last minute northern pike ice fishing discussion

[alodar]

Ok so basically I just want to share ideas and methods with you guys to see if I can get some new information. In my experience bait out fishes lures in hard water. I do tip ups because I find it mimics winter kill better than jigging It on the rod there are times when that extra motion and flash from jigging bait or lures has success and it might just get that skiddish pike to strike. Now depth is a big factor, knowing where to fish when is key right now the pike are kinda all over the place as today I was catching em in 3 fow up to 27 fow that being said 15- 20 fow seems to be The best place for the larger pike at least this is what I've been experiencing. Also areas where there is a Sharp drop off and a point seem to be good places to find large.numbers of these big pike where they have access to structure and deeper water for cruising food thats easy to get to in a short distance makes a spot all the more appealing we also have to keep in mind where pike like to spawn shallow weed covered areas there are a few more factors but they tend to vary as I've read muddy areas aren't ideal as they say the eggs suffocate however I found that in a lot of lakes the areas with bullrushes seem to attract pike. Well what are your thoughts, what's been working for you, what do you think of take on hard water pike fishing and finding them.

[alodar]

Anyone got anything to add

[mike_samoil]

where have you been on too. i like a double tail or a rap with a couple large minnows

[alodar]

Well hard water I've been Wabamun isle lake and lac st Anne. I haven't tried any of my raps that sink ever I have used the storm wild eyes tho

[81critter]

Get your hands on some sinking perch coloured Raps with rattles, or two # 1 or 2 treble hooks thru a leader with a smelt rigged on, pretty deadly.

why not try a sliver spoon and put a smelt on it .

[Speckle55]

Now is the time to fish Big Pike .. pre spawn the sunlight is coming into lakes and the pike is turning into a water Wolf and are up hunting lake white's(who are feeding more too) etc so they are everywhere more,, shallows too 4 ' chasing food , putting the final touchs to eggs,, getting ready for spawn engery wise,, i use smelts .. didn,t have herring then 1985 .. in Europe they use 3 to 5 lb suckers and just sit and wait.. remember big pike will eat 1/3 of there body weight in 1 meal.. good luck

[Jwood 456]

I have had good sucess sometimes at wab by slowly jigging a large smelt on a 2ounce yellow jighead and pausing it quite often, and other days I've done poorly with this technique.

I also like using a 7ft summer rod that can handle 14 or 20lb line. The reason why I like using a rod is becuase I can detect very light strikes, the fish don't get off as easilly as on a tip up and it's more sporty than a tip up as well IMO. The downside of using a rod though, is that the rod always has to be monitered so a pike doesn't pull the setup into the lake and it also takes the right timing to properly hook them. From what I have heard the hook should be set when the fish stops running and turns the bait.

[stephane]

so far i have had far more success with my homemade tipups than jigging by hand. I have not used a full sized rod and recently picked up a 36" ice rod i have yet to try.

my tipups do provide some movement to the bait in windy conditions, but i havent noticed much difference with that.

My bait choice seems to change a lot with the average size of pike i know are in the lake, I seem to find that regardless of the large appetites of these fish the number of landed fish is reflected upon bait size. However i definately do prefer fishing with bait and bait alone in hard water. never had much luck with anything else.

[alodar]

I have seen lots of different stuff work sometimes but bait works best imo in hard water I have noticed a bit of flash at times can work but so far all of the big hard water pike I've seen came out from dead bait I think this summer I will be keeping some of my suckers for pike bait this winter

[bowhunter1]

smelt with a trebble hook works wonders in the farside of jarvis lake... 2 12lb jack pulled out that way.