starting pike fishing tackle help please

[73mrpike]

hi great forum. i have dail up and tried to find subjects for this but it was taking to long sorry. i have fished for sunnies before but i would really like to try for pike. i tried a couple of spoons last fall didnt work. a have 100 bucks for my birthday this is all i will be able to spend for the year. i have a cabelas fish eagle 2 7 footer spinning reel up to 1 ounce rated and a pflueger president reel. the sales person said this would be a good set up for pike. i will not be fishing for gaints up north. more local in hutch area. i noticed in the bass forum how much tackle people have do i need to have that much to start with? Well after my ramblings here what suggestions would you have for what i need for tackle thank you very much.

[Newcastle]

Welcome to the forum and to pike fishing--both are pretty fun.

For a hundred dollars you should be able to get a pretty good selection of tackle. I would look at getting some good sized crankbaits (4") some that run shallow, some for deeper waters. Good quality spinnerbaits of larger size work great. Try some white-yellow-black with either single or double blades. I like the double willow blades-you can move em fast and keep them down near the tops of the submerged weeds. (usually you can some generic single blade variety for around a buck also which is nice) As for why spoons didn't work--not sure. I have pretty good success with copper, white/red, yellow spoons. I usually only use spoons if I am trolling, if you were shore fishing or casting, another bait may be a better choice.

Topwater baits can work awesome and are a ton of fun. Again, around weed beds or exposed vegatation I have had some great success with frogs or topwaters, but a leader should be used or expect to see a huge explosion in the water and your line blowing in the wind. Sucker minnows on a quick rig--fun if your patient or just want to sit and get some sun, enjoy the lake for a while. Get some leaders, I usually go with around a 12".

If you plan on using the rod only for pike, I would use a line as close to the max test capacity on your reel, will save some baits and fish.

The nice part about a lot of these baits-you will will be able to pick up some bass to.

[BoxMN]

I'd say in that first $100 to get a few Rapala Husky jerk-baits or X-Raps, but find them on sale, as they are a bit spendy. I like perch color first, firetiger (chartruese with stripes) then gold/black.

Then like newcastles says, I agree with the spinnerbaits, especially yellow, chart. or white. and add on some twister tail worms as trailer. You can often find some titanium wired baits on sale, and they are my preference, even though they cost a bit more. The chepa wire baits get totally bent up very easily, and never really seem to get back to their "new" shape, though you can get it close. The Titanium ones simply don't have a "bend memory" if that makes sense.

If going for pike, do yourself (and the pike) a big favor and have a jaw-spreader and long-long nose pliers with you. It'll save you both some blood letting

Have fun!

[Nick Kuhn]

Fall can be a frustrating time to fish pike as they can be found anywhere. Spring the shallows tend to be good with active fish. Pike destroy inline spinners and spinnerbaits, they are simply too easy of a target. Spoons will catch fish, there's just something about a flashy wobble they can't resist. You'll need a few cranks, just to cover the depth range. You don't need every color of every model to catch fish. You could even get something like a 6" Believer that can be worked topwater, shallow, or deep (in my first week of owning one I had caught a fish on all three methods of working it). Lots of choices, but pike will hit just about all of them. The biggest thing is finding the baits to cover the structure you are looking to fish.

[73mrpike]

thanks for all youre replys wow what good advice. will i be able to find most of this at like fleet farm etc. i can only buy this stuff one time so i really need to buy the stuff that works i cant afford to have stuff that just sits thanks alot

[Newcastle]

Ya-Fleet Farm should have it all, plus pretty reasonable prices.

[solbes]

Check out the "Favorite Cranks" thread in the pike forum, if you haven't already. Also I would suggest some kind of braid or Fireline for spooling your spinning reel. Little need to set the hook with this stuff, the pike pretty much hook themselves.

Higher test may help with break offs, but remember the thinner lines will get your cranks deeper near weedlines and structure. I think the 14 or 20 lb tied with a palomar knot would be plenty. I catch lots of pike with 10 lb Fireline even.

[redhooks]

Yep all good advice listed above. Fleetfarm is great for variety and prices, if there is a bargain bin dig thru for gems- get get some fireline and learn to use the palomar knot. Then buy some floating rapalas black silver and/or black gold and you should be able to catch bass/pike and walleyes both day and night with them, cast or troll. Jig heads and Mr. Twister tails are cheap and will do the trick also. Spinners work well and a mepps #5 w/some hair can be a killer. charttruse is a great color for pike and red/white are old standbys taht never go out of style. Good luck and post some results when you bump into some gators.

redhooks

[Neighbor_guy]

Welcome to the obsesion. Line, a pack of leaders, a couple of silver minows, red $ white, brass, an x-rap, a husky j e r k , and two mepps inline spinners, one red & white, one Black and yellow.

Should be about $65.00

That will leave you about $35.00 to play with in the soft plastics isle. From that point is is just oversized bass gear.

Good luck, Fleet Farm is like a grownups toy store.

[cjac]

Right now MFF has Power Pro line on sale for $10 for a 150 yard spool. The 30lb test should perform fairly well on that reel.

Lures: Rapalas are great, get a few as mentioned above. Some of the Storm Thundersticks can be had for a couple bucks less each too, and they work well. For spinnerbaits, they have the wooden arm tree displays of Northland spinnerbaits, hard to beat at $2-$2 a pop. Yes they do get bent, but sometimes thats not a bad thing. Not everythig in nature swims in a straight line.

Spoons: Still after all these years they are underfished. Daredevils have been around forever for a reason. Also look at the Jawbreakers or the standard Johnson Silver Minnow.

Again, thinking of trying to stretch your $100 as best as possible, look at the jig head and plastic bins as redhooks mentioned, good call-out by the way! Some 3/8 and 1/2 oz jigheads with 3-4" trailers sill catch fish for ya too, and not just pike. Same goes for the Mepps or other in-line style bucktails.

They usually have a big fishing ad in late April or early May. Overall, I've been pleasantly surprised by the staff there, ask for a person that knows what you're looking for and they'll help ya out.

For now, don't bother with a new tackle box, simply pick up a couple of the inexpensive Plano 3700 series storage boxes. I find myself using them more and more myself.

Good luck!

[polarsusd81]

Yep, everyone here has posted up some great advice. Here is my take on the situation.

I am not sure if you have line yet or not, but the PP that cjac suggests will suit your needs well and be pretty versitile. As for lures, here is my list of absoulute must haves for someone starting out pike fishing.

Medium sized 5 of diamonds daredevil spoon

Medium sized Red and White daredevil spoon

Small or Medium Hammered Copper daredevil spoon

Rapala Husky jerk-bait HJ10 or HJ12 in chrome with black back

Rapala Husky jerk-bait HJ10 or HJ12 in Firetiger

Rapala X-Rap XR10 or XR12 in Clown

Mepps #4 Aglia in Hot Orange and Black

Rat-L-Trap 3" in Tennessee Shad

Three Terminator spinnerbaits mix-n-match 1/4 & 3/8 oz in Firetiger, Black, and White/Blue

Some 3/8 oz jigs with some 3" and 4" twister tails in Chartruese, White, and Black.

A few good steel leaders to make sure you don't get bit off and a good pair of pliers and jaw spreaders.

That should leave you about 30 - 40 bucks of wiggle room to pick up more of what you think you will use most often. You will have to look around to find the good prices but MFF has about the best prices around so you should do alright there. Like cjac said, pay close attention to what is in the bargain bins, I have found some of my best lures at 75% off there. Have some fun out there and let us know how you do when you start casting for them.