Depth for pike this time of year question

[tah1982]

Just moved up from Georgia and am determined to catch a northern. What is the best water depth to find them in this time of year? I don't have access to a boat and am fishing small lakes in Woodbury. Thanks in advance.

[reinhard1]

first let me give you a Big Wellcome to HSO!!!! catching a big pike this time of the year means going deep. i'm talking lakes here. it also means what type of food source they have. not every lake can produce big pike in numbers. this fall would be a good chance at one off shore once the water cools down. big pike are a cold water creature and often go as deep as the lake trout. good luck.

[leech~~]

The last two Pike that I caught were in 40-50' feet, down about 10-15' feet trolling with deep diving raps for Walleye. But I think you could catch them in some of the rivers around from shore right now as well.

[Nick Kuhn]

Well, the small ones will be in the weeds so you should be able to catch them from shore. Don't expect much over 30" though. Spinnerbaits ticking weeds or jerkbaits ripped through them should work well.

[Steve Foss]

Welcome to HSO, tah.

As said, the smaller/medium pike stay shallow all summer. It's only the bigger girls that transition into cooler water when the shallows warm. Nick steered you right on lures. If you prefer live bait, put a 6-inch sucker minnow a couple feet under a bobber and toss that out into the weeds.

[tah1982]

Thanks for the welcome and info guys. Just got back from checking out battle creek. Its suppose to be 14 ft at its deepest point. Think I will put on the waders and try and get behind the lilly pads in the morning. As for as bait I will be fly fishing. I bought a bunch of streams, divers, and poppers the other day. Going to try top water first thing and then wade as deep as I can. Thanks again for the advice.

[ted4887]

Welcome aboard! I'm always happy to see another fly fisherman join. I've caught quite a few northerns throwing streamers with a fairly quick strip back. However, I'm a bass fisherman, so pike get caught by mistake. If you ever get sick of our warmwater fisheries, make sure to check out the Driftless Area, and it's vast amount of trout fishing opportunities.

[tah1982]

I plan on headed to the driftless area shortly. Waiting for water to cool down some. I mostly fish for trout but have always wanted to fish for pike. Fished for a couple of hours this am with no results. Got to get use to tossing these heavy flies on a 10wt. Big difference between throwing size 20 flies on a 4wt.

[OnAFly]

Yeah throwing those big rods is way different.

There is a tool on the Minnesota DNR HSOforum called lakefinder. This shows sampling data taken by the MNDNR for certain lakes. You can look through this to find a lake with a decent population of pike and look through the maps attached to see which lakes could have decent wading potential.

Good luck on with the pike on the fly. It can be tough to do one day, and the easiest thing in the world the next. I've always had good luck with giant chartreuse wooly buggers with zonker strip tails.

[metro fisherman]

I lived in woodbury for 18 years, go to powers lake and throw a scum frog on top of the weeds, you'll pick up some bass. Theres crappie in the spring from shore there also. Friends use to catch pike on colby lake or whatever that one is called. And Afton St Park is hit or miss from shore for smallies, largemouth, and sometimes rough fish. Lake Wilmes, that small one with paths around it, ive caught some very large sunfish there. And tonns of green/hybird sunnies also.

[tolle141]

Have you seen their Recreation Compass? It's amazing that more people don't know about it yet, but that thing is probably the best lake/stream tool of any DNR in the US hand's down. Maybe the world.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/compass.html

[tah1982]

No pike yet. Haven't found a place yet that I can wade out past all of the vegetation. When does the vegetation start to die down? Went to Powers lake the other day and saw a huge pike floating and splashing around just past the weed line, tried to snag it just to get a good look at one but too much vegetation to pull it through. Also the fishing pier they talk about on the dnr HSOforum has collapsed. Thanks for all the input.

[basssmasher*]

you can also catch pike on topwater bass gear such as buzzbaits or poppers on occasion over any vegitation.. thats 1/2 the fun of never knowing what will blow up on your bait..the other 1/2 is the adrenelin rush when it happens.. lol Good luck!

[trappingaddiction]

No pike yet. Haven't found a place yet that I can wade out past all of the vegetation. When does the vegetation start to die down? Went to Powers lake the other day and saw a huge pike floating and splashing around just past the weed line, tried to snag it just to get a good look at one but too much vegetation to pull it through. Also the fishing pier they talk about on the dnr HSOforum has collapsed. Thanks for all the input.

Purposely snagging fish is illegal in Minnesota.

[tah1982]

Thank you for letting me know. Guess I need to go through the book again. Just wanted to see one up close. Don't know if a motor hit the fish or what but it was about to expire. Too bad it was a BIG pike. Thanks for the heads up.

[BassNut33]

I just recently moved to Woodbury as well, I was going to drive by Battle after work today and check out teh boat launch. I heard there are some decent size Pike and Bass in there. I usually fish lakes further from home, but want to find something close that I can fish after work. You have any luck out there?

Thanks for the welcome and info guys. Just got back from checking out battle creek. Its suppose to be 14 ft at its deepest point. Think I will put on the waders and try and get behind the lilly pads in the morning. As for as bait I will be fly fishing. I bought a bunch of streams, divers, and poppers the other day. Going to try top water first thing and then wade as deep as I can. Thanks again for the advice.

[BassNut33]

Went and cheked out the launch yesterday, way to shallow to put the boat in.

[tah1982]

I've heard good things about battle too. I caught a bass there a couple of weeks ago close to the fishing pier. Kind of hard to wade fish right now. Will try in a couple of weeks.