lots of small northerns

[USPENAMC]

hello i fish at hiwatha almost every day and bring out at least one northern per fishing and sometimes up to 4 but they are all small im looking to catch some monsters where should i go i either use a spoon with a plastic trailer or use spinner baits do i need to change the size of the trailer or is it that the lake probably contains lots of small northerns only

[Guest]

Try medium (4" - 8") suckers under a slip bobber. If you are still picking up the small northerns, try bigger suckers.

Just an idea.

[perchpro]

try using some bigger and slower musky lures.they should hopefully scare off the small ones and do the opposite to the bigguns.

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[Steve Foss]

USPENAMC:

I don't know that lake. If there isn't deep/cool water, there may not be big pike there.

If it is deep enough to have a thermocline (the underwater layer with warm water on top and cold water underneath) or is fed by cold springs, it'll have cool water, and that's where big pike, say those over 8 pounds or so, prefer to hang out. In spring, autumn, winter, the big ones might be anywhere because there's cool water everywhere. In late summer in most medium-depth or deeper lakes, the bigger ones look for the colder water just below the thermocline.

On the lake I fish most in northern Minnesota, the thermocline usually starts about 20 feet down and is about five feet thick. The lake is 50 feet deep. I can fish spinnerbaits tipped with suckers as deep as 30 feet OK if I'm patient enough to wait until the bait gets down there, and I troll crankbaits with a three-way swivel and a bell sinker to get them deep enough. Sometimes, those fish (I can see big marks down there on my fish finder), will come up above the 'cline to spank trolled baits.

You can also use good-sized jigs and smaller suckers to jig around deep underwater points and islands. Northland tackle makes some good 1 oz. and heavier bucktail jigs with stinger hooks that work well.

I can fish all day in water to 15 feet deep on the weeds and rocks and catch pike up to about 5 pounds in high summer on this lake, but have caught fish from 8 to about 15 pounds fishing the way I've described. There are bigger fish in there. Just haven't gotten one yet.

Good luck,

Steve