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| Hi guys!
Greetings from Sweden!
A thing i'm wondering about is:
If you fish a lake where there are both Muskie and Pike, would you use different strategies for targeting large pike vs. large muskie and if so, how would they differ? With strategies i mean: habitats, fishing depths, type of lures, retrieve speed.
Thanks!
/Torbjorn | |
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| Where I fish, you can get both together using the same or similar stuff in the fall, but most of the summer the bigger pike are deeper. We do get 40"+ pike every year around the end of June casting, but they really drop off as the water gets warm. You have to jig or troll for big pike by the time July hits. Heavy spinnerbaits and bucktails with smaller blades work well in late June for pike once muskies are open, I got a 38 last July on a surface bait over deep water early one morning. In cooling water, we do well on Plows, Perchbaits and 10" Hookers, hitting shoals etc down 18 to 30 feet and suspended once in a while too. Weighted Bobbies and Suicks also work casting, so do Depth Raiders and Ernies. Biggest differenve I see in pike and muskie during the warm months where I fish is that you can get a 25lb muskie in 25" of water in August, but never a pike the same size fishing that shallow. Depth is probably the biggest difference. Along the same line, slowing down (often to get deeper) helps with better pke also. It's nice in fall when a rod goes off because it can be a pike, laker or muskie, they all can overlap on spots and patterns at that time. Deadbait under a wind tip-up in January or March is the fastest way I know to a forty inch pike up here. Caught 3x as many fish over twenty pounds doing this as with any other time/technique combined. | |
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Posts: 3867
| Yoodelehoo! Early season, I fish shallow the warmest water with jig/creatures for muskies. For pike I "rake the water", move move move trolling both sides of the boat just outside the first weedline with a medium weight spinnerbait on one side and a jointed crank one the other. | |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I second the above and would also comment that cooler water from springs, flow from creeks or rain washes, etc. can be big pike magnets in the summer when the water is above 70 degrees in the shallows. I leave the weeds to some extent and head for the reefs with deep water adjacent if the water is very warm. | |
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Muskie/Pike strategies