I know this is a Walleye Board But.......

[Northern Pike Man]

What are your favorite Northern pike lures for fishing in Ontario?

[Fred_G]

I have two favorites. First is the XL size Williams Wabler in hammered gold/silver. I've caught many 40" class pike on this one.

The other is a bass style buzzbait. There is nothing like surface baits for big pike. They absolutely hammer it.

Fred

[Osprey]

The mag.size rattle trap unless there is alot of weed groth. Then I'd go with a 1oz.spinner bait for sure

Tim
"Osprey"

[Den]

My best is a #4 and a #5 mepps, silver blade on a sunny day, and a gold blade on cloudy and rainy days, with or without bucktails. second would be a williams wobbler, or daredevil. johnsons silver spoons with a trailer hook would be #3. good luck and good fishin.
Den

[stewart]

Don't forget jigs!

[GR8WTHUNTER]

If I can ever find some I want to give "blue stripers" a try. I have seen a few of these but have not been able to find a place to buy them.

[Reels]

What is a williams wobler?

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[stewart]

A williams is a spoon. I've had best luck with them in cold water.

[Backwater Eddy]

Big pike are big fans of big & bad wobblier style plugs. Spoons and in line spinners are a good plan too but if I had to carry only a few items I would sure bring some wobblier cranks.

Some of the most serious pike plugs I have ever seen are the SALMO line of crankbaits. Lots of great detail work in the paint jobs with models ranging from surface type wobblers’, to deep diving diggers.

Some SALMO lures that I would recommend are the Whitefish (Shallow and deep jointed or straight sticks), Perch, Fatso, Pike minnow, and shallow pike jerk baits.

Check out their web site and see what you think of the line. The 3-pack specials are a great deal and if you do a search on the net you will find them now for $20 a 3 pack, VERY reasonable for SALMO pike plugs.

http://www.salmo.com.pl/start_eng.htm

Another great option for piggy pike is the "Creek Chub" 1700PP1-G9 in the shallow or deep runner, and the Bomber H-Duty Long A B-16ALEF1.

You can see the Creek Chub line at http://www.lurenet.com/catalogs_brand.cfm?majorid=4 & the H-Dudyn Bomber line at http://www.lurenet.com/catalogs_product.cfm?gid=107&majorid=2

I would also highly recommend the "Smithwick" Suspending and Floating Super Rogue line. Beefy and built to add some flash, as well as a very good wide wobble.

You can check out the "Smithwick" Suspending and Floating Super Rogue line at http://www.lurenet.com/catalogs_product.cfm?gid=17&majorid=12

Ya, as you can tell, I am a crank bait junky. But for one very good reason, they catch piggy fish.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Good hunting up North.

Backwater Eddy ~ ~><sUMo> ~ ><>


http://home.talkcity.com/ResortRd/backwtr1/index.html

[Mal]

I have a few that work for me. First is the mepps cyclops on a sunny day. The silver plate finish really flashes better than chrome. Another is the suspending Husky Jerk. Last but not least is the topwater Heddon Zara Spook. Other do work for me but the above are my first choice. The Husky Jerk also works great on large walleye.

[Tim FRick]

A few go to lures would be the oringinal Raphla black/white, Husky jerks in blue/orange, Johnson sliver spoon with white mister twister tail, and if cloudy I colored a spoon thats purple/yellow/orange/red. At night would be the fluro. yellow Raphla.
Good Luck!!
Tim FRick

[spooled]

Five of diamonds

[Cottontop]

4 1/2 inch hammered gold spoon from Stamina, sunny or cloudy. Reel it in slow and easy and hang on!

[Esox Warrior]

Manns Ungulator. Pike love these things, especially with a firetiger or chartruse skirt. To bad you can't buy them anymore, I've only got about a dozen left. hehehe!

[GOBAWURMS]

jACKPINE

Dont forget to take a good selection of sizes of Eppingers (five of diamonds)

[Bugtussle]

I've had very good luck with a No.18 blue rapala and a chrome Doctor Spoon fished in a fluttering stop and go retreive.

[Cangl]

Cheapest 3inch chrome spoons I can find, white spinner bait/chrome blades, suspending clown rattlin rouge, wonder bread or pearl bomber.

[Piscatorian]

Ditto. The best lure for big pike, but most people just don't know how to rig 'em. Sure, at times, pike will just hammer spoons, but they will hit a more subtle jig presentation almost all the time. The smarter, bigger ones that will only follow spoons will often strike jigs with pork or plastic.

Better yet, only one hook to remove, and you and the fish are on your way.

[orngruffe]

Is this perfect or what??? Does anyone know how to measure the barrel on a smith and wesson revolver???? Is it from the front of the forcing cone in front of the cylinder or from the front of the frame? I am serious! I need t know.

[Esox Warrior]

WHAT?????

[Neal/CO]

I buy the owner saltwater jig heads in 3/4 oz with the #4/0 hook and insert them in plastic baits like the Manns Shadow and the Bass Pro Magnum Squirmin Shad. Then just rip jig them back to the boat or shore.

[solarfisher00]

I've been guiding for pike in ontario for the last 6 years and here are some of my favorite presentations.

Spring: In the spring when the water is still cold and the pike are shallow I like to find areas of the lake where small streams flow in. The best ones are at the north end of the lake or at least the north end of a bay becase the north end of the lake warms up the earliest. These areas generally have a lot of area that is between 2 and 8 feet of water. I like to sit out a ways from where the water is coming in out in about 15-20 feet of water and start casting in. Then slowly work my way into where the fish are. Many of the larger fish will be sitting out a ways from the rest of the fish. I generally like to fish about as slow as I can, but that can change depending on the mood of the fish. Some of my favorite baits are Johnson silver minnows with a trailer of some kind, super rogues, husky jerks or other suspending lures, big lightweight jigs with big plastic trailers, a super shad rap that I weighted to suspend, and flies. The fly rod is loads of fun if you can get the fly within a reasonable distance(I can catch just about every fish I see with a fly rod.) Also there was a nice article in In-Fisherman about jig fishiing for pike. They gave some very nice examples of good pike jigs.

Summer: I love fishing fo pike in the summer. Some of my biggest fish were caught in July. Pretty much everything from the spring will still work in the summer, but there will probably be only for small pike. The bigger pike will generally move out to deeper water and open water structure. In the summer I generally stay out of the shallow bays unless I want to catch a lot of little pike. The best kind of structure for summer is a large main lake reef or rock pile that tops off either at the surface or within a few feet of the surface and has a lot of area in the 4 to 20 foot range. Probably the most important feature of the structure is that it has deep water either right off of it or very near by. By deep water Im talking about 40 or more feet deep. If there is a nice weedbed growing up in about in the 5 to 15 foot depth that is always an added plus. Also the weather is a big factor for summer fishing. I have found that the best days are the silghtly cloudy windy days. I like to contour troll these areas first. I usually try to have between 100 and 200 feet of line out depending on how sharp I have to turn, how many lnes I have out, and how deep I need to go. I troll fairly fast at about 3 to 6 mph. I like to constantly vary the speed of the boat a lot to give more action to the baits. There are a number of different lures that I like to use. Some of my favorites are number 18 floating rapalas(depending on the water and fish almost every color works, but my favorite is clown, firetiger, perch, and orange), 6 and 8 inch jakes (clown, firetiger, and perch), shadraps, super shadraps, reef runners, fat free shads, deep diving husky jerks, or about any other large walleye cranks. I troll around the outside of the structure until the fishing starts to slow down, then I drift across the structure casting. The trick is to fish the outsides first and work our way to the center of the structure. I like to cast and jig back the same big jigs I used in the summer off of the deeper parts of the structure and cast deep diving cranks like the fat free shad off the deeper ends and bang them on the rocks as I bring it in. Then I cast the big #18 floating rapalas or some of the other things I trolled with on the rest of the structure. If there is weeds on the top of the structure I like to cast a spoon(I like the cabelas brand ones because they are lightweight and I can fish them slower) with a single hook on it right through the weeds. The single hook gets way less weeds on it if fished properly. When you feel like you are getting a weed snap the rod tip back sharply and the weed will usually fall off. I fish the spoons really slow very similar to casting jigs for walleyes or carolina rigging for bass. I cast it out and let fall. after letting it fall until I think it is getting about 2 feet from the bottom I pull back and reel in a little and then let it fall again. I try to keep the line tight so I can feel the fish hit it. Keep an I on your lure at all times because these fish will often follow the lure to the boat and then hit it. During the summer there are a lot of pike that roam open water following schools of bait fish. These fish can be targeted pretty much like open water walleyes. If you can find the bait fish the big pike won't be far behind.

Fall: Fall is very exciting time to fish for pike. Basically they will stay near their summer haunts for a while, and then start moving shalower as the water cools. I basically try to cover as much area as I can until I find a pattern to work so I generally troll in the same manner I trolled during the summer. I start at my favorite summer spots and try to follow the fish as they move to the shallower weedy bays. If I can find a good funneling spot I will often sit and deadbait.

If you have more specifics about where and when you fish I might be able to help a little more. My recomendations would be to take along some of the stuff I mentioned and then ask the resort or local bait shops what they recomend before you go. Every lake has a few hot presentaions, but that doesn't mean that other presentaions won't work as good or better. I would start out doing what the locals are doing and then when you have some confidence on what the fish are doing I would try some other things. If you have any questions about pike fishing please let me know, I'll try to help if I can.

Solarfisher00

[northern pike man]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Solarfisher what type of trailers are yu using on your jigs and spoons? and what size jigs do you use. I am going to a lake north of Kenora about 50 miles. greenish water and will be there starting july first for a week.Any more ideas?

[Neal/CO]

Try the new Bass Pro squirmin Shads! Or Jumbo pork rinds around 6 inchs long!

[solarfisher00]

For the silver minnows I like to use 3 or 4 inch twister tails. I prefer white powerbait, but it depends on the color of the spoon. We have a lot of ciscos and shinners in our lake so I use a lot of silver colored baits, but Ive had great luck with really bright colored baits like clown, and even pink. For the jigs there are a lot of things to use. The March 2002 issue of Infisherman has an article about jig fishing for pike. They also had an article on fishing postspawn pike which is what you will most likely be fishing. Here are an In-Fisherman article that will give you an idea of what types of jigs to use. http://www.in-fisherman.com/asp/p_article.asp?PageID=3&PubID=1&Year=2000&IsCurrent=False&ArticleID=310&ArticlePageID=1

There is a lot more in the March issue so try to pick it up.

This type of jig http://secure.ionflash.com/muskyshop/product.asp?product_ID=2184 works well too. I like to tip it with a minnow looking plastic like a fin-S fish.