Bass lures/Pike lures before Bass opener

[ShoreGuy1984]

Since Northern Pike opener is on the 9th of May and Bass opener is on the 23rd of May, how do we judge what lures to use for the 14 days in-between the two openers? For example, I have caught Pike on Buzz baits, Spinner baits, and many other Bass lures. What would the DNR say if I was Pike fishing with a Spinner bait before the Bass opener? Would I get a ticket? Should I just stick to mainly Pike lures, such as Daredevils until Bass opener?

I also want to ad that I am strongly against targeting a species, such as Bass before the opener. I want to do the right thing here.

[fishcast]

sometimes its a tough call...you have the right attitude about it which I say pretty much would make you legal. If you have wire on your lures I'd say your good to go!

on a side not it REALLY ticks me off when I see "bass" fisherman pounding the waters to early. Skipping senkos under docks and throwing frog baits is in no way cool before the bass opener.

[Nick Kuhn]

Well in an "ask the warden" thread on another site the warden responded by saying that if you are throwing something that catches multiple species, only continue to use it so long as you are catching the species that opens. IE if you catch 5 bass to every pike I'd switch to something else.

[ShoreGuy1984]

fishcast, you have a good point about the leader, ty !

Nick Kuhn, that is a great point also. I do catch way more bass on lures such as Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, then I do northerns, so ill probaly just stick to Redeyes and other spoons for those 14 days !

[Neighbor_guy]

I have always played it safe and used "pike specific" lures with leaders durring those 2 weeks between the seasons. Both fish are occupying the same water right now, so bass lures might catch pike, but they will catch bass, which will get you in trouble.

My vote is for spoons, (I like silver minnows), or larger stick baits like Husky J e r k s, or similar baits.

It's not worth the risk of getting ticketed. So while I like bass sized baits for smaller pike, I stick to the biger baits. I too HATE when I see bass fisherman fishing out of season and claiming to be pike fishing

[carpmanjake]

Since Northern Pike opener is on the 9th of May and Bass opener is on the 23rd of May, how do we judge what lures to use for the 14 days in-between the two openers? For example, I have caught Pike on Buzz baits, Spinner baits, and many other Bass lures. What would the DNR say if I was Pike fishing with a Spinner bait before the Bass opener? Would I get a ticket? Should I just stick to mainly Pike lures, such as Daredevils until Bass opener?

I also want to ad that I am strongly against targeting a species, such as Bass before the opener. I want to do the right thing here.

[Moe Szyslak]

I usually just choose lakes that produce more northern than Bass throughout the year. Most times on those lakes I can throw spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, raps, senkos, frogs and catch northern 9 out of 10 times.

[Aaron Carrell]

Senko's for northern?! You're brave! I'd lose every freakin hook I've got if I fished for pike that way it seems. As for all those other baits, I completely agree with you. I'm hopefully heading to a couple lakes on Saturday and all of my cchoices I've always caught more pike than bass anyways when not using soft plastics. I'll be sticking to inline spinners, possibly buzzbait, certain cranks and might bust out some spoons (not heavily used in my box).

[Nick Kuhn]

I'd say the bigger problem with senkos is that you'd go through $30 of them on a good day catching pike.

Over opener though the pike were chasing faster presentations, while bass were more keen to the slower stuff. Might be the same way for MN opener.

[hunterjoe]

I'm going to be doing a lot of pike fishing before the bass opener and I'll be using some baits that people may call bass baits. I just don't understand how you can label a bait a bass bait when it's such a great multi-species bait. If you were fishing with a plastic worm, I may understand someone thinking you were bass fishing. If you're throwing a spinnerbait in the weeds, you can catch anything. That's what I'll do until a CO tells me it's against the law to fish for pike with a bait that can catch a bass. Then what would I switch to as every other bait to catch pike could potentially catch a muskie. Does that mean I can't fish for pike in a lake with musky?