Canada Fishing - Big Pike

[reconssd]

Every year my fishing group takes a trip to Canada. Catching numbers of fish is great, but it would be nice to catch some big pike on a regular basis too. We have gone as far north as Woman Lake. I have been doing some research for next years trip, and Red Lake comes up as a great fishery. However, it is a considerable drive. Are there any lakes closer to the border that still have great fishing for big pike? When I say big, I am talking about fish that are 40+. We fished LOTW this year and had fantastic numbers of fish, but we didn't see anything above 36". Everyone in our group practices CPR - catch photo release, so putting the big ones back is priority number one. Any information any of you could share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and good luck on the water.

[dutchboy]

I also look for big Pike.
I just returned from a trip to Rainy Lake where I was told to fish deep. Look for the bait fish and the trophy Pike will be near by. The trade off in looking for trophy's is that your numbers will go down. Seems you have a choice, quality or quanity.

Then again, fall fishing is when they put the feed bag on and you should be able to locate that trophy most anywhere.

Good luck and post a photo when you get your trophy!!

Brian Hoffies

[River_eye]

The quantity or quality comes more from lake fishing, Try fishing the winnipeg river, where you'll find both.

Big pike prefer colder water so they do spend most of their time down deep in the summer, although for some reason, the flowing water of the river keeps them shallow in the bays for a higher percentage of time, as opposed to a lake.

I'm a guide that has worked at more than a few lodges in NW ontario and manitoba, I mostly guide on fly-outs or LOTW because I live south of Nestor falls now, but my favourite lodge over the years for numbers and quality of big pike has to be Eagle Nest lodge on the winnipeg river, and the pike fishing has been getting better and better, due to new slot limits for walleyes.

check out this posting and pics from another eagle nest guide.

http://looneybeaver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7092

more eagle nest pike

http://looneybeaver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6911

still more

http://looneybeaver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6903

If this is what is happening so far this year, I can't believe what the fall will be like, because dutchboy is right, fall pike fishing is even better

[ankorklankor]

I fish Cross Bay, Cedar Lk in northern MB. We normaly fish walleyes but take at least one day to target northerns. There are several shallow bays where the sizes range from "hammer handles" to 40"+. In June 05 three of us caught between 50 - 60 northers in one day with numerous over 35" and the biggest was 42". Biggest northern for the trip was caught by an 14 year old at 43". This year the numbers were about the same but the number of 35"+ fish was up. My personal record was three casts and hooked up a 37, 43, and 35. We caught so many big "snot rockets" that the vinyl floor in my ProV was slippery to walk on. It was a great day.

There are several fish camps on Cross Bay but we stay at Moak Lodge. Not real plush but at $25. CN a day you can't beat it.

[ChuckE]

I have to agree that big pike and musky fishing at Minaki on the Winnepeg river has gotten better over the past 3 years or so. I also suspect the walleye slot and catch limits on the Winnepeg have a lot to do with it.

This year my partner and I caught over 40 big northern (>+36") fishing the river and big-deeper lakes off the Winnepeg over a 2 week period. The biggest northern was 44" and the biggest musky was 48". However, most were not caught beating the banks (like we normally do for smallies), they were caught trolling deeper cranks over open water, snap-jigging plastic minnow baits and large 5" tubes on deep structure humps and points (15-28'), and slow rolling chatterbaits/spinnerbaits on the outside of deeper weedlines or vertical ledges off of main lake shorelines in 10-15' of water. (However, this year the season appeared to be about 4 weeks earlier than most years, while we were there.) We'd often see small groups of 3 or 4 fish grouped together on the sonar, and would specifically target them as previously described.

We did have some success at catching some larger northern by targeting small isolated islands, that had very-very small coves located near deep water. (Some of these small coves were nothing more than a dent on the side of an island that had a few reeds on a shallower ledge, with lots of rock and other structure on a side of the island in the area. Many were not more than 20 to 30' wide, but a typical island may have 3 or 4 coves of this type.) We'd quickly target these areas and then would move to the next island, usually picking up a nice large northern (and occassional musky) every-other island or so (but also catching a few smaller northern and big smallies at just about every island). It's a lot of work "island hopping", but we've had a little higher success rate for big fish doing this, since most of these small islands are overlooked by many anglers. We'd cast shad raps, mepps spiners, chatter baits and even tubes to the cove shoreline and would often catch some nice smallmouth too. [We've used this method over the past 20+ years at Minaki, and is a good method to pick up a few bigger fish in Big Sand, Little Sand and Rough Rock lakes and on the river itself (especially South of Minaki)]. Some of the islands even have shallower saddles between them, where the water drops off very quickly on either side, and they always hold a few big fish in or just off the saddle.

Chuck

[reconssd]

Thanks for all of the information. I never thought about rivers before, but it certainly is on my radar now. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. I really appreciate it and so does my fishing party. Thanks again and be safe on the water.