pike stratagies for fall

[mrpike1973]

hi this last weekend struck out on pike. should i be looking shallow or deep and is this a time to troll or cast more. any certain lures better cranks suckers etc thanks

[20lbSloughShark]

I found pike loaded in shallow water on sunday. I'm sure it was as shallow as you can go. I got the best action in about 2'-3', however depending on structure, 0'(obviously not on land)-5'. Maybe it was just the weather that day, but pike big (had one easily 15 pounds get off) and small. I used a brown rubber 6" swimbait, with 1oz head, but spoons, and many others would work. If the wind dies down, a big top water might get action. It seemed like fish were stacked up, I was getting fish after fish in a small patch of cabbage weed, and 100' away there could be nothing. BTW I got most of my fish in an area of tree stumps, surrounded in cabbage weed. In general this seems to be the "feeding binge" many pike fisherman talk about, but rarely proves to be an actual pattern. As the fall season progresses, the will probably move deeper, then a period of shallow, and then really, really deep. And from what I've heard, they then come really shallow again at first ice.

Edit: for lure suggestions, really shallow/in the weeds a weedless spoon, spinnerbait, maybe even a big salamander with hook hidden would work. I cranked fast and kept my swimbait over the weeds, and by nature pike look up. For this you can use all sorts of traditional pike lures ranging from a dardevle, to a suick. Im not the person to ask about top waters, I've only found them to work by accident. Lures outfished live bait when I was out, but never overlook a big sucker under a bobber. If you really want to get fancy, instead of a bobber, put a planer board about 5' infront of a sucker and troll that.

[mainbutter]

I'm still fishing deep for "summer" pike.. deep water next to humps that hold baitfish, bluegills, etc.

As the water cools, I'll be looking ON those humps, and ON the dropoffs.

[20lbSloughShark]

Yes, its a great time to fish. I'm assuming if your fishing lakes with humps, it is on the bigger side. Lakes are changing, weeds are making a comeback from the summer sun, lakes are finally cooling. I was on a small lake, so it could take some time for the bigger lakes to have the same effect. The more I fish, the more I realize pike don't pattern well like some other fish. Even in the same body of water, you can have pike tearing up your bass gear shallow, and then when you decide to go after walleyes your finding pike in 30' too. They can be strange. If you get out this weekend, I would start shallow, and keep moving. If after some time, go deep. It wasn't long ago I was catching pike in 25' or more.

[RumRiverRat]

I found a bunch of 20 to 30" pike in 4 to 8 feet of water today.

They were smashing a DT3 Fat.

I was targeting Bass but the Pike would not leave me alone. Had several follow all the way to the boat and crush the bait as I pulled it out of the water.

Was fishing a lake with stained water so I could not see the fish following.

[ratherBfishnJP]

Hey Rum, what color DT3 do you like to use in dark stained tea colored water? I cant seem to find any DT3s in brainerd baxter area Most carry the DT4 would that still work?

[Aaron Carrell]

I'll chime in regarding the DT4 vs DT3Fat. There is a big difference between those lures and I've by far had more luck getting pike on the Fat3 over the much much skinnier DT4. There is something about the movement of that crank that pike just love. I rarely throw it for bass anymore because its such a pike magnet.

[20lbSloughShark]

For dark water, the general rule is bright colors, where clear water is natural colors. Good colors would be firetiger, hot tiger, chartreuse, red head, basically anything bright. For crank baits, the rapala dive-to series has been decent, shad rap, husky jerk, storm thunder stick, they all work. I saw Gander mountain on 371 had some big rat-l-traps that would work good.

[RumRiverRat]

As Aaron said the fat 3 has a wide rolling wobble that Pike apparently find irresistible.

I was using a Yellow Perch Fat 3.

I have zero success with bright colors like firetiger on this particular lake.

I use Moss back Shiner,baby bass, bluegill and yellow perch colored cranks. Dominate forage in this lake is bluegills. So a bait with a dark colored back and sides fading into a lighter color is what works.

Juan Grande will verify that I almost always have a clackin crank in Mossback Shiner rigged when we fish this lake.

His biggest Pike from this lake came on a Yellow Perch DT14 or 16 IIRC.

I was using 10lb Fluorocarbon so I was getting the bait down as deep as 5 feet. I was trying to run the bait over and around thick clumps of weeds that were scattered on a 10 to 15 acre weed flat. I was covering a lot of water and caught a bunch of bass and pike.

I probably would have caught more Pike if I had been retrieving the bait faster but I was using a 5.0:1 gear ratio reel on a med hvy moderate fast action crankbait rod. Not the ideal setup for Pike.

When a bass hits a crank this setup is ideal because you just let the rod load up. With the blitz attack from pike and on Sunday they seemed to hit the bait and run towards the boat I know I missed at least 5 maybe 6 bites.

[20lbSloughShark]

I didn't notice that you were asking about brown (tea) colored waters specifically. It definitely changes from lake to lake, as in RumRiverRat's case, but for dark green colored waters, brights are the way to go, and change if you have to. For brown water more yellows do the trick. Chartreuse, hot tiger, gold, etc. Dark green water gets bright flashy lures, dark tan water gets yellower, gold, coppper lures, and clear water gets natural colored lures. When in doubt, Firetiger.

[bassfisher123]

Try a dare devil on the outer weeds the pike are generally going to be bigger the deeper you go, but trolling a crank bait can work for the shallow weeds

[TruthWalleyes]

Picked up a 34" last night at dusk. 3mph. Muskie sized spinner bait probably 100' back and running about 6" deep. 3mph to 5mph that presentation has put several nords in the boat the last few weeks. 3-10 fow.

[ratherBfishnJP]

Yep I fish the Mississippi mainly and usually around this time the water is a dark stained tea color. This is wear I get most of my decent northern action along with some smallies hitting on these. The three places I called in the Brainerd area do not carry the DT Fat 3 and they will only keep in stock the reg DT 4.

[20lbSloughShark]

Its not that important to have exactly the DT3fat. I'm thinking a 4 3/8" Rapala floating minnow will fit the bill just fine for river fishing. Hot Steel would be a good color for tan water. Also there is not a fish that wont take a spoon if you put it in the right place. A red/white daredevle built its fame pike fishing on a river.

[LPCrowRiverFisherman]

Flat Rap. Size 10

[Gordie]

On the outside weed lines with a spinner bait with BIG willow type blades should pull up a few pike and the old favorite a red and white spoon will surly hook up a few too.

[ratherBfishnJP]

I wasnt necessarily going to just use the Fat 3 for northerns but rather an all around bait for smallmouth and largemouth also. My numero uno bait for northerns on the mississippi has been a 1/2 oz Northland reed runner in black and dual hammered silver willow/colorado blade in the old body style(bought the rest of northlands stock and no longer are found or made anymore) not the new pro model (have had no luck on the new models) and suprisingly i get hammered when fishing for crappies with a 2 in. tube. the northerns love them and i am never prepared for them when they hit

[20lbSloughShark]

Smallmouth love spinnerbaits as well, but might be put off by a larger one. Give a 4" rubber swimbait a try.

[pushbutton]

When the water cools, I generally troll in 4 to 6 ft, 20 ft back in the prop wash, right in the weed beds, with, most often, jointed bluegillish colored shallow runners..... wiggle and wobble is the key though. Kind of a pain picking out the weeds, but usually rewarded with fish. Actually am going to a lake this weekend that the Mrs Pushbutton and Jr hammered them over the 4th, and suspect they will be in the same spots since the water is still so warm. Will be using quick strikes and light pike under floats on the weed edge in some known smaller panfishy holding areas.