pikes hitting on spinner bait

[northwoodsman]

i was at the mississippi/leech river earlier
casting four different cranks. two that were
fire tiger and nothing, i tryed a white
spinner and one hit it, then moved to a
chartruce spinner and one hit that..
i know spinners are for bass.. but i never thought that northerns would hit a spinner
so if you get frustraited try a spinner bait

[Steve Foss]

North:

Spinnerbaits have been my go-to bait when pike fishing is slow for years. Here's a tip. Tip the spinnerbait with a 4-6 inch sucker minnow. If you hook it up through the bottom of the head and cast carefull with baitcasting tackle, the sucker stays on a long time.

You can buzz it, stop-and-go, bump it off the bottom, and if you think pike like spinnerbaits plain or tipped with power grubs, those pike really go nuts for the baits when they're tipped.

Good way to troll the cabbage beds, too. You get some short strikes on the suckers, but have patience and keep going. You'll get fish, and if you put on a trailer, it usually ruins the weedless nature of a spinnerbait.

Not to mention, you'll catch some mighty fine bass that way, now and then. Only the bigger ones dare hit something that big.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by stfcatfish (edited 07-31-2003).]

[kslipsinker]

The white or chartruse spinner bait is one of the best lures in my box. I always use a Power Grub trailer. I have caught large mouth, small mouth, notherns, muskie, walleye, and crappie with spinner baits.

[stephendawg]

Spinnerbaits have been our staple for pike fishing since I was a kid. Even though the boys didn't catch any trophies, my son and nephew caught over 200 pike and over 70 bass on Vermilion last week. They had a blast! They also threw a fair number of lipless crankbaits as well.
Enjoy.

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...if I only had more time off!...
Dawg

[northwoodsman]

this may seem silly i'm going to try a hotdog.. my wife use to use hotdogs and they worked for her,

[Guest]

My favorite lure for pike is my spinnerbait. I use it all the time no matter what the conditions are. The only reason I use it is b/c it catches fish! Its funny sometimes people ask me how the bass fishing is and then I tell them I am not fishing for bass. Then some of them just look and wonder. I think a lot of people don't use spinnerbaits for pike.
Like stfcatfish stated, "Tip the spinnerbait with a 4-6 inch sucker minnow." That is the best combination you could ask for. Sometimes I still use a berkley power grub but they aren't as good as a minnow.
My favorite brand has been Northland tackle so far but I haven't tried any others, b/c I have and can, catch a lot of fish on this setup.

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Fish ON!

[Steve Foss]

PikeEye:

I've used lots of different brands of spinnerbaits over the years, but my box is full mostly of Northland spinnerbaits these days. They're inexpensive and work as well as the fancy titanium ones. And you don't weep dollars if one gets broken off like you do if you laid down $6 or $7 apiece.

I've used musky-sized spinnerbaits tipped with sucker minnows for big pike, but for some reason I never had much luck with that, and have had my best success on the bass-sized ones.

Another tip: If the skirt is long, trim it short so more of the sucker can be seen.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Lunker]

Double bladed charteuse spinnerbait has always been my #1 shallow water pike bait. Most of the smaller pike I catch shallow come with spinnerbaits, I never do as well deep with them. Two years ago I bought a budget spinnerbait for 1.00, caught more pike that summer than ever before with that lure

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, I never fish the spinnerbaits deeper than, say, 15 feet. But that can be deadly if you find some sunken islands with cabbage on top near deep water. I pull the core out of a rubber core sinker, clamp it on the shaft in front of the head and let it sink to bottom. Then it's lift-fall (fall on a tight line) back to the boat. Deadly.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Guest]

On almost all of my spinnerbaits I have a trailer hook on them. If I am fishing with a plastic or a minnow, I will attach it to the trailer hook instead of the main hook. I have had good luck doing this b/c when you are jigging the spinnerbait the trailer hook becomes exposed and its like jigging a plain minnow or worm with a spinnerbait for an attractor.
I also never fish my spinnerbaits deeper than 15' of water. This spring I was catching pike in about 11' of water, casting spinnerbaits, and I think that was getting deep enough for a spinnerbait. I will have to try adding weight to it tho. What stfcatfish mentioned for adding weight to a spinnerbait sounds like a good idea or I have been adding weight to it by wrapping soder around the hook (up close to the skirt so it doesnt get in the way of the fish).

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Fish ON!

[Steve Foss]

Hmmm, never thought about tipping the sucker on the trailer hook, though I've got a bunch of weedless trailers.

Bet the sucker would flex and wiggle even more on the lift/fall, since the trailer can pivot on the main hook shaft. Hmmm.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Guest]

The fish sure love it!

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Fish ON!

[Guest]

I normally go through skirts about every 3 months. And that is if my spinnerbait lasts that long. I have had caught pike that bent the hook and shaft of the spinnerbait so bad that I had to throw it away.
My all time favorite spinnerbait is Northland, Tandem Spin Reed-Runner (pro model) in the color called sunfish. It is a real killer. But also they cost $3.50 per spinnerbait so they are not all that cheap. I normally go through about 4 a year anyways.

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Fish ON!

[delmuts]

i would just like to add that another trick to add weight to a spinner bait is to clamp one of the rubber cord sinkers to the bottom wire. just pull the rubber out and slip the sinker on and crimp it. del

[northwoodsman]

wow guys thanks for all of your help
i'll try different ways on the spinner
who knows i might land a big one

[northwoodsman]

i'll use the suckers and see if i
can land a big pike.. i forgot to mention
the first pike i caught he messed up my skirt but not to bad

[Walleye #1]

I am going to have to agree with everyone. Spinnerbaits are my go to lure when fishing northerns. Its tough to beat watching your spinnerbait work over the top of a cabbage bed, and all of the sudden bam!!, your spinner bait is gone, and your rod is bent over b/c a fat northern just killed it.
I would have to go with Northland's spinnerbait. White, Chartreuse, black and orange, and a combo of brown, orange, and yellow always seem to produce best for me.
My biggest northerns have come on spinnerbaits. Including a fat 41"er.
Definitely like using a trailer hook and twister. But I do reccomend just tying the spinnerbait directly onto your line. The lure seems to get better action, and doesn't get hung up in the weeds as much. You may get a couple of bite offs, but not as many as you would think.

Good Luck
Walleye #1