Open water pike

[Ice Wolf]

Anyone troll with lead core line to target pike in deep water? Looking for input on what has worked for you.

Thanks in advance.

[ThunderLund78]

I haven't personally done a lot of MAIN BASIN-OPEN water trolling, but I have fished them deep off ledges close to shore--mainly big jigs and suckers. But I would think if you're willing to put your time in on a lake with Cisco or Whitefish that run deep, open and cold, You could really have it pay off with a beauty. Find the schools of fat, oily baitfish and find the Big Pike! Looking forward to other's responses, I just don't get to fish those types of lakes down here south of the metro, but am interested to hearing others' experiences.

[Ice Wolf]

I haven't personally done a lot of MAIN BASIN-OPEN water trolling, but I have fished them deep off ledges close to shore--mainly big jigs and suckers. But I would think if you're willing to put your time in on a lake with Cisco or Whitefish that run deep, open and cold, You could really have it pay off with a beauty. Find the schools of fat, oily baitfish and find the Big Pike! Looking forward to other's responses, I just don't get to fish those types of lakes down here south of the metro, but am interested to hearing others' experiences.

I know the pike are down on the bottom. Pulled up a 39"er lindy riging for walleye's before. Whitfish is what I think I am graphing for bait fish. Have cought muskies high in the water colum but no pike. So I was thinking on spooling up some lead core line with smaller muskie sized raps and troll the bottom. Looking to see if anyone else has done this.

[20lbSloughShark]

One thing I've tried before was a three way rig. I had a couple of ounces of weight on one end, the lure about 10' back on the other, and then tied my line to it. I never did get anything on that rig, but I have got plenty of pike out deep with lures that only dive 12' or so. I know guys who go really deep for lake trout with down riggers will sometimes get really big pike.

[solbes]

I fish one of these deep, spring fed lakes with Cisco. I'm trying to think of any time I've pulled a pike out of deep water that wasn't associated with structure. Don't think I have. Tried small lures, minnow lures, pike sized lures, and musky sized lures behind leadcore (last summer) or a mini downrigger.

I pulled out a 30" over some rocks at 25', a 36" near a 20' sunken island at night, and a 35" over a 24' submerged rockpile. I know there are 40"+ sized pike in this lake, I've seen them. Every other pike I've caught (and there has to be a few hundred) have been somewhere in the weeds or off the deep weedline. Granted its 100 - 1 on time spent between the two methods, but still open water trolling has not been productive for me.

I have not fished strictly on the bottom though. I was under the assumption they would rise at least a few feet if they saw something they wanted to grab.

[RK]

Hiya -

Couple thoughts...some of this based on catching pike, some based on fishing open water muskies and catching quite a few pike in the process.

- First off, find the thermocline and stay above it. Rarely will you get fish going below it.

- Look for areas that consistently have concentrations of baitfish. Areas with current are great but not always easy to identify. Areas that are the last to ice up or have a reputation for 'bad ice' are good places to start, as current is usually the root cause.

- I've done best with smaller baits vs. big baits. Yeah, they hit 10" Jakes sometimes, but I've caught more pike on baits like Magnum Bomber Long-As (maybe my favorite trolling bait) and #9 Shad Raps. The ciscoes that move up and down a lot in the water column during the summer are usually juveniles that can tolerate warmer water better than adults, and they're the ones you're more likely to mark in the 20' range when you see swarms of them on your electronics. You'll also see them jumping around planer boards and they're usually 6-8" long.

- If you're pulling leadcore, run your baits higher than you're marking bait and hooks, and when you get your bait over them, throw your motor into neutral and let the leadcore drag the bait down, then start up again. Fish hit as it's descending or right when it starts moving forward again. I suppose it looks like a dying ciscoe struggling downward then scooting off. When you start moving ahead again, the rod will just load up and it's fish on.

- Run a mono leader off the end of the leadcore and before your wire leader. I run a 20' section of 25# Trilene Big Game, which has a lot of stretch. The stretch helps keep fish pinned on small hooks, especially if you use boards - which brings me to...

- Planer boards can work really well. The wave action makes the bait stall and stutter step. That having been said, I catch fish going with the wind with boards all the time. I can count the number of fish I've caught going into the wind on boards on one hand minus some fingers. I have no idea why that is...

Good luck. There are fish there to be had, but some quirks to catching them. This might help you get started...

[tolle141]

Tom Gelb has a really good muskies book that details open water hunting better than anything else I've seen. Take a look at that. Could probably adapt those lessons to the water temps of big pike