Artificial Baits For Northern Pike

[mainbutter]

The storm swim baits work great too, ironically I have had the best luck with the bigger baby pike pattern.

Not ironic at all! Check out "Lucky Lures" based in the netherlands. This guy hand builds all kinds of hard swimbaits, but is currently most known for his Esox line with the idea that huge pike eat baby pike, at least in Europe.

[mainbutter]

Maybe I should be using spoons more.

I'm in the same line of thinking. I don't use spoons a ton, but I'm a huge advocate of them and always seem to do well when I use them. I think that I get bored of them because they don't "look cool", regardless of how well they catch fish. It's a pretty typical fault of many fishermen I suppose.

[ZachD]

Zara spook... nothing like top water pike action!

[Fowlmouth]

Trolling with a daredevil, can't beat it.

[ukefish]

Trolling with a daredevil, can't beat it.

Do you do that all year around? Well in season of course. Would you ever vertical jig them in the winter?

[mwal]

For the guy that wanted the Daredevle alternative try some red eye wiggle or Dr spoons I have caught many pike at both and they sell them at Fleet Farm , Gander and Cabelas. OR order Williams Spoons my friend in Canada swears by them.

Mwal

[Fowlmouth]

the daredevils i use for trolling would be too big to jig during the winter. when fishing for pike in the winter i always use a tip up with a minnow.

[20lbSloughShark]

Of all the lures I have, I usually only use a few. I view them more as tools rather than bait. I use deep diving cranks for trolling deep, spoons for trolling shallow, I like cranks and soft swimbaits for casting sharp breaks, you get the idea. A bait that dives to 20' will be tough to get fish with in 2' of water, and a lure with 3 trebles won't do good in the weeds.

Spoons work in almost any situation with some thought. I've got fish on spoons jigging, trolling shallow, trolling deeper with weights, reeling fast, reeling slow, even top water (although its more of a novelty with a daredevle). If I only had one bait to fish the world, it would be a daredevle, and I'm partial to five of diamonds. One mod I do to all spoons is put a big siwash hook on them to make them more weedless, and easier on fish. I have been using the big river bait hook, open eye siwash, and pinch the barb down. Other spoons that have been great are the doctor spoon, red eye, len thompson spoons, and one of my favorites for pike are the ones sold by jack penny. The fat dardevele spoons are a "slower" spoon, while the longer jack penny spoons retrieve much faster to get the same wobble.

I am still in the hunt for a pet spinner bait. Every one I've found has been destroyed by fish. They are all weak, and most come with an R bend. I tie some mono around the bend so my leaders clip doesn't slide up the lure. I like the pikee, but its a bit small, and hard to find. One I'm trying this year is the lil' hustler pike spinner bait. It has the closed eye, supposedly heavy duty, and should be bigger than all the "bass" spinnerbaits.

Cranks come in all shapes and sizes. I've had luck on everything from a little dives-to 6 to a 9" stick bait. They hit lures bigger and smaller than those. I like the middle of the road. Cranks 4"-6", but don't forget a few smaller ones, and definitively get bigger ones. Its hard to beat the original floating rapala or husky jerk. One that has really surprised me is the muskie mania jake 6". I mainly use it for trolling weedlines, but it has more teeth marks than paint now. What I look for in a crank is first heavy duty, size, and how deep it runs. No need to have 3 kinds of cranks that are the same size and run the same depth. Fish are not as picky as most have you believe, and location is key to pike, its rarely your lure.

Inline spinners have been hit or miss for me. It is my opinion that pike like smaller inline spinners. It seems backwards to what I normally say, but I have never had much luck with the big muskie bucktails. The mepps that are about 3" or 4" long are all the bigger they need to be. I'm sure pike can be caught on a double cow girl, but why throw your back out, when they will readily hit a much lighter lure?

I'm only a season into trying rubber swimbaits, and have never tried the hard jointed ones. So far the best I've found is the 5" berkley flat back shad. One I've heard good things about, and plan on trying are the big hammer baits. The one I would get is the 6.5". For colors they have one called "toast" which just from the name is the top of my list, but also look into the crazier colors like the one that looks like fire tiger. I should mention about 80% of my baits are bright colors like 5 of diamonds, fire tiger, or clown. The others I try to pick colors like suckers.

I know suicks are great pike baits, I just have not cracked the code yet. I have a green doted one 7" unweighted, and have not got a single fish. I'm thinking I may have to get a weighted one, and adjust the tail so it almost flutters in place in front of fish. The one I have now is about as useless as casting a stick. I have used my jake and other cranks as jerk baits, and did just fine. I like jerkbaits where the water is shallow, like a flat, or on a point. I should also mention for weeds, I like spoons or bucktails for just cruising the tops. For actually going through the weeds, its hard to beat a spinnerbait. Thats where they really shine. Some of the weedless spoons like the johnson silver minnow do well too.

For deep trolling pike, it can be a bit tough depending on how far you want to go. Some lures like the rapala x rap deep diver 20 dives 20'. There is a 30' model, but things get really hard on your gear with lures like that. With the right rod for the 30' diving lures, you shouldn't have to go much more than that for pike. If you really have to, you're looking at downriggers or dipsey divers.

That reminds me of a lure that has worked good for me, the spoon plug. Some guys live by these. I have 3 sizes for the depths I mostly fish. I've found them best on featureless lakes, as it can be near impossible to troll a heavy structure lake with these. You basically have to keep it barely bumping bottom. While a jake 8' down in 12' of water will mostly catch pike, a spoon plug in the same place will get all kinds of fish. The way buck perry explains it, it is like stepping on a dogs tail.

As far as top water, I'm of little help. I've got them on a zara spook, but not much else. I know guys love buzz baits, but I have never once got a pike on one.

The last thing I can think of is a rattle bait. In the winter salmo chubby darters, and lindy darters work great. I'm sure they would do ok in the summer too. Definitely get a rat l trap, best is the one ounce. I think they are best served casted, but they can be jigged. I've never tried trolling one. That should give you some ideas.