringers!

Tom