How to target the 40"+ Pike?

[cbrooks]

You will have luck with the bulldogs. Hopefully there made of the new durable plastics rather than the old plastic that won't last more than a couple of fish. If there the old bulldogs there's a few tricks to repair them.... if there chew up badly.

[solbes]

I'm finding out you muskie guys (brooks and Scsavr) must have holes in your pocket supporting your habit. Walking the aisle with the big boy lures, wow I'd need a 2nd mortgage to pickup a handful of lures. $20 for one lure??? Man oh man.

[TRZ II]

True story. My buddy has a box of musky lures worth more than his boat! It is a very slippery slope-but used correctly a few stand-by musky lures will last for years. I have about 10 and my buddy has about 100 and it rarely matters in terms of fish seen or boated.

[Acemac]

be carfull throwing big baits for northerns the muski police will call the cops on you if its out of season.....

[solbes]

be carfull throwing big baits for northerns the muski police will call the cops on you if its out of season.....

Would be a top concern of mine, but no muskies in our lake so I'm okay. Might have to head to Mantrap or Elk sometime and try for the real deal, in season of course.

[reinhard1]

i caught my biggest pike on average size lures or live bait or smelt [frozen when they were legal]. my biggest that i have mounted at 42 inches was taken on a crappie jig and small minnow [hard water]. the best time to get a large pike is during hard water, during opener until the water warms up, and in late fall. so those are the target times in my opinion. now in shallow lakes the possibility of larger pike can be all season for they are easier targeted. also i look at the food source and the ability to grow larger pike such as smelt, ciscos, trout, whitefish and tullibees.

is there a magic bait? the bait that swims by them when they are active is the one. so i would do research into lakes known to produce large pike first. then get to know the lakes structures and fish them during the time the larger pike are in the shallows or work for them using heavier jig/live bait presentations. good luck.

[Further North]

be carfull throwing big baits for northerns the muski police will call the cops on you if its out of season.....

Let 'em. No proof of intent means no real problem. If I'm looking for big pike throwing lures appropriate for them there is nothing wrong with that.

[cbrooks]

I'm finding out you muskie guys (brooks and Scsavr) must have holes in your pocket supporting your habit. Walking the aisle with the big boy lures, wow I'd need a 2nd mortgage to pickup a handful of lures. $20 for one lure??? Man oh man.

I got more lures than I care to mention but if you ever want to pull the plug on the big lures message me. I have more than enough to donate

[pikestabber]

Studies suggest pike target food a 1/3 their own size... Following that logic, a 20lb pike will target 6-7 lb forage. Of course, that is not to say that they won't eat smaller fish than that, we all know they do, but going big really will help in certain situations. To that end, 6lb pike don't eat 7lb pike, so... The safest way to target 40" plus pike is to use 41" lures. Seems simple enough.

[Musky Buck]

The key would be first make sure you are on water where they are present. Mille Lacs, Red, Vermillion, Ottertail, LOTW, Cass, there's a few more I'm sure but in the good old days, 40 feet of water with a large sucker 25 feet down used to be the answer in the 60's. 35 years of fishing and a 38.5" pike is my largest, pretty sure it may be easier to get a 50" musky than a 40" pike in our state or at least I've caught a bunch of 50"+ muskies compared to 0 trophy sized pike. I always have felt those big pike are deep 95% of the time especially in whitefish/tullibee lakes.

[solbes]

MuskyBuck, Agree I think they are deep from spawn until fall time. I bet they venture into the shallows on occasion, but probably not that often. I know they like the cooler temps of the depths as it keeps their metabolism manageable.

I really have no idea on how mayn 40"+ pike are in our lake, but I have personally seen one last summer when my father in law brought one to the side of the boat. Talking with the resort owner, he has caught and seen 40"+ pikers as well. Agree that they are somewhat of a rarity in Minnesota today outside of a few trophy water lakes (Red, LOTW, big V, etc).

Fall will probably be my best bet since we can't fish for them pre-spawn here. But I am going to do some moderate depth fishing (not too deep to hurt the fish as it will be released).

[Gordie]

I have personally seen lakes that are not deeper than 15ft that hold 40 inch pike and if you look hard enough they are around and you really dont have to have Big water either

just my

[smeese]

Try fishing a river system, often overlooked for the big girls....I also think that there are plenty of them around without traveling too far to target them. Won't get one every cast but many have been taken around here. A taxidermist I talked to last winter had three pike over 40 inches out of the same lake, and now that lake has been put on hold for the musky that should rule the waters there but thats another battle.

[Greg Clusiau]

Fall has been the best for me. I've caught them up to 42" locally and guided folks to a 43" but that was the exception. Although I've seen great big pike movement take place in late August, September is usually the rule of thumb, especially when we've had three days of cool, wet weather.

[Steve Foss]

Large pike go where the forage, oxygen and the temps combine to suit them. The big ones are cool-water fish, which explains why a person only generally catches hammerhandles in the shallows once they warm up. In spring, fall and winter, lots of the biggest pike in the system are in shallow or adjacent to the shallows, and of course during the spawn they're right up in the shallowest water.

On the lakes I've targeted big pilke in summer, it's been a trolling game with deep-diving large cranks to get down to cooler water, or bouncing bucktail jigs tipped with suckers along deep bottom structure in cooler water. If you have a cisco forage base, you'll find the biggest pike where you find the cisco, and cisco like their water colder.

If you're finding large pike in shallow water systems, likely there's some cooler underground spring water welling up from the bottom somewhere, or it's fed by a spring creek.

When the bigger pike are in shallow cabbage, for example, nothing I've tossed has ever beaten a 1/2 oz chartreuse spinnerbait tipped with a 3-4 inch sucker. Nothing.

[solbes]

Great tips all. I trolled a very specific depth contour this weekend. Large arches were suspended in a concentrated 5' range. I'm almost positive these are some of the larger pike. Getting them to bite is another thing though. Summer is young and a challenge is good.

[vis]

I've been getting 20-30 inch pike with a shad off a fishing pier. Idk if there are any bigger in this particular body of water or not or if I need larger bait but I'm going to keep trying.

If any pike guys are near St. Michael or Monticello send me a pm, I'll tell you where I've been going maybe you might know the answer.

[mainbutter]

$20 for one lure??? Man oh man.

I have too many to count, individually cheap, hand-tied homemade flies for panfish. I've used 5 this season so far pretty hard. Including the tying equipment, it's not exactly cheap.

I have dozens of bass and pike lures that range from $3 to $10+ new in box, along with a couple hundred sunk into pouring my own soft plastics. I've stuck with only a handful this season.

I have five lures that go with my musky rod. I use them all. I don't think having ten times as many lures would make me more successful.

Basically when it comes to fishing that uses expensive lures, the biggest difference in purchases is that I'm more selective and it's easier to ignore impulses to purchase things I don't need or won't use much/at all. If anything, the musky fishing has been the cheapest setup I have, as my reel was free.

[Stratosman]

I agree that typically the biggest pike will hold deep on the best structure available... However two of my three pike over 40 were in scattered cabbage in 8-10 of water... A metro 42" while fishing muskies on a small bucktail, my largest (47") was the exact same scenario but a canadian fish, the other (43") was on a deep diving husky jerk trolling for walleyes, he hit on the very tip of a point in about 22' of water, the last one is what I would typically think of when asked about trophy pike hangouts..

I rarely target them but alot of accidental catches... I'll take that!

Good luck in your quest!

[ESOXGEEK]

New around here, but all I chase is 40"+ pike. BIG BAITS = the fish you want. Studies say they can easily eat something one third their length so a 40" fish can and WILL eat a 13" offering. I stick with swim baits from 8" to 12" in both soft and hard bodies. Tomorrow I will be fishing from 30' to 60' as that is where the water temps are ideal for the bigger fish right now.

[Lucius]

New around here, but all I chase is 40"+ pike. BIG BAITS = the fish you want. Studies say they can easily eat something one third their length so a 40" fish can and WILL eat a 13" offering. I stick with swim baits from 8" to 12" in both soft and hard bodies. Tomorrow I will be fishing from 30' to 60' as that is where the water temps are ideal for the bigger fish right now.

Esoxgeek,

Were those sexy fish caught at Val or navajo...or both? I have not seen those before on fishexplorer. those are some really nice fish!!!

[ESOXGEEK]

Lucious, those fish came from neither of those lakes although I know Kris Johnson who guides pike on them. Those fish were caught at one of Colorado's big pike SECRET lakes and you will never see info about them on FXR! One post on there and the lake would be over run.

Managed to land one fish out of 3 hits Saturday, a solid 10-12 pound northern.

[mrklean]

ever have problems with releasing them if your pulling from 30-60 feet down?

[ESOXGEEK]

YES! I have spent up to 30 minutes to revive fish, only lost one this year (KNOCK ON WOOD !!)

[Jarrid Houston]

Nice fish..