If you’re fishing in shallow water (10 feet deep or less), you’ll want to suspend it in the bottom half of the water column. If you’re fishing in water deeper than 10 feet, place the bait about three feet off the bottom, always keeping in mind that prowling pike like to silhouette their prey against a light backdrop.
What’s the best bait for big northern pike?
PIKE – Pike love spoons, especially in yellow, orange, bright red, and shiny finishes but around the 1 oz. size. Many people mistakenly try MUSKY lures but pike – in most instances – prefer much smaller baits than muskies.
How do you catch a large northern pike?
The key to catching pike is locating pockets of cabbage weed and identifying the shallow and deep water edges of these weed flats. Adult pike tend to hang along the deep water edge of weed cover, while smaller immature fish set up housekeeping on the shallow weed edges.
What is the best depth to catch a pike in?
Most of these fish are caught in shallow water. Big pike, however, go deep. Many times they are in water 15 feet deep or deeper. At these times, a big deep running lure is needed.
What lures should I use for northern pike?
2. Northern Pike Lures
- Spoons. If you continually fish for pike soon enough, you will have a large assortment of spoons.
- Soft Plastic SWIM-BAITS. Soft plastic swim-baits are one of our favorite lures when targeting pike — having the ability to customize for any fishing location.
- Inline Spinners.
What color do pike see best?
Black or ghost patterns of lure baits are a great start. Pike will see a black lure against the skylight near the surface of the water more than other colours.
What color looks best on pike?
The ability of slower retrieve along with a softer underwater tone gives you the injured fish action northern pike prey upon. Best pike lure colors: Red/Black or White (sunny days), Chartreuse/Blue (cloudy days).
Where do big pike hang out?
They will stick to the back of bays where water warms up quickly with the morning sun and they have lots of weeds to hide in. The really large Northern Pike are more likely to hang around points leading into bays, narrows between islands or in river current especially later in the spring.
What time is best for pike fishing?
During spring and fall, fishing between late morning and early afternoon will be the best time to catch pike. Very early mornings and late evenings are your best picks during the summer. In winter, the hours between the later mornings and middays are usually best.
How do you catch a big pike with a lure?
Lure Speed: The cooler the temperature, the slower the lure. In winter, pike want an easy target so slow your retrieve right down to a snail’s pace. For autumn pike fishing or spring, aim for a fast retrieve rather than slow to trigger the pike’s predator instincts.
Why can’t I catch pike?
Switch up your bait, lure, or fishing spot if you’re coming up empty. If the pike aren’t biting, it could be your fishing location or the bait that you’re using. It’s best to bring multiple forms of bait in case the pike don’t like what you cast. Try out different baits and choose the one that works best for you.
Do pike stay in the same area?
During the winter they will go to the deeper parts of the lake, where the water is a bit warmer and stay there until spring time, when the spawning starts. They will most often stay in the shallow areas until the water temperature drops again.
How deep should you fish for northern pike?
two to fifteen feet
Within lakes northern pike are often found in two to fifteen feet of water, typically in and around weedbeds, rocky points and other structure where they can conceal themselves while waiting to ambush prey.
What is the best rig for pike fishing?
The most commonly used bait fishing rig for pike is, without a doubt, the running ledger rig. This bait fishing rig is designed to fish a bait on the bottom of a lake or loch bed. The rig itself compromises of a run ring, buffer bead, quick-change link, a lead and a wire trace.
What is a Northern Pikes favorite food?
But what exactly do northern pike in their natural habitat, and what baits do they typically prefer? Grown northern pike eat various prey fish, including yellow perch, minnows, chub, shad, bluegill, crappie, ciscoes, and the occasional smaller bass or walleye. They also go for smaller water mammals and their own young.
How old is a 36 inch northern pike?
Fish Age-Size and Male/Female Ratio Chart
| Fish Age | Length | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | 35″-88cm | 10.5lb |
| 16 | 36″-90cm | 11lb |
| 17 | 37″-93cm | 12.5lb |
| 18 | 38″-96cm | 15lb |
Do pike like topwater lures?
Many species are a blast to catch using topwater lures, but northern pike frequently charge baits with an unbridled aggression that are fascinating. Willing participants, pike are often eager to take a bait off the water’s surface because the presentation appears to them to be an easy meal.
Can northern pike smell?
The northern pike has a particularly poor sense of smell and does not feed well at night. Any species that does feed at night probably has a well-developed sense of smell. If you are a night fisherman for walleyes you know that they must use their sense of smell, because where they live it is totally dark.
Can pike see in murky water?
Even though pike are visual predators that mostly rely on their eyesight, it is very much possible to catch them in murky water as well. Northern pike have developed relatively large eyes, which have given the fish both a large line of sight and a highly developed color vision.
Are spinners good for pike?
In-line Spinners work well for northern pike. If you are just looking to catch some pike, the smaller spinners in the 3 to 4 inch range will catch plenty of smaller pike with an occasional big fish, especially during the spring.
Do pike like red?
More than a few old-school pike chasers will tell you that you only need two colours on a pike lure: red and white. However, I’ve learned that pike will chew on other colours as well. If you want to catch pike in different conditions, you should have some colour versatility available.