IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Northern Pike => Topic started by: TackleTester on Jan 16, 2005, 10:34 PM
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I can't catch a pike for anythink. Can someone please give me just some casual tips because I must be doing something wrong? Thanks in advance. Appreciate it.
Catch em up
Brian
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First things first.....Do they live in the lake you are fishing? ???
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Where do you live? It may be as simple as where you live because around me (colorado) pike are nearly impossible to ice and in a couple of lakes with a bunch of them, a pike has never been iced before. Do you live in high elevation?
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I live in..........Indiana :'(. Yes there are pike in the lake I am fishing. See, the fishing in Indiana is so bad that you really can't catch anything with any consistency so my dad and I have a theory. You might as well not catch pike and muskies as not catch bluegill and bass. At least this way, if we do catch something it is worth it. I mean, we fish 250 days a year, whether it be here in Indiana, Canada, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, or Michigan, but we only ice 7 or 8 tiems a year so we are not as familiar with this type of fishing. Thanks a bunch. Appreciate it.
Catch em up
Brian
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TackleTester,
If you just scroll through all the posts in this Northern Forum, you will find some outstanding tips for catching Northerns. Anything from type of tackle, time of day, type of bait, hooking bait, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. Pay particular attention to posts from guys like Bob D (AKA Esox), Tipup and several others who specialize in Pike and are excellant Pike hunters. We dont always all agree on some of the finer details and have our own ways of doing things but the key is, if you find info in here, it is working for somebody and is probably good advise. Hope this helps and dont give up.
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Well to start, look over all the info here for good info.Bob knows his Esox pretty well. Not knowing your body of water your fishing, I would start shallow 3-6ft of water in areas that you know have weeds in the summer.Set out a few tipups preferably with Fluro leaders.And bait up with some shiners hooked behind the dorsal fin.If pike are there then you should be able to find them there.I prefer fishing a few inches below the ice.There are so many different opinons when it comes to Pike fishing that makes it hard to determine what works best for you.You just have to try anything and keep at it.
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Yeah, thanks guys. I mean I know my esox very well.......I've caught thousands of pike....just not through the ice. Didn't know if there were and major differences in wintering holes. Thanks again
Catch em up
Brian
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I would fish in shallower areas near any weededges you can find, in about 10 - 16 feet of water. If you can't find any weedbeds, fish off of mainlake points or on flats near inflowing water. Pike can move to deeper flats with rock cover though later in the year.
Spool your tip ups with 15 pound HT Polar Vinyl Coated tip up line. Use a barrel swivel and tie on a leader of P - Line Fluorocarbon leader, preferrably at least 15 pound test but hopefully heavier. You will get the occasional bite off, but shy pike will strike when they won't hit something that has a wire leader.
I bait tip ups with dead anchovies in the 5 - 7" range. Live bait often works better though, but you can't use it where I fish. Live suckers, panfish, or other baitfish work great in the same size range and bigger, but when fishing livebaits, put a couple split shot on close to the bait so they won't swim all the over the place, but rather struggle in place. Check your regs first though.
Tyler
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Mackdaddy21,
My wire leader is thinner than your flouro leader and just as invisible in the water. Wire leader is not necassarily a turn off for line shy fish. It depends on its makeup, diameter, color and flexability. I use the same wire leader to catch walleye, pike and lakers. It is a 30 lb test titanium, .011 diameter wire which is the same line diameter as 10 lb Berkley Vanish. 30 lb flouro is exactly twice the diameter at .022. My point is that all wire leaders are not created equal and some will perform as well as mono.
http://www.malinco.com/fishing/boa.html
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Yeah I am still looking into small, thin wire like the titanium and also sevenstrand. I am going to experiment with it.
Tyler
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I had a thread on bluegills for bait that I just revisited. If you can use them there, they're deadly for pike. Mainly, if you can use a fish from the same water you're fishing (legally) that's half the battle. If you fish a lake with pike and there are large numbers of panfish, that's their main forage.
Best of luck! 8)