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doesnt anyone fish for notherns anymore?


Kyle

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Hey,

Ive been waiting for someone to throw a good northern pike thread on the forum for a while now. So I decided to take the initiative. Please post any and all norther pike info here if you wish.

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I love the slimy little monsters.

Had a great outing in early June for pike, over a dozen of the creatures in a few hours, along with a couple of bonus bass & a 12" crappie that hit my spoon. grin.gif Have only been out for pike once since, & it was slow. I generally pike fish early & late in the season, hard to find the bigger fish in the bathwater.

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Just had a wonderful week of some incidental and some targeted Pike action up in Canada. There were some big fish shallow, but the majority of the fish were in deeper weeds or windblown structure like points, rocks, weeds....

On an interesting note, I was casting "musky size" bucktails most of the week, my buddy was casting smaller bucktails (mepps#5 aglia). Some BIG pike up to 42" watched my lure go right by their face and then hit the smaller lure..

Also...Topwater Musky Lures produced quite a few Pike in a variety of sizes

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i found the most suspended off of main lake structure right on the thermocline, the bigger northerns are a cool water fish, and if you are fishing the shallow areas you arent gonna catch too many big ones, with the exception being in the spring. I like to troll deep diving cranks out in aboot 25-30 feet of water. Keep a close eye on the depthfinder and turn your gain up so that you can see the thermocline as a bar. look for fish supsended right on that. Often times you will see a large group of fish two or three feet above the thermocline (these are most often whitefish) and then a fish a little ways back (this would be the northern or walleye). But this is just what i have found on a couple lakes. I am sure Jon Petrovske has some better advice for you along with a lot of the other guys on here.

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This time of year I am looking for wind-swept points that are adjacent to deep water (30 ft plus). If you find a pod of baitfish on your electronics, start throwing lures that get down to the depths of that particular baitfish pod... this ususally works. The breezier the better in my limitted experience.

As for the big norhterns in Canada passing on the big bucktails and eating the smaller profile mepps... I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago. I spent 4 days throwing musking gear and never got into a fish over 27 inces, but my girlfriend was trolling a 4 inch red/whit daredevel and hooked into a 40 inch fish! I was very disheartened. Months later I went to a pike fishing seminar by Steve Pennaz of North American Fisherman. He said that trophy pike are very different from trophy muskies. The big pike prefer smaller profile lures with steady and less erractic retrieves. Very interresting info.

Great thread!

-cupper

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I fish for bass.. C&R.. but when I get hungry for fish.. I get out the northern gear and nab a few.. to me they are VERY tasty fish.. and I don't care so much for bass... this is mainly why I peek in on this pike muskie forum now and then.. for northern tips.

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Phunnyfarm, if you're just looking for some action, you can find smaller pike in the weeds & along the weedline right now in most lakes, along with the odd larger one. Most of the big girls are going to be out deep in the cooler water, as has been noted.

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Quote:

Steve Pennaz of North American Fisherman said that trophy pike are very different from trophy muskies. The big pike prefer smaller profile lures with steady and less erractic retrieves. Very interresting info.

-cupper


I'm no expert, but when up in Canada fishing for big northern I throw muskie size jerkbaits 75% of the time. When I first started fishing in Canada I had a good selection of spinner baits and spoons, but after a couple years of frustration (ie others catching more and bigger fish) I started throwing 'wood' (as we call it) which I would consider to be fairly erratic. I will throw a bucktail occasionally, but the spinnerbaits and the spoons rarely see the water any more.

PS My favorite jerkbait is a crappie colored pig jr.

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