Northern advise

[IceC]

Hey Guys, This will be my first year trying to catch pike. I just bought a new pole to tackle these beasts and was wondering what your favorite lures/colors or techniques for catching northern?

Also, I am down in Iowa and will be fishing the Mississippi 90 percent of the time. If anyone has any advise on what areas of the river to look for,that would be great!

Would a good winter(ice-fishing) spot be good in the spring/summer/fall also? I did learn of some winter hot spots the past few months.

Thanks for the help. I've learned so much from this site. Hopefully I can land a big toothy critter this spring

Thanks again

IceC

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Have an Ice day

[Selmer]

Right after ice-out go into some of the shallow backwaters of the Mississippi and toss out a couple dead smelt on a quick-strike rig and hang on!
Selmer

[redhooks]

hey IceC- there are lots of lures that will work for pike becasue they are fairly aggressive and will chase just about anything that will fit in thier mouths. Some standards for open water lures- are spinnerbaits, spoons and jigs w/ twistertails as well as crankbaits like rapalas. Large Musky lures will also work because they are closly related. For colors some safe bets are Black, Red/white, Chartruse,firetiger and yellow. As far as where to find your ice spots may work depending on what's keepin them there(food) but later in the summer big pike tend to go deep. In-fisherman has a very comprehensive book on pike and will really clue you in on when and where to find them. I'm not sure if it's legal where you are but they say casting spoons on top of ice shelves in rivers and pulling them into the water in early spring can yeild some big prespawn gators. Make sure you use heavy line and a quality steel leader because there is nothing worse than having a big fish get away with your lure! Good luck!
redhooks

[Try Too Fish]

Hi Icec
My 2 favorite Pike lures are the Mepps black fury spinner and the Jack of diamonds daredevel they seem to always work for me.
good fishing

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Try Too Fish
Forced Too Work!!

[Aquaman01]

My son & I got our first northerns this past season. What we found worked for us was quick-strike wire rigs with a sucker minnow, with a spinner added to the leader. We draw these slowly - just fast enough to keep the spinner moving. Assume it's being followed and stop your retrieve just before shore, where the water is still dark. WHAM! Set that quick-strike right away, and you should have a healthy release. Cover their eyes with your hat and they calm down fairly quickly.
If you wade, try to mark cold spots under water. Once summer gets nasty-hot, the big gators hang out near the springs. Good hunting! Long Live Esoxophiles!

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Aquaman
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"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

[IceC]

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it. I think I have everything I need now but I'm sure I'll get more before ice-out Hope I can put it all to good use! Thanks again,

IceC

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Have an Ice day

[delmuts]

iceC redhooks cover the different types of lures; and the quick strike rigs can work well. find and read all the information you can on these toothy critters. the spinnerbaits work well around weeds, inline spinners,spoons ( including the silver minnow),crank baits( we have good luck with rapalas early in the year fishing small rivers) . work great over submerge weeds and trolling. get a couple of each type so you can cover the different situations.fishing the river can be awsome cause you never know what you are going to catch. keep us posted !! ( i too live in N.E. iowa) del

[IceC]

Hi Del, Here's what I got so far, rod-n-reel combo from cabela's 7'Fish Eagle2 (703)rod and a Abu Garcia 5600 C5mag reel with 50/12 power pro line. For lures I got 2 6" husky jerks,a 6" jointed rapala, 2 silver minnows, 2 1oz spoons(red/whitr, yellow/red diam)4 assorted smaller spoons, 2 mepps black fury(orange/black, chart) 2 musky killers #5(white, orange/yellow) 1 giant killer(yellow) 3, 1/2oz titanium spinnerbaits various colors and extra skirts. With this and the stuff I already have, I think I'm ready! I still want to get a couple of topwater baits though. I saw these soft plastic swim baits they were using on a fishing show, you should see the action on these things! Looks like a real fish swimming. I might try one of these too.

I fished some smaller rivers last year, mostly the maquoketa river, and the wapsi and turkey some too.Great smallmouth action to be had,all kinds of different fish in these rivers.
Thanks again for the info

IceC

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Have an Ice day

[Aquaman01]

And two pairs of pliers. One for the fish (firm, gentle grip - I use a slip-joint plier with a lot of 'Plasti-dip' on the jaws) and a needlenose for the lure itself. I had a northern rip me up nicely while getting the crankbait out of its jaws. He shook his head while I was gripping the treble - OWWW! I don't know if I already mentioned this, but cover their heads when you boat or shore 'em. Once their eyes are covered they calm down some. I use my hat.

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Aquaman
< )/////><{
"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

[Bushwacker]

The best thing I have bought in the past couple years for northerns/muskies is the Berkley gripper thing. They are available at almost every sporting good store. They are spring loaded. All you have to do is stick it in their mouth and they are stuck. I bought mine last year and never needed a net ever since. The fish don't even have to be touched if you are planning catch and release. They take off like lightening. I never really realized how much damage a person does to a fish by grabing it to take of the hooks. It takes a lot of coaxing to get those fish to swim away. I always attributed it to the fight, but after I got the big game grippper, it doesn't matter how long they fight they seem to swim right away. I bought mine after I got hooked about ten times by a jumping musky with a three treble hooked crankbait in its mouth.
As for lures for northerns I always seem to have the most luck with white or firetiger colors. Whenever I threw white spinners or plastics for bass I picked up northerns. Now I target northerns with white.
Good luck and have fun.

[delmuts]

just a note about pliers,jaw spreaders, etc. buy the little key floats or a little bigger float in case they go over the side. i have tried having a cord on them tied to the boat , but didn't like it as much.( i lost two jaw spreaders and one hemostat before doing this! ) del