Mid summer location

[Lunker]

I know it's a little early, but what would be good mid summer locations and depths for bigger pike? The lake I fish the most is about 750 acres with max depth of 39 ft, no milfoil. I fish there a lot, but the weeds and shallows hold mainly smaller fish, but I know that there are bigger fish in there. What would you suggest? Humps, holes, points, flats? There are no cold water inlets or springs that I know of.

[Guest]

I read an article in In-Fisherman a while ago about this very subject. Look for deeper water......say 15-30ft off of shallow structure(islands,humps,bars,etc..) or better yet, near spawnning grounds. Look for baitfish on the locator.......that is the key. The technique that was sugested was using heavy jigs with big pieces of plastic(ie:reapers,sluggos....etc) and bounce them off the bottom fast with big 5 to 6 foot sweeps of the rod.....I don't know how well it works, it's only what I read. I spend my time chasing muskies.
good luck, Bob

[pikehunter]

I read the same article in In-Fisherman. I've used similar baits to what they mention in mid-summer, but that whole rod-sweeping thing was new to me. Never tried it.
The jig presentation that works most for me on my water is a cast-and-retrieve, bouncing it off the bottom. (I think they become attracted to the sound or sight the jig makes bouncing off the bottom.) I like to either find baitfish or just drift the jig over humps until I get a strike. Then I anchor, make some casts and repeat if neccesary. There are probably better ways to find mid-summer pike, but this is the method I always go back to.
Good luck!

[TomWehler]

Good things to try, but can be deadly to Pike.
Bringing them BIG ones up out of 30 feet of water can and will kill them.
Not right away, but it dose kill fish.
You might think they are revived as they swim away, but most times they go to the bottom and never come up!

Large Pike do not like warm water so less are caught during HOT months of summer unlike Musky.
Stress kills and so dose a busted air bladder.
Fishing for these same fish at sunrise or on cooler over cast day or in a driving rain can produce HUGE Pike up to 49" in some cases.
Hunting off Points, Reefs, Drops to deeper water, Sunken Islands, sand flats or Roaming shores or weedlines next to deeper waters is less stressful and less likely to kill the BIG beauties we all love to catch.

1 1/2 oz Jig and 9" Reaper or Shad can be dealy here.
The most under used BIG Pike lure in less than 15 feet is a 6" Silver minnow and 4" twister then a 1 oz Whistler Jig and 4" Twister.

Killer.

They are there, just need to find them when there up eat'en and hook some face!

"My O' My You be look'en so good!"

T.

www.muskytomsguideservice.com

Mallard Island
Lake Vermilion

[garytheguide]

Try a wind blown point that goes to deep water fast , and slip a smelt....good luck and set that hook!!!!

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garytheguide.com
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Phone: 218-744-3158

[basguy31]

I've found that trolling a deep diving crankbait in 20 to 25 feet of water during the mid summer months can be a great way to catch large pike. A friend of mine and myself have done this on numurous lakes in the Anandale area and we find that we catch more and larger fish compared to fishing the shallower weed flats. We had a couple of nights with over 25 fish caught and close to a 30 inch average length. Deep diving Risto Raps and Bill Norman crankbaits seem to work quite well. Give it a try this summer.

[Guest]

I agree with the jigs.
I fish a lake that has big muskies in it. One day while jig-n-piggin I was on top of a weed bed, 15' water, and I hooked into 2 of the largest fish ever. I don't know what they were, but they gave a struggle for 5-10 seconds before snapping my 20lb test Power Pro line.

It was mid-late August at the time and I was in one of the best Musky locations on the lake (I later learned).