Pike Waters

[Mobasser]

Being from Missouri, I've never caught any pike. As a kid, we called them northern pike, and I always saw pictures of them jumping out of the water on the covers of outdoor magazines.                      I know we've got many members here who fish for bass in waters that have pike also. What's it like? Do you catch a lot of pike on bass lures? Do pike break lines easily? Are they a nuisance, or fun to catch on bass gear?

[Susky River Rat]

@gimruis have at it buddy 😂😂
 

I have never fished water with pike in them. Musky and pickerel only. I do not have many run ins with musky bass fishing. Ironically fishing some of the exact locations I was target musky and catching them. 

[Alex from GA]

My first and only instance of catching a pike was about 4 years ago on a road trip to Maine.  I launched my kayak on a lake in hope of catching a smallmouth and ended up with a nice LM, a pike and a SM.  Yes I have a picture somewhere.  I found out not to lip them.

BTW they all were caught on a finesse worm.

[Scott F]

I’ve caught literally thousands of pike in my life. If you are geared up for them with wire leaders, they are a lot of fun to catch. They aren’t in the least bit line shy. Most bass lures will catch them but they will tear up soft plastics and put holes in soft wooden baits like older Rapalas. One reason I like them is because I can use my bass tackle and are usually found in waters that you’d expect to find largemouth. Many anglers with little experience are rightly afraid to handle them. Once you learn how to avoid the teeth and have the proper tools, it’s no problem. In the states, people often kill them before they have a chance to get big so large pike aren’t very common. Even in Canada, where most of the really big fish live the monster sized fish aren’t common. If you are bass fishing and not using wire or heavy mono leaders, pike can be a nuisance, biting off lures, sliming up your landing net and slicing up your fingers. Most guys who don’t target pike would rather not deal with them but they are my third favorite fish to catch after smallmouth and largemouth bass.

[Reel]

I fish for bass in pike waters (Canada).  I don't loose a lot of lures.  Most of the time, in bass waters  (shallow and warm ), you will find small pikes and they are not that difficult to handle.  You loose a couple of lures a day to them, mostly jigs.  Spinnerpaits, chatterbaits and jerkbaits are long and the line stays away from the teeth ( most of the time ) .  In the waters I fish, the pike population is going down.  

Large pike ( over 8 pounds) are fun to catch.  

[RevoSEMIpro]

2 hours ago, Mobasser said:

Do you catch a lot of pike on bass lures? Do pike break lines easily? Are they a nuisance, or fun to catch on bass gear?

Yes.

Yes.

I love catching them - tournament types generally despise them.

 

Blanket statement BUT if you saw Joe Blow handle bass how I've witnessed many Bass fisherman handle pike you likely wouldn't be very impressed...

[WRB]

When fishing Lake of the Woods Bomber BSW16A XCHO  6” long A was a big Pike killer lure and never had a Pike bite it off.

Tom

[A-Jay]

@Mobasser First off,

thank you for starting this thread.

It offered an opportunity take a little stroll down memory lane.

I fish waters that all have pike.

The bigger the water and or the less pressured,

the bigger the pike.

I've caught some decent sized pike from both my canoe and the Pro-V bass.

I rarely target them so they are almost always a by catch deal.

Sizable specimens are usually a welcome distraction,

snot rockets are just a Bait Wrecking PIA . 

When fishing places that have a healthy pike population, I'll usually use a wire leader.

But not always. 

And that's cost me a few baits, OK maybe more than a few. 

I've posted pic & video of a few of my pike landings here over the years and

I'm going to add  a couple here at the end of this post.

The first one is one of my favorite battles with a pike.

(I'll apologize in advance for the colorful language at the beginning of this clip) 

I was in the Old Town on a late fall day several years ago.

The Pike was  just over 25 lbs and came from a fairly small body of water. 

I towed it to the beach to land it.

If you read my comments in this video you can get a little more info

as to what happened and why. 

Good Times. 

 

https://youtu.be/gSHOgDGlJGE?feature=shared

 

A-Jay

[MIbassyaker]

I lose a few lures every season to pike bite-offs, but I land more than I lose.  It depends on whether they get their teeth on the line, which they can slice through instantly. A hard hit, followed by an immediate breakoff on the hookset was usualy a pike.  Always need to check the line closely after every pike encounter.  They'll also mangle plastics, spinnerbait/buzzbait wires, skirts, balsa bodies, etc

 

Smaller pike ("Snot Rockets", "Hammer Handles") are annoying because they're slimy, thrash around like crazy, but larger ones can be pretty exciting -- helpful to have a net in the kayak, but I try to leave them in the water for unhooking if I can.  They strike mostly anything you'd use for bass -- spinnerbaits, topwaters, crankbaits, jerkbaits, jigs, any plastics, even ned rigs and drop shots.  They like slightly colder water than largemouths, so in many of the lakes where I fish, they tend to stay deeper than the bass in the summer.

 

I don't target them, or even really enjoy dealing with them most of the time, but they're part of the adventure up here and they spice things up.

[The Baron]

Lots of pike up here.  The big pike have usually dropped deep come our summer bass opener, but the little pike (<3 lbs) are a common catch when bass fishing.  The don't "usually" steal many moving baits, but things like frogs and jerkbaits that usually get hit on the pause are always at risk (especially frogs on braided line).  A lot of pike come in fairly easy and then try to roll/thrash at the boat, and that's when the majority get lost so if we don;t have a leader on we try to net them right away and not play around.  If we're fishing in areas with a lot of pike, I'll often run a 6" leader made of 50# fluorocarbon.  The guy I buy them from calls them "just in case" leaders, and they'd good for expensive things like jackhammers and glidebaits that I really don't want to lose.  But, they're supple enough to not affect the lures action much and bass don't seem to notice them even in clear water.

Catching pike on purpose is fun, especially in spring/fall when the big ones can be caught shallow.  Catching pike while bass fishing can be annoying, especially when you load up the rod and then everything is just gone.  lol

[webertime]

How to catch a pike...

Tie on a brand new expensive spinnerbait.

Put the receipt on as a trailer.

Cast

Retrieve 

Set hook

Fight

Bring Pike in boat

Unhook and release

Cut off ruined expensive spinnerbait and throw it down.

 

Don't repeat 

[bowhunter63]

When I lived in the north Big gaudy Roland Martin spinner bait or a good old Rapala 

[Mobasser]

26 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

@Mobasser First off,

thank you for starting this thread.

It offered an opportunity take a little stroll down memory lane.

I fish waters that all have pike.

The bigger the water and or the less pressured,

the bigger the pike.

I've caught some decent sized pike from both my canoe and the Pro-V bass.

I rarely target them so they are almost always a by catch deal.

Sizable specimens are usually a welcome distraction,

snot rockets are just a Bait Wrecking PIA . 

When fishing places that have a healthy pike population, I'll usually use a wire leader.

But not always. 

And that's cost me a few baits, OK maybe more than a few. 

I've posted pic & video of a few of my pike landings here over the years and

I'm going to add  a couple here at the end of this post.

The first one is one of my favorite battles with a pike.

(I'll apologize in advance for the colorful language at the beginning of this clip) 

I was in the Old Town on a late fall day several years ago.

The Pike was  just over 25 lbs and came from a fairly small body of water. 

I towed it to the beach to land it.

If you read my comments in this video you can get a little more info

as to what happened and why. 

Good Times. 

 

https://youtu.be/gSHOgDGlJGE?feature=shared

 

A-Jay

A- Jay, those are awesome!  Those are the type of pike that made the covers of Field and Stream and Outdoor Life when I was a kid. I daydreamed about those big pike quite a bit. Thank you sir

[gim]

7 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

have at it buddy

 

Most of its already been covered.

 

We have way too many northern pike here.  They are over populated in many of our lakes.  So much to the point that the DNR has increased the daily bag limit to 10 in most of the state.  I don't usually keep them, but they aren't bad out of colder water if you can get past the slime and y bones.

 

95% of them are annoying and small here.  We call them slime darts or snot rockets.  On rare occasion a more sizable version is caught (like the two pictured below).  I never target them but when I'm bass or muskie fishing, we always catch a few mixed in.  They ruin tackle.

 

Canada is probably the last primary stronghold for consistent numbers of big northern pike.

 

My PB is a 42 incher caught way back in 2001 out of Mille Lacs Lake.  Biggest I caught this season was 34 1/4 inches.

 

 

3 hours ago, The Baron said:

Catching pike while bass fishing can be annoying, especially when you load up the rod and then everything is just gone.  lol

 

I know that well.  You feel a "tick," set the hook, and there's just nothing left.  There's often some profanity that follows.  lmao

[webertime]

Sooo the slippery slope with them is taking too many out and their viability.  Up on Champlain the ice fisherman and shooters (yes shotguns, yes it's a thing) take so many breeders out it's hard to catch a good one.  They leave them on the ice or just to float and rot.  Add in the pickrel spawning with them creating hybrids (yes it's also a thing) and it doesn't take much to damage their population.  Final thing, they don't protect beds (none of the pike family do).  On Champlain we have this invasive called a Tench, St Lawrence has the gobies...  they go in and wipe out entire nests of eggs.  Now it's super rare to get one over 40"  when a decade ago you would get a teener a year.  I caught 2 pure pike all this season which is shockingly low for up here.  Yes they're annoying but for those of you fortunate to have a fishery with them, treat them well, they are very important.   

[gim]

I would add that it's very important to release the bigger ones.  Anything over about 30 inches is a pretty rare specimen these days.  Big pike eat small ones so when you eliminate big ones, you are often eliminating a natural predator of the over populated smaller ones.  If you want to keep some, keep the small ones.

[Susky River Rat]

@gimruisi know your love for pike lol. Basically my side of PA does not have northern pike. You have to go to the western part of the state for them. Every once and awhile you have a fluke one come out of the susky. Probably made its way from raystown is my guess. 

[softwateronly]

@Mobasser good topic; northern pike are a confounding fish for me.  They have always been bycatch on my home lake, and for some reason, all the big ones I actually hook seem to come on jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, and spoons.  So fighting them seems to be a 50/50 proposition that I'm hooked up with a large and powerful fish on M to ML power bass tackle and they fight hard, especially in cooler water.  Had an almost A-jay class bend me out under the boat on a bfs rig after a 3-4 minute battle just the other day.  Makes me mad at myself for leaving her with a face full of spoon, and for now not having it tied on to the end of my line.

  Which brings me to my other point; those fish owe me money.  I'd safely say that on average I lose a dozen grass jigs and a half dozen swim jigs and a few jerkbaits a year to those teeth.  There's even certain places and times where I start a location off with a spinnerbait or a 8" spoon to kinda clear the way.  Too many times I've lost 2 jigs in one stop working the same weed line.  Here's my most recent, decent one that got a pic.

 

scott

 

 

[detroit1]

If i targeted pike, i probably would catch less than i do now. Although the average size would be bigger because of the size of my "bass baits".  I catch more legals (24") than not so it's not so bad as Gimruis' experience. I catch them on a d/s and  they only broke me off 2 times that i can remember. Any cast with a spinnerbait, vibrating jig, or a DD22 and i just might catch a pike. Ajay lives near a lake ( St. Helen) that is full of those hammer handles...

[Swamp Girl]

I don't know what my PB is because I released most of my 40"+ pike in the water for my and their safety. It wasn't their teeth that scared me, but their tendency to thrash in a boat. So, I'd use their thrashing to our mutual advantage. I'd bring them canoeside, grab the shaft of the hook with my needle nose pliers, and let them thrash free. Usually that happened with the first or second head shake. 

 

We'd catch them fishing for smallies. Our number one lure was an F13 Rapala, so that lure was long enough to keep their teeth from our 6 lb. mono. Mostly. A few cut our line, of course. We'd keep a smaller one, here and there, to eat. They're delicious.

 

One trip, we launched a leaky, abandoned boat and brought a motor and big net to actually land one for a photo. Here's that pike below, caught on the first evening. I also caught six smallies that evening from 19.75" to 21.5". You can't see her full length because her tail wrapped around my side, but you get an idea. When she hit my surface rap, she did so with such force that she came completely out of the water and beached herself on a rock. 

 

I pointed to her flopping on the rock and told my partner, "That's my fish."

 

She's held tight to my chest. I did that to control her and because I was soaked from the rain, thus providing more protection to her slime coat. So, she's not long-armed, so you can see her true size.

 

After that, we abandoned the abandoned boat and returned to our canoe.

 

[Further North]

Pike are my favorite fish, and like @Scott F, I've caught thousands, on both conventional gear and flies.

Oddly enough, I don't target them much, as it's easy enough to get them when we're targeting smallies ans muskies.  This year's biggest was in the mid-30s.

I don't lose a lot of lures to them, because I run tieable wire leaders on almost everything except cheap soft plastics. 

We had a comical incident this year: We took a guy who is mostly a trout angler on a smallie/musky float.  Even though we told him to, he didn't bother to tie wire in on the red/white bucktail popper he'd made for the trip...and on his first cast, he twitched it once...and it disappeared in a big swirl...and his line went slack.  He just sat there, mouth open...and we laughed.  10 seconds later the popper floated to the surface...I tossed a properly rigged (12" 13# tieable wire leader) popper into the same spot, and it got clobbered on the 3rd or 4th pop...and a nice high 20's pike hit the net. 

Then we rowed in and got his popper, and handed it to him with the spool of wire...

...on the 50# fluoro mentioned above:  Tieable wire works better, and is at least as flexible...and I've seen 50# and 60# fluoro cut like it wasn't there...and the fish that did it were not all big.  I saw a monster musky lost because of a 50# fluoro leader once...I avoided saying "I told you so."  If someone could convince my esox were line shy, the absolute smallest size I'd consider would be 80#...and that stuff kills lure/fly action.



LOTW 38, on the fly.

[TnRiver46]

I love pike! Aggressive fish that you can catch, hold, and even eat without the scrutiny associated with their esox cousins 

[gim]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

I love pike! Aggressive fish that you can catch, hold, and even eat without the scrutiny associated with their esox cousins 

 

The problem here, even with a daily bag limit of 10, is that very few anglers keep them.  I honestly don't know anyone who goes fishing here with the intent of targeting and keeping northern pike.  Everyone here wants walleye, panfish, or trout if they're going fishing with the intent of keeping something.

 

Many of us here (including me) should be utilizing this abundant, easy to catch resource more often.  It would do our lakes some good if even a few anglers kept a pile of 21 inchers every once in a while.

 

Walleye and panfish restrictions are becoming stricter and stricter each season, and yet hardly anyone can see that snot rockets are widely available instead.  I don't quite understand it.

[TnRiver46]

I’d weigh 500 lbs eating fried fish everyday if we had pike haha. Most of our easy to catch fish have limits that prevent easy consumption (except white bass) 

[A-Jay]

Here in MI ~ Pike possession regs are 2 per day and at least 24 inches. 

A couple of the smaller, weedy places I fish in the canoe,

I'd need to fish through 25 12-15 inch pike to get ONE over 24 inches.

A-Jay