Canada pike advice

[thatoneguy]

I'll be going up to Savant Lake, ON at the end of this month. My cousin wants to fish mostly walleye, but I'm going to talk him into chasing some big pike.

Anyone ever fished Lake Savant? If so, what's best for pike there? If not, does anyone have any general tips/lures that might help me out? The only pike fishing I've ever done was trolling Daredevles when I was about 6 years old

[WyoChris]

throw anything, fishing for pike in canada is like taking candy from a baby. good luck.

[budiva]

I would make sure you have a variety of spoons and all other pike lures etc to cover several depths. We've done pike fly in trip's the last 3 years, and it is always amazing how one spoon can be the "magic lure" of the week. The first year it was a half wave spoon from lucky strike. They are big and light and stayed near the surface. The last two years Krocodile spoons which where much heavier and fished deeper where the key. Maybe this year the daredevils will be the key. also Silver minnows with a plastic tail added have always been consistent for us.

[Urbanflyguy]

One of my favorites for big pike is a 1oz to a 1 1/4 oz football jig head and the 8" white power grubs.fish em deep on the hot days. cast em let em hit the bottom and use huge upward sweeps (try to get it to jump at least 6 feet up) then let drop use this retrive all the way back to the boat. the big ones just cant resist this. other wise i would also say big spoons and big inline spiners as a staple for the shovle heads

[bronzeback]

big zara spooks are a lot of fun, had some good luck with them on Lac Seul a few summers ago.

[mainbutter]

I like a mepps "musky killer" for pike. Great lure, especially for the bigger ones.

Also, I caught TONS, big and small, up in canada on 6'' watermelon senkos.

[budiva]

How did you fish/rig the senkos? A fished with them a couple years ago for a few hours, and only had one walleye to show for it.

[thatoneguy]

Thanks for the tips! If I use the big lures, am I going to need to borrow a heavier rig with a baitcaster, or can I get by with a 7' medium-action rod?

[Aaron Carrell]

You could probably get by with that rod, though a Musky Killer would be tough no matter what with a spinning reel on that rod, but its just a matter of how tiring you want it to be. :-p Probably not recommended, but if you wanted to try it for awhile, you'd be ok.

[goblueM]

if you have heavier gear, i'd recommend throwing some bulldawg/super D muskie lures.

I've fished these in areas where i have used conventional pike lures like spinnerbaits, swim jigs and big cranks, and they produced much bigger fish!

otherwise its tough to beat a spinnerbait, swim jig, or a crank. spoons work well too

[urban cowboy]

Top water buzz bait. I was up in northern manitoba 3 years ago on a fly in. Some of the funnest fishing I have ever done. 30+ inch fish all day. Big spinnerbates, 1 oz... 2 oz spinnerbaits, boo ya, terminator work well too. We covered the outer edges of weedy shore lines, bull rushes. One of us throwing a spinnerbait and one of us throwing a buzz bait. FISH AFTER FISH.

My PB 45 incher came on a big 5 of diamonds. You can never go wrong with a 5 of diamonds. I wouldnt go do canada with out diamonds in my bag.

[mainbutter]

How did you fish/rig the senkos? A fished with them a couple years ago for a few hours, and only had one walleye to show for it.

Wacky rigged 'em, jigging them back to the boat, fishing both fast and slow. Many, many bites came on an extended fall.

[lucky enough]

Fish anything anywhere. Pike are incredibly aggressive. In fact, watch your hands when you are getting a small fish out of the water because you might have a bigger one following it all the way to the boat. We have had that happen quite a few times. It is a real blast. As far as lures, we use Mepps Scyclops #3. Any spoons work well though. I caught a 10lb northern on a spoon we got from the hotel we stayed at the previous night. So they will literally hit anything. Look for green weeds. You don't want tan/brown weedlines. Find the green weeds/grass/willows, etc....and you will find the pike.

[budiva]

Originally Posted By: budiva

How did you fish/rig the senkos? A fished with them a couple years ago for a few hours, and only had one walleye to show for it.

Wacky rigged 'em, jigging them back to the boat, fishing both fast and slow. Many, many bites came on an extended fall.

Thanks, I had rigged mine weedless (texas rig) maybe that is what I did wrong. I leave for our fly-in tomorrow morning and I just threw some senkos back into my tackle bag.

[Tim_Anderson]

Just got back from Canada, and got some really big pike. Most were caught on spinnerbaits and jigs. A few were caught on spoons. We did best in weedbeds closest to deep water. Spinnerbaits ran high caught the aggressive fish and the most variety. Jigs run in the deep weed pockets caught the slower less aggressive fish who seemed to have a smaller strike zone. Bright obnoxious colored lures seemed to work best. I used lots of chartreuse/orange with blades the same or nickel.

[thatoneguy]

Thanks for all the tips! Here's what I have in the bag for pike after getting some supplies:

2 big Daredevles (1 red & white; 1 5 of diamonds)

2 Bionic Bucktail tandem spinners (1 chartreuse/orange; one red & black)

1 big floating rapala-type thing (can't remember the name)

A few 1 1/2 oz football jigs w/various soft baits to hook onto them

2 large Clackin' Raps (Clown and Glass Ghost)

1 big buzzbait (Chart/Orange)

In addition I have my "normal" sized spoons, spinners, buzzbaits, jigs etc. I tried to cover a variety of colors, sizes and presentations. Any glaring holes I might want to fill in before I leave on Sunday? I don't mind spending some money, because I hope to make this an annual trip, and eventually take my boys when they get old enough.

Thanks again for the help!

[fishdale]

Do you have a jaw spreader and a long pliers/hook out. Nothing worse then have a 6 inch pliers and the lure being 8 inches down and no jaw spreader.

I have also have had very good luck with bigger spinner baits.

Good luck let us know how it goes and what the hot lure was.

[Hodgy17]

last year in canada i was using a rapala original 10" and caught mostly small northerns on it, but actually mainbutter i just bought yesterday a wacky rigger and some 5" watermelon senkos.

[dug9]

Hey guy, Yep! Been there 4 times. My stepdad has been there 20 years in a row, mainly late May, early June, but we can set you up with a whole list of places to try. One year we were up there and one of the guys landed a 42" pike. We even had a 36" eat one of our 17.75" walleye while it was on our stringer! He got it about half-way down and his gill got stuck on the stringer. Savant is the most AWESOME fishing I've ever experienced! The day the pike thing happened, me and my buddy lost count after boating over 130 walleye. I still have a map that you can borrow and copy. Drop me a note here at work at [email protected] and copy me at home so I get your email wherever I am. [email protected]. I'll give you my number so we can get together on the map. Oh, and don't forget to get yourself some HEAVY lake trout jigs and some ciscos for the evening trips to the deep holes. We pulled up both pike and lake trout in about 65 FOW. DARN, now I want to go too!!! Guess I'll just have to be happy with the 5 days we have coming up on Upper Red. Anyone with any info about fishing Red this time of year can drop me a note too.

[thatoneguy]

Thanks a bunch, Doug - I'll shoot you an email with my contact info in a bit. We're heading out Sunday, and we'll fly in to our outpost early Monday. Forecast looks like rain the whole time. No idea what that will do for the fishing...time, as they say, will tell.