Tactics

Fishing with large live-baits is a game of patience, but can often give you the shot at a really big fish. In the wintertime, ice-fishing for pike is a popular sport, where large baits are suspended beneath a device called a tipup, which signals the angler when a strike occurs by releasing a brightly colored flag. Several of these are deployed across the frozen surface of the lake, and the angler races to fight and land the pike whenever a waving flag is spotted. In open water periods, large live baits can be suspended beneath a float to attract cruising pike. Suckers, various large shiners, chubs, frogs, and crayfish will catch pike, although they will also inhale small minnows and even dead baits on occasion.  The most common pike tactic is casting artificial lures. Not only does this make hook removal easier on both you and the fish, but it can also allow you to cover more water in a shorter period of time. On a bright, sunny day, highly reflective lures attract pike by reflecting the overhead sunlight. Pike are aggressive and it is important to cover as much water as possible as you will eventually run across an aggressive pike to do battle with. Pike are not choosy with regard to artificials; almost anything you can buy in a tackle shop will catch pike. In unpressured water, larger baits invariably attract more and larger fish. Where fishing pressure is high, this rule may not hold true. Topwater fishing is perhaps the most exhilerating form of pike fishing - when a pike ambushes your topwater lure or fly, it is almost enough to cause a heart attack. Pike will leap from the water to attack your bait from above, jump out of the water at boatside to snatch a lure dangling from your rodtip, and follow your lure right up to the boat before deciding whether or not it is edible. Because of the pike's thick, bony skull, it important to get a good, solid hook-set on a pike once it strikes. This is easier to accomplish with the new no-stretch lines. I can offer very little advice for how to fight a pike once hooked, since every fish is a unique individual. Some will jump frantically in an effort to shake loose the hooks. Others will burrow up to six feet into mud or weeds on the bottom and sulk, waiting for you to go away in frustration. Most of the time, they will make a series of blistering runs, and it is up to you to turn the fish and guide it to the boat. It is better to unhook the fish in the water if possible; a good pike will thrash about wildly when boated, and will most likely injure itself and possibly the occupants of the boat as well. A cradle is the best way to land pike, but large nets and hand-landing are also used. Some of the best pike lures of all time are the metal spoon, the crankbait, the bucktail spinner, the jerkbait, and the buzzbait. A good fly selection for pike would include Dahlberg divers, Clouser Minnows, and Deceivers - large saltwater patterns will also work. Crayfish patterns work very well in rivers and streams where pike are found. Topwater action can be excellent at times, especially around dawn and dusk and when the water is fairly calm.