Soft plastic swim-baits are one of our favorite lures when targeting pike — having the ability to customize for any fishing location. Small minnow to life-size stocker fish can be especially productive. There are thousands of swim-baits ranging from different styles, colors, and sizes.
What are pike attracted to?
Pike are visual feeders, and tend to be attracted to bright colors. Use high-visibility colors like white, chartreuse, and bright orange. They also respond well to baits that put off lots of vibration or sound.
What is the best lure to catch pike with?
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.
What color does pike like most?
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).
What colors do pike see best?
The absolute best lure colors for murky water pike are white, green/chartreuse, and orange. This article is based on my personal experiences over the last 20+ years and on a big survey that involved asking 100 pike anglers for their lure and color preferences.
What is a Pikes favorite food?
It eats mainly fish and frogs, but also small mammals and birds fall prey to pike. Young pike have been found dead from choking on a pike of a similar size, an observation referred to by the renowned English poet Ted Hughes in his famous poem “Pike”. Northern pike also feed on insects, crayfish, and leeches.
What time of day are pike most active?
between morning and noon
The pike’s metabolism rises and falls with the water temperature, which is why it’ll be at its most active between morning and noon, when the now stronger sun, or a mild, overcast spring day, causes the water temperature to increase.
What month is best for pike fishing?
Regardless of where you fish, late May and early June is a prime time to target big pike. The majority of pike will spawn around the full moon cycle in April whether under ice or open water. By mid-May the spawn is over and the big fish look to regain all the weight they lost during the spawn process.
How do you target a large 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.
How do you attract pike?
There are a few things you can do to help you catch more pike. A great tactic which they have employed in the past is to bait an area and then fish it. Much like prebaiting for carp, but instead use a groundbait with small fish chunks, which attracts smaller fish and, in turn, pike and other predators.
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.
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.
What kind of bait do northern pike like?
The best live bait for northern pike are baitfish like ciscos, suckers, alewives, and shad along with yellow perch and bluegill. Northern pike a whole range of food items but artificial lures actually work better and offer more benefits for pike fishermen than live bait, in my opinion.
What pound line should I use for pike?
You’ll need a stiff rod, 14 to 17 pound test line, and 9 to 12 inch steel leaders. Every pike fisherman has caught his share of northern from 4 to 10 pounds. Most of these fish are caught in shallow water.
How old is a 40 inch pike?
Fish Age-Size and Male/Female Ratio Chart
| Fish Age | Length | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | 39″-99cm | 18lb |
| 20 | 40″-101cm | 21lb |
| 21 | 41.5″-105cm | 23lb |
| 22 | 43″-109cm | 25lb |
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.
Do pike like bread?
So does bread feed work? Yes, definitely and in more ways than one. Not just smaller fish but predators too. It may even be worthwhile using it to draw in Perch and Pike to feeding shoals.
Do pike like worms?
Pike family members just seem to prefer live, meatier prey. They really like bigger baitfish, frogs, rats, and ducklings. They don’t care for worms. One more species which are rarely caught on worms are common carp.
Why do people fish for pike?
Northern Pike fishing is popular in Europe and Russia, and continues to grow in popularity in North America. This popularity is due in large part to their trophy size potential, strong fight, and great taste.
What temperature do pike start biting?
Pike stay shallow, following forage. Optimal metabolism temperature is around 66 degrees, and they’ll feed aggressively as the waters reach this temperature.
Where do pike like to hide?
Pike utilise cover wherever possible, be that undercut banks, tree roots, fallen trees or branches in the water. They also gravitate towards manmade structures, such as locks, weirs, bridges, moored boats or anything that can provide shade or cover… Small, slow-running rivers make for great locations to find pike.