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| Hi, sorry if i put this on the wrong category but im having some trouble with pike fishing. i plan on using a 7'6" MH rod and a stury shimano curado hooked up with 65lb braid with a 50-60lb fluoro leader. i want to be able to catch small to large pike. i have muskie rods so if i ever plan on striclty going for the large of the large ill do that. my biggest problem is looking for lures. i know the basices but i want to be able to catch small to large or mid to large using mid size lures. i just dont know if they are to big or to small. |
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Posts: 2322
Location: Chisholm, MN | Use a red and white dare devil. Pike eat anything flashy in their face. |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Spinnerbaits and small diving crankbaits are very effective. Small Suicks beat them up, too.
One of the most overlooked yet effective method of catching numbers of Pike is a jig and plastics, like a Creature or Reaper. |
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| What I have caught pike on in the past:
3/4 oz. weedless Dardevle
small bucktails - up to Double Showgirls
9" Bull Dawgs
7.5" Red October tubes
6" Phantoms
small spinnerbaits |
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Posts: 61
| Suspending jerk-baits are lethal, Husky Jerks, X-Raps, etc.
A few others are Echo Tails, chatter baits, jig with twister tails or paddle tails |
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Posts: 2024
| Don't forget the 5 of Diamonds and Silver Dardevle too. #5 Mepps. Small topraiders worked in shallow weedy areas in Northern MN last summer, and the hits were awesome. I also finally caught a nice one on a 3/4 oz weedless topwater spoon with a skirt while river fishing last summer. I love that lure, but it is the only fish I caught on it in 5 trips. |
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Posts: 279
| Pike eat anything you throw at them. I have caught several 24”ers on pounders. On my favorite lake in northern Wisconsin my favorite is a hell puppy crappie or northern colored. |
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| Thanks for all the great replies. i have a tropraider for muskies which i plan on using, and i plan on getting a jake squirley 6". |
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Posts: 150
Location: Central Minnesota | Pike really like to chew up my expensive bull dawgs and medussa's. Fun to fight but kind of a bummer when you have to repair and tweak a 30$ lure after a little hammer handle has it's way with it. I have also caught some nice pike on 6'' phantoms and hell hounds. Rad dog spinners also have produced nice pike when working slowly through cabbage. Good luck! |
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Posts: 171
| Consider using a heavier leader. 50-60# might not be enough. I've caught my biggest on a Mepps Musky Killer, #5 Gold blue fox and a Clown #14 Husky Jerk (geez did that 39" fish tear up that little walleye lure!). Not much of a pattern, eh?
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Posts: 20211
Location: oswego, il | All the above are good suggestions. Pike also love zalts and zams. Very eeratic baits. Buzzbaits are good too. |
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Posts: 83
Location: minnesota | spinnerbaits are by far my best pike producer. Of course that's because I throw them the most. But that's because they catch fish! Husky jerk, large spoons, reef hawgs, and big swim baits have also treated me well |
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Posts: 1405
Location: Detroit River | If you have a decent sonar & fishing a deep lake that has a good pike population try vertical jigging blade baits or Jr. Bondy Baits. When I fish some of the small deep lakes under 1,000 acres I catch a lot of pike down 30’ to 40’ over 75’ to 90’. Look for balls of bait fish on your graph then drop your bait down the depth of the bait fish & start jigging. My favorite casting lure is a black w/nickel bladed bucktail like a Bucher 700 series or something similar. |
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Location: Minneapolis | There are very few musky lures I haven't caught pike on, but I wouldn't use anything huge if I were specifically targeting pike. |
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Posts: 116
| Sometimes if the small pike become annoying I start to use larger lures in order to potentially target larger fish. Canadian pike seem to be powerless over Suicks. I also like Regular bulldawgs (bring lots of them), 1 oz jig with a grub, and anything shiny and flashy...bucktails, spinners and spoons. 10" Suick is my first choice though and if that bite is hot I take the back hook off to save the fish some agony. They usually clobber the bait and wind up with trebles all over the place so removing the back hook is much easier on the fish. I think my biggest mistake was running lures that were too small and fished too slow. Pike can be very aggressive and usually don't require much finesse. Be prepared to try different sizes and speeds and if things aren't happening on the smaller end of the spectrum don't be afraid to try something larger and erratic. Trolling a Sledge fast can also be really effective. |
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Posts: 333
Location: menasha wi 54952 | All lures listed here are good pike producers. If you are chasing pike and only pike you cannot beat a "Doctor" spoon. They come in medium and large. Easy to throw and retrieve and cannot be destroyed. Another top producer would be a Mepps #5 with silver blade and no hair. They will tear em up!!! Good Luck!!
MR |
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Posts: 1360
Location: Lake "y" cause lake"x" got over fished | My four top producing Pike baits have been,
Eagle tail (musky lure) purple/gold
Mepps Giant musky killer (orange/black)
1oz Dardevil any color, but firetiger has served me well
Spro 1oz rattling rap (any dark color, or crawdad)
But also DBL showgirls work well, My largest Pike was a 43" on a MN metro lake caught on a DBL 10 (orange blade, pearl/blue skirt) Another lure I have caught some nice ones on is a Forage minnow dare devil painted crappie. Only down side is after one good hit, they loose their paint. But you do catch some bigger ones with it.
Edited by FAT-SKI 1/23/2013 7:53 AM
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Posts: 373
Location: Maine Township, MN | The doctor spoon  |
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Location: Latitude 41.3016 Longitude 88.6160 | 1oz Dardevle, let it flutter that is the trick.
X Rap sub Walk
Glindin Rap |
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Posts: 114
Location: Kingston, Ontario | Williams Wabbler in W60 and W70. Have had 50+ pike day in the spring using only that lure. Seems to have the right depth and speed control for Lake Ontario/St Lawrence season opener.
Williams Whitefish is another good producer, looks similar to the doctor spoon. |
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Posts: 200
Location: Minnesota | My biggest pike catcher for trolling over the last few years has been an Eppinger Buel spinner. It's like a bucktail with a dardevle blade. When there are multiple people in my boat using other lures, that is the one that consistently catches the most fish.
For casting, it's been a large bucktail. |
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| Great subject. Great fish. You don't need to spend a fortune on your outfits. I use the following: 8-20 lb. casting rod, 6'6", with 5500c3 Abu-Garcia reel and fresh 14 lb. Extra-Tough mono; 15-25 lb. rod, 6' (but I wish it was 6'6") casting rod with 6500c3 Abu-Garcia reel with fresh 20 lb. Extra0Tough mono; 15-30 lb. Gander Mountain Muskie rod (for Giant Killers) with Shimano reel and 60 lb. Power Pro superbraid line. Add some 9" steel leaders of no more than 30 lb. test. You're ready.
Lures: 1 oz. spoons: Dardevl; Len Thompson; Mepps Cyclops; Luhr-Jenson. Colors: red and white; white and red; yellow five of diamonds; silver (underestimated); silver with a red edge; gold. You can try some bigger spoons like the 1 1/8 oz. Len Thompson (big profile, great action); Lindy Gator Spoon (silver); etc.
Regular Mepps Muskie Killers: silver blade, black skirt; silver blade, white skirt; gold blade, brown skirt; gold blade, yellow skirt; fire-tiger blade, black skirt. Mepps Giant Killers in the same color patterns.
Plugs: 6" Bomber Long A, Redhead, with hooks changed from silver to steel colored Gamakatsu. Deadly in shallow water. 6" Jakes or Grandmas in black and silver shiner, red and white, chart. shad., etc.
6" Believer in red and white, walleye, firetiger. Anything that looks easy.
6" Jointed Depthraider in sucker, walleye, baitfish, or Miller Perch. You're ready. Good luck. |
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Posts: 944
| I guide several pike trips a year mostly for kids:
For numbers of pike I like:
White spinnerbaits or Mepps
Silver Spanky fire flys or Baby cowgirls
Muskietrain MF Shads in firetiger or white prism
If heavy weeds Johnson silver minnows with twin white mr. twister on back
For: Big Pike (have caught up to 45" on them in Madison)
White or Yellow Big Joes
White Reg dawgs
Acid frog Squirkos
Fire tiger depthraiders
firetiger MX 7.5"
I use all wire learers 100% of the time casting for pike
Good luck,
Jeff Hanson
madisonmuskyguide.com
Edited by Jeff Hanson 1/23/2013 9:50 AM
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | If you want to try using rubber baits like the reg. bulldawg then I would suggest maybe picking up a small or medium sized hardhead from H2O tackle. Not sure if Roger is still making the small (6”) size yet though. Anyway with a hard head, and replaceable tails, you get a more cost effective lure that works just as well.
Only mentioned once I think is the Mepps Cyclops. I would also add the 6” Talonz Little Claws get chewed up, as well as baby shallow raiders.
When the pike are shallow (less than 15’) it is pretty hard to beat a large white or chartreuse twister on a jighead! Simple, cheap, and effective.
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Pike/muskie/ walleye/ trout or white bass, The relationship of the size of a lure or bait and catching a fish, any species has more to do with the activity level of the fish at the time. A good general guideline is: Big lures or bait catches fish with larger mouths and or active fish, small lures or bait will catch fish with smaller mouths or less than active.
If we have a marginal to stable weather and water condition, (improving) the use of midsize to larger lures or bait will keep, in most cases the smaller fish from hitting.
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Posts: 96
| I have caught lots of pike and bass on many muskie baits over the years. Creepers, cowgirls, nokken, medusa's, bull dawgs, super siscos, and so on.... If pike are hungry they will eat it. I have a pic of a pike that hit a nokken and he was only a few inches longer that the bait was.
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Posts: 719
| Here is a giant caught on a Bondy Bait in the NWT by Jeff Goudreau last summer. Fat sucker!
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 45Bondy small.jpg (149KB - 4483 downloads)
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Posts: 155
Location: Rochester, New York | Red head rapala super shad rap, daredevles , booyah pikee spinnerbaits when not fouling up, live minnows, chrome rattlin rouge (even got my one and only tiger muskie on conesus with it) have all worked for me at least with a guide. I did also catch one once on a ball of bread after giving up targeting them and switching to carp after seeing a lot of them glad i left the leader |
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Posts: 1720
| 11 year old thread but the lures you suggest will and do catch Pike. |
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Posts: 1368
| All great choices above and add a Rapala J-13 and a 1OZ Rattle trap |
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Posts: 633
Location: Madison, WI | Notice how in this thread it was suggested to jig fish 30'-40' down over 90' of water around bait? Nobody bats an eye over that but boy oh boy if you had a livescope on your boat! ?? |
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Posts: 185
| danmuskyman - 7/8/2024 10:55 AM
Notice how in this thread it was suggested to jig fish 30'-40' down over 90' of water around bait? Nobody bats an eye over that but boy oh boy if you had a livescope on your boat! ??
Who jigs pike down 40ft? Not this guy..
Also big difference between using forward facing sonar and sharpshooting (Which I think is what most guys have an issue with) |
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Posts: 633
Location: Madison, WI | BillM - 7/8/2024 10:45 AM
danmuskyman - 7/8/2024 10:55 AM
Notice how in this thread it was suggested to jig fish 30'-40' down over 90' of water around bait? Nobody bats an eye over that but boy oh boy if you had a livescope on your boat! ??
Who jigs pike down 40ft? Not this guy..
Also big difference between using forward facing sonar and sharpshooting (Which I think is what most guys have an issue with )
I don't. One of the responses above said to jig them 30-40' down. |
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Posts: 618
Location: Bloomington, MN | When I just want to catch a fish, meaning a 20" class Northern, I toss a Strike King KVD 5/8 oz. white spinnerbait. I just had lots of fun with a Whopper Plopper, but that was where anything works. |
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Posts: 6
| Great advice in the preceding replies. My PB, a 48" came on a DHJ12, 18' over 35' while trolling. But if I were targeting NP's it would be casting a large spinner bait in white.
Edited by plugginalong 7/23/2024 5:00 PM
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Posts: 96
| This year, small cranks have been super effective for pike. I've had big girls over 35 inches smashing salmo hornets on a troll. I've been catching a fair amount on spy baits too. |
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Posts: 153
| Target something else like bass, muskie, or walleye and you will be almost guaranteed to catch pike.
Most of them will be the annoying aggressive slime darts though |
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Posts: 153
| Pike have been on a rampage lately. I've over 70 deep the past 4 outings targing either bass or muskies.
Its like a trip to the snake farm each time lol |
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| I don't ever fish for pike, but when throwing a big spinner bait in the weeds, have caught some nice fat pike instead of musky. |
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