Where to fine the big ones?

[hagstah]

What do you guys think about this? I was pike fishing one day, and I caught approx 20 or so. They were generally all pretty small.........18"-24" or so. My question is, when targeting larger fish ( of course ) is it better to find another area where there aren't as many small ones and maybe get a nice one? Or will the larger fish 'mix in' with the smaller ones in the lake or certain area of the lake.
     I know there are/were larger fish in the lake. I fish in a very large group on an annual icefishing weekend.
                               the first rule about pike club, is there is no pike club.

[deadsmelthead]

I think it really depends on what time of the year it is and what kind of natural bait the lake has to offer. I target them very little open water I really just like targeting them through the ice. I have caught some nice ones using Perch on one particular lake. I typical fish them on the outskirts of a weed bed that perch are shacking up in. I usually fish these areas parralel to shore at differnt depths. Some of the best areas for bigger Pike on this lake, I have found are where you have this scenario right on top of shore or just off an island. I would consider a bigger pike on this lake to be in the 12-15 lb range. I have caught a couple around 17lbs and a the pig in my avatar fishing for them like this... But like I have said that is the lake I fish for them. I think it can really varry from one lake to another.

If meadow reply to this listen to what he' got to say the guy catches some monster, excuse me AVERAGES some monsters. But I bet he fishes for them a completely different way and so will other guys.

[oleike]

I think it really depends on what time of the year it is and what kind of natural bait the lake has to offer. I target them very little open water I really just like targeting them through the ice. I have caught some nice ones using Perch on one particular lake. I typical fish them on the outskirts of a weed bed that perch are shacking up in. I usually fish these areas parralel to shore at differnt depths. Some of the best areas for bigger Pike on this lake, I have found are where you have this scenario right on top of shore or just off an island. I would consider a bigger pike on this lake to be in the 12-15 lb range. I have caught a couple around 17lbs and a the pig in my avatar fishing for them like this... But like I have said that is the lake I fish for them. I think it can really varry from one lake to another.

If meadow reply to this listen to what he' got to say the guy catches some monster, excuse me AVERAGES some monsters. But I bet he fishes for them a completely different way and so will other guys.

Not trying to speak for MPikeman...but the reality of it is MP fishes in waters/ice with way less fishing pressure. I guarantee you this is one of the biggest reason for MPs success. Not to take anything away from the knowledge he has learned but I happen to live in the same great province that he does and i too can speak from second hand expeirience. I do not chase those giant pike like he does but can tell you that there are many swimming these waters this size. Lets just look at amount of lakes we have with hardly any fishing pressure. Then lets look at the size of this province. We are 4 times the size of NYS with only 1 million people living here. Out of those 1 million people only a small percentage actually ingages in ice fishing for pike. Most guys that chase these larger pike end up tossing them right back into the icy waters so they can grow even bigger. Hardly any are kept. Things are changing though as more and more people come up from the USA and neighbouring provinces to say they had a chance to fish gods country.It is truly a fishermans haven.

[deadsmelthead]

Yeah , I know that was kinda my point. there are going to be a few different views. They will vary from region to region and probably even lake to lake.

[SENOB57]

Kellogg Bay, Where we always go !!!   I see your trying to get some inside info to win the pool this year.  I'll see you at Phil's or the Ground Round for the meeting
Later,
Bones

[hagstah]

Whassup Bones? Yeah I'll see ya next Friday.
             Yeah I hear what you guys are saying, but What I wanna know is this basically, would the larger pike be with the smaller ones or would they have a different type of area to hang around in? say to the outer edge of the flat where the smaller ones are? maybe closer to the dropoff  of the flat? a different part of the lake alltogether? etc

[oleike]

I live near and fish a very large lk. that has some real big pike.(30lb)
I just struck off one day accross the lk. on my ice skates and sleigh and drilled a hole on the slow side of a point on the up current side of a small bay....I had a shack so i was able to see down the hole.These fish are notorious for turning on at 10:30ish and again at 4:30ish....so there i was sitting... waiting....then all of a sudden out of nowhere these pike of all different sizes come out of the depths and into this bay to feed. There were fish from 3lbs all the way up to giants. Within an hr. it was all over. What i can tell you is that i was on a gradual drop off with a light sand bottom so i was able to see the fish very good in about 12ft. This lake is an old ravine that has been flooded...the fish can go as deep as 100ft in this particular part of the lake....although i doubt they do. I am sure they have no cover where i was set up so i am sure they are just somewhat deeper into cover and move back and forth from cover to the bay to feed. The other thing i can tell you is that at the depth i seen them (12ft) the larger fish were right tight along the bottom...the medium sized fish were halfway up...and the smaller fish were near the top...now of coarse this would change as soon as they got into the shallows (4ft) to feed. Finding these pike taught me a good lesson on how to set up in a transition area though. Transition meaning ..when the fish were transitioning from deep water to shallow. Perhaps this might be a clue as to why you are not finding bigger fish hagstah. Either you are fishing near the top with smaller fish present or you need to find them in or near where the fish are bedded ...it is so tough to figure out as every lake is different.

First ...find out if your lk., that you fish , is a oligotrophic...mesotro phic....or eutrophic. Then get your self a good thermometer. Know that smaller pike can live in a much broader range of water temp. but that larger pike need cooler,more oxygenated water. There are a lot of little factors that make it difficult to answer your question. Get to know the lake you fish. Is it deep ..is it shallow.Does the sun shine through the ice and provide more growth/oxygen.Most lakes reverse during winter with the warmer water being near the bottom and cooler water near the top.The truth of the matter is that usually a small % of water will hold the marjority of the pike...that said...we see how important finding that small area really is.Hope this helps.

[hagstah]

Thanks Oleike,
        yes very helpful answer. My situation is that its at a pond in an area I travel very far to get to. Its an annual trip with a large group. So we go every year, and not always to the same pond. As it turns out there was a large fishkill a few years ago at this particular pond, due to im guessing, the oxygen levels withthe verry thick white ice that year.
            It's a pond I don't know too well, 200 acres, deepest hole about 9 ft on the pond. I was set up on a point of an island which was in the general area of a streamflow thru marsh into the pond. I was setup in about 4-6 ft of water near the 9 ft trough and was slammin em all day long. I am wondering if I would be better off ( in general) to leave fish to find (bigger) fish. But from what you told me in previous post, that if its a good feeding area the big ones will interact with the smaller ones.

[SENOB57]

Hagstah,

I'm going to try something this year I just read about in this forum and it kinda makes sense.  Some guys were talking about seeing people with poles pulling up weeds from below the hole.  One guy recommended using an old chimmney sweep brush (which I have) to snag the weeds and pull them up to create an opening in the weeds for your bait to swim around in.  I have found that if I don't get a flag in a reasonable amount of time and I reset my baits I will usually have a flag very shortly.  This is because the bait was able to hide in the vegitation.  I think this will keep the bait from being able to hide in the weeds and it may increase the odds of a predator seeing it.  It was also suggested that by doing this that it disturbes the food sources on the botton thus attracting smaller bait fish and perch to the area to feed, making it a desirable area for the pike also to feed.  The down side is it takes about 10-15 minutes for the water to settle and clear.

[SENOB57]

Hagstah,

***Part two.  I posted before I was done or spell checked 

Just think about some of the places we've been and how thick the weeds were coupled with shallow water.  Like I said I think I'm going to give it a try.  If it works we can have the rookies de-weed the holes for everyone.  LOL
Later,
Bones

[FishinAddiction]

The old rule of thumb is that you do not leave fish to find fish. The big ones are there. I would start with upping my bait size if you can. This should weed out some of them smaller ones. The small ones will take the large bait every once and a while. But generally they will not have enough courage to eat it. Something is holding a fish there. The big ones should be lurking around. Give it a shot.

[oleike]

yes fishaddiction...good idea uping the bait size also...now another thing ive come upon is the fact that fish attract fish so yes...i do believe the big ones are there and i honestly believe the bigger ones will follow the smaller ones into feeding areas. With walley's it seems the bigger ones will lurk just beyond the main school. Im not sure if this is a shy behaviour or what ...probably more due to the fact that bigger fish will eat less...I allways akin it to older fish being similar to old people and need less food when they hit the nursing home.....but it seems the bigger ones will lurk just a bit deeper than the rest of the fish on some occasions. If we were not so stupid we would put on our diving gear and really learn what is going on down there.hehe

[hagstah]

Thanx guys,
             You confirmed what I really thought about that, it's kinda funny. Here I am 4-5 years later wondering id I shoulda coulda do it over again would I change tactics. Oh yeah, my biggest fear is ALWAYS leaving fish to find fish. Worst mistake a fisherman can make. I agree with the bait thing too, thats a super idea.
         Bones, yeah I saw that article too! about the clearing the weeds thing. Maybe we should keep that between us and not tell the other 40 guys? hehehehe    see ya Friday.
                           
                     

[JCaughtem]

What do you guys think about this? I was pike fishing one day, and I caught approx 20 or so. They were generally all pretty small.........18"-24" or so. My question is, when targeting larger fish ( of course ) is it better to find another area where there aren't as many small ones and maybe get a nice one? Or will the larger fish 'mix in' with the smaller ones in the lake or certain area of the lake.
     I know there are/were larger fish in the lake. I fish in a very large group on an annual icefishing weekend.
                               the first rule about pike club, is there is no pike club.

Remember the largest fish are the females.So the smaller fish will be looking towards spawing season and a food source.Also the big fish are more savy maybe even caught before []

presentation

  is key they are probably right under your nose.

[AirManCam]

Use bigger bait?

[ebrooks22]

iv caught all sizes together jus put diffrent size minnows on diffrent tipups

[farmboy]

All my pike over 40 inches have come out of areas where I have broken away from the beaten path or group of anglers that drive out to their permanent shacks that are parked on the same spot year after year.  I look for any subtle change in depth, change in weed type or anything that is unique.  Also invest in a good gps, this will save you so much time.  Sometimes you find a very small piece of structure like a curve or point on a main lake drop or channel that produces good numbers of big fish.  I'm sure many anglers will agree that usually a guy has one really good hole that out-produces the rest by a lot.  Sometimes this hole is on the edge of a weed clump, boulder, log, or small hump but it's just enough structure to make it unique and produce some hogs.  If you can't pin point mark it, it's extremely tough to find again, and is very time-consuming to try and find it again.  Drill lots of holes and I also like to spread my tip ups as far apart as regulations allow, trying to find the active fish and cover as much area as possible.  And when targeting big pike go with the quick-strike rigs.  Just my two cents.

[WPT]

All my pike over 40 inches have come out of areas where I have broken away from the beaten path or group of anglers that drive out to their permanent shacks that are parked on the same spot year after year.  I look for any subtle change in depth, change in weed type or anything that is unique.  Also invest in a good gps, this will save you so much time.  Sometimes you find a very small piece of structure like a curve or point on a main lake drop or channel that produces good numbers of big fish.  I'm sure many anglers will agree that usually a guy has one really good hole that out-produces the rest by a lot.  Sometimes this hole is on the edge of a weed clump, boulder, log, or small hump but it's just enough structure to make it unique and produce some hogs.  If you can't pin point mark it, it's extremely tough to find again, and is very time-consuming to try and find it again.  Drill lots of holes and I also like to spread my tip ups as far apart as regulations allow, trying to find the active fish and cover as much area as possible.  And when targeting big pike go with the quick-strike rigs.  Just my two cents.

Sounds like you fish them pretty much the same way as me.  And I agree 100% about the subtle bottom changes that can make one hole outproduce all others, on my last trip I had one hole that produced pike and one that produced burbot and all the other holes we had tip ups in had maybe one or two fish each where as we caught 4 trophy pike out of one hole and 2 trophy burbot out of another, so a GPS is definitely key in finding those holes again.

[7 plus larry]

I would say bigger baits and stay by the weedlines.good luck

[keepah seekah]

i'll put in my 2 cents. GPS def. helps. the size of yer bait will help to. when on the hardwater after pike i use no smaller then 6 inch bait. sometimes i'll even go as far as puttin on a sucker that's 14" long. if im by myself, i will usually bait 2 or 3 traps with shiners, and 2 or 3 traps with suckers (state law for maine is 5 traps). and i always have one trap set with dead bait, usually just stomp on one and send him down the hole and let him set. i've had days when nothin but dead bait would produce. hope this helps, but everyone has their own way that produces. just have to find what works for you. good luck!

[WPT]

Big bait is definitely key for big pike in the winter.  They want to put out the least amount of energy for the most amount of food.  A 2 lb pike will hit a 6" cisco or a 12" cisco, but a 20 lber is going to ignore the 6" bait.  Usually, obviously not always.  But I've found the best big pike baits are the ones you have to thread down the hole because they won't fit when they are horizontal.