Pike Fishing

[NortonJoe]

So, I see a lot of discussion regarding walleye fishing and I agree that it's a lot of fun to find a nice bunch of walleye to fish for and catch (and eat).  But, does anyone out there also enjoy fishing specifically for pike?  We usually go to Watson and Grassy Lakes at the end of July so, generally, the walleye are only biting in the morning and evening (unless someone has some secret information).  We will go out in the heat of the afternoon and cast for pike....I think its alot of fun and they are a blast to fish for!  What's your go to method and bait for them?  In my opinion they are decent eating too (granted not as good as walleye) once you get the removal of the y-bone down!

[john c]

Most of the time we pike fish,that is our passion.  We do spend a little time on the eyes but mostly PIKE.  Plastic swim baits, Slopmaster spinners, Grandma lures  ( which are made right down the road from our place) the color black cracked ice work great.  We used to cast alot but now we mostly troll.  We have found that on bright flat water at mid day the more flash you have the better the catching.  Morning or evenings the swim baits work the best.

John

[johnny walleye]

we go after pike in the middle of the day if it is sunny ,overcast it a walleye day.

[600 miles north]

     I agree pike fishing is fun and they are a good eating fish also. Here is a link I found interesting on cleaning northern last year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CkWA9g_q5g

Brad

[NortonJoe]

@600 miles north...Brad, I never saw that second method before...gonna have to try it.

[Oarin]

NortonJoe, I've used the 2nd method many times. It works great, but only on larger pike. I only keep them at 30 inches and up to about 36 inches. The smaller and larger go back to fight another day. Oarin.

[NortonJoe]

@ Oarin...We usually don't keep them much smaller than that anyway and, if we do to fill the dinner skillet, I'll fall back on method one.  Don't think it would be a good method to transport fish home though...

[Marco]

I have had success mid-day pike fishing on Kipawa using a chartruese dare-devil and casting back into weedy bays.  Everytime we come across a beaver dam, we casted in and around and have caught a pike on them just about everytime.

[Oarin]

NortonJoe, When we do keep a pike and use method#2 I take the skin almost all the way off and then lay it back on the fillet. That way the fish cops can tell what it is if we get checked. I then vacuum seal the fillets in 3 bags. It seems to work well for us. The 2 side fillets can be really thin, depending on the fish, but the top and two rear fillets are usually very good. Maybe I'll try method #1 this year and see how it works. Oarin.

[Greg R]

I have heard of people having fish taken away and fined if the skin isn't attached to the entire filet

[NortonJoe]

@Greg R if I'm taking the filet home I usually skin it down to about 2 inches then lay the filet back on the skin and freeeze it...that way when its time to enjoy a little slice of Canada in Ohio its easy to skin it the rest of the way.  We used to skin it down and leave about four inches of skin on so you could identify the species but heard that some folks were getting fined for that.  Better safe than sorry.

[NortonJoe]

@Marco thats how we generally handle the pike fishing.  Mid-day sun in shorts and sunscreen, cold beer and casting the weed beds...6 days and I can't wait!

[Greg R]

That's that we use to do Joe until we heard it had to be attached 100% by a ranger.

We will be at Grassy next Friday evening

[Marco]

Here's a couple of those afternoon pike we were talking about.  I got these on a Mepps in-line spinner that was black, red and yellow.  Fun stuff!

[600 miles north]

     Beautiful fish Marco! I bet those were a load of fun bringing those in the boat! Thanks for sharing them with us...

Brad