Anyone into pike/muskie fishing?

[Ohioguy25]

Just leaving Lake of the Woods, incredible trip. We caught a lot of fish, and big fish. Bunch of healthy 35-45” pike, tons of stud smallies and plenty of walleye.  I grew up pike fishing all over Canada but this was the first time I went as a fisherman, it was a totally different experience.  
 

The rugged beauty of the lake combined with the abundant quality of the multi species fish is I think what makes it so unique.  It feels like a foreign land teaming with monsters.
 

I don’t think I enjoy pike fishing quite as much as bass fishing, but I have a renewed interest in it.  The fight isn’t nearly as acrobatic or persistent but the strikes are very aggressive, I got a couple decent 30”+ on topwater that were pretty startling.  I think my favorite bait for them was the spinnerbait though, for some reason it responded most violently to this, often coming out of the water when they hit it. Great trip, can’t wait to come back!

[gim]

I've been to LOTW (the US side) a couple times.  My parents also fish an amateur state walleye circuit and there are two events every season on LOTW out of Border View Lodge.  The water is ridiculously high up there this season.

 

90% of the anglers there are after walleyes though.  I don't quite understand it either.  There's such good bass, pike, and muskie fishing there that is under utilized.  The Rainy River is on my bucket list to target lake sturgeon one of these springs.

 

It takes an absolute beating in the winter months from ice castles too.  They need to start thinking about more restrictive slot sizes for walleyes and saugers solely for the sake of reducing the harvest from an explosive amount of winter ice fishing pressure.

 

I do a fair amount of muskie fishing myself in the greater Twin Cities area.  I don't specifically target pike but I catch a lot of them by accident and 90% are of the small, annoying variety.  @Further North does a fair amount of muskie fishing in Wisconsin.

 

Here's some walleyes my parents got into thick last September on LOTW.  They caught 8 fish over 27 inches in 3 days.  And also a couple of tiger muskies I caught last season.  Haven't caught any muskies this season yet (only targeted them once so far).

 

 

 

[A-Jay]

Sounds like a great Trip.

Congrats

btw - and pic or video to share ?

A-Jay

[Bass Rutten]

Sounds like an amazing trip! Would like to do lotw some day. This year I've caught 1 muskie and tons of pike, one thing I've learned is pike sure like chatterbaits. 

[soflabasser]

Good report, thank you for sharing it. A lot of members here enjoy fishing for muskie and pike. Muskie are one of my favorite fish to catch since they remind me of barracudas, which is a fish I enjoy catching here in South Florida.

[KSanford33]

I love catching anything in the esox family (pickerel, pike, and muskie). I just caught one today on a Ned rig that I’m going to post about on here. 
 

Your trip sounds amazing! I’m definitely a little jealous. 

[MassBass]

I identify as a multi-specie angler, and I thoroughly enjoy esocoids. I like baits that are 'hybrid lures', like spinnerbaits. Pike and big SM will both smash a spinnerbait. Chatterbait is a good one to. As are buzzbaits. 

[Further North]

I chase muskies and pike a fair amount.

Here's the post I wrote about our Lake of the Woods trip in June: 

We re fishing Whitefish Bay on the Canadian side.  Water was silly high - like 6 ft.+ over normal.

The thrill with Esox...'specially big ones...is the eat.  They're not going to wow you with their fight...and if you do it enough, you'll find that 24" - 40" fish are the best fighters.

We fish skinny-water rivers for musky a lot...mostly with flies...I'll be doing that Friday this week; Monday and Wednesday next week.  As much of a rush as having a big Esox eat your bait in a lake is...having it happen in a river where there's no place you can't stand up in...and where most of it is a couple feet deep...is even more fun.

Here's how we go after them in the rivers:

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

I love fishing for muskie. Unfortunately, there are none in my state and the closest to me are about a 3 hour drive so I rarely get to fish for them. 

[Randy Price]

I love musky and pike fishing.  I belong to a fishing club and approx. 60 guys all meet at Lakewood's Resort in Cable, Wis, the 2nd weekend in October for a musky fishing tournament on Lake Namakagon.  We all kick money into a kiddie for alternate species fish too (largest walleye, pike and bass).  Have a ball fishing and really enjoy the comradery as much as the fishing.