Pike behavior

[Guest]

I live on a weedy, shallow bay (mostly less than 2 feet deep) that is frequented by Pike. Every year about this time, the very shallow waters become alive with Pike. There are dozens of them splashing and rolling around just a few feet from shore in about 6 incehs of water (and deeper). This "thrashing" activity continues for a few weeks, but some remain in the shallows for most of the summer.

What's going on???? Seems pretty late for spawning... ice goes out in April, but I can't seem to find an explanation... I'm just an occasional fisherwoman and need to learn a lot more. It seems like a Pike amusement park out there. Some of them are monsters and no.... I'm not telling where I live ;-)

Thanks,
Pat

[Guest]

Thanks Aquaman,

If you want to trade all your Pike fishing secrets for a stay in upper Michigan, we might be able to work something out ;-)
The weeds are water lily, duckweed, pickerelweed , grass-like plants and a submerged plant that reminds me of seaweed in the deeper water (>3feet)....no cattails. These fish are REALLY thrashing. My house is 400-500 feet away and I can see the fins and hear the splashing from there. I am trying to get pictures of the frenzy cause it's just so unbelievable. Of course, catching a few big ones would be nice too!

Pat

[Aquaman01]

Sounds like a fish paradise! I'll throw out one little-known pike trick that I found out while fishing for channel cats (I'm not the only one, another guy knows it too, and now 275,000 people will as well). Pike love oily fish (no secret), so if ya wanna jazz up your bait, inject cod-liver oil into it. I was catching northerns in the river on the cut sucker injected with cod-liver oil that I was catfishing with.
Northerns seem to be ambush or roving predators and for a northern to take a lump of fish meat sitting on the bottom, he musta smelled something from upriver that caught his fancy. $5.00 a pint - now that's a good deal on attractor.

I'm gonna guess that they are feeding on some kind of annual hatch, spawn or migration. Frogs or some kind of fish, maybe. Post the water temp in your little bay and see if someone else might know what's going on in that water.

Or...don't look a gift horse in the mouth - and just go fish that water!

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[Blackstarluver]

Five bucks a pint? I have seen CLO priced ten to twelve bucks a 12oz bottle. Where do you procure this elixir for a 5$?
Thanks!
God lyk!
JC

[This message has been edited by Blackstarluver (edited 07-01-2003).]

[Aquaman01]

Pat,
Quid Pro Quo - you share, I share.
Just kidding. I think they're feeding. What else do pike do, after all? Throw out a froggy-looking topwater and see what ya get. Maybe a spinnerbait, too. Heck, throw out a frog. What kinda weeds?

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[Aquaman01]

Whoop - Whoop! Red Alert! I posted on hearsay - sorry about that! I got my price information from my wife, who came home one day after going to a homeopath to recieve arthritis treatment. The homeopath gave her a long list of stuff to take, including Cod Liver Oil. I looked at it and thought "Hmm - how can I use this for fishing?" like I do everything else I see, and I asked her how much it was. "Oh, five bucks or so", she said.
Now, this may have been a bit of a spin on her part, 'cause the bill for the whole herbal shopping trip was more than my April Fishing Spree typically is. The herbal regimen turned out to be worse than the affliction and so now I have a big bottle of cherry flavored cod liver oil in the fridge that I take from and dab on bait now & again.
So, maybe it's not as cheap as I was told it was.
If you ask her how much a Rapala costs, she'll think about it for a second and reply "Oh, couple of bucks or so".

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes