IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Colorado => Ice Fishing Colorado => Topic started by: metalhed on Dec 26, 2006, 06:12 PM
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Greetings Any special pike theories? Tarryall has pike in the 12-20 inch range. Locals say to use the same baits as trout. Small suckers or parts of sucker should work. Should the bait be on a regular hook, big tube jig, spoon??
And how do you clean and eat these guys?
Thanks
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The pike at taryall are caught mostly with small spoons and tubes, Trout stuff.. As far as using suckers, the best way to hook a sucker or a water dog is with a quickstrike rig.. Its 2 treble hooks on a wire leader, 1 stationary hook, and one that slides.Hook the stationary hook right behind the head where the scales start, and the sliding hook just behind the dorsal fin, so the baits sits horizantal , looks life like....If your looking for pike at Taryall try jigging a white tube or a gold Kastmaster, jig pretty agressive...
As far as cleaning them, you deffinatley want to fillet them, pike, especially small pike have lots and lots of bones, there easy to get out if you fillet them... Many people think pike are trash fish, but they are great to eat, way better than a trout in my oppinion, there a white meat fish like walleye, crappie, etc...
My favorite way to cook pike is deep frying them. Cut them into small steaks, put them in beatter, and deep fry em..... MMMMM GOOD.
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Hammerhandle pike (up to 24") are awesome tasting fish. They're still a good tasting fish when larger but tastier small.
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colorado is right about eating them.
I've amassed a lot of experience catching pike through the ice here in colorado. Generally, you should try depths from 7-12 feet, with the bait usually about a foot off of the bottom. DON'T USE WIRE IN OUR STATE!!! Use heavy floro as your leader, 20-30 lb test at least. Set the tipups off of weeds or points or inside turns in coves...but generally focus on using the shoreline structure to your advantage. Tipups are your friend!
TFB's choices for icing pike through the ice on the west slope:
1) Rifle Gap: A fairly new pike fishery with some fish over 10#, not a lot, but there are plenty of 20-24" also...size potential is here at least.
2) Harvey Gap: A declining pike fishery for numbers. Most of the fish left are very large. The fish here are extremely well fed, extremely smart, and extremely pressured. But when you finally get one here, it is almost always a nice one.
3) Crawford: A lot of medium sized pike, and some larger fish over 40" exist.
4) Stagecoach: A lot of small, medium, and large pike. The large pike can be difficult to find.
5) Rio Blanco: A lot of small pike, and some large ones have been relocated from the yampa (the ones that weren't killed anyway). One fish, according to a game warden last year, was 54" and relocated to rio blanco from the yampa.
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Hey TFB - I knew that you'd chime in on this one!
Good luck this weekend!
Colorado
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I'm also hoping to go after pike for the first time soon. Hope to go sometime in the next week. While researching, I found this good video about how to fillet them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSGvrzjQjs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSGvrzjQjs)