pike fishing

[pike master]

what depth would u suggest fishing for pike and how far off the bottom would u fish it

[northdease]

it depends on where you are fishing (lake) i am still pulling them out of two feet of water and have caught them in 10 feet of water. i usually put my bait right in the middle of the water colum. i always fished 1 foot off the bottom but after reading some post on here i have had better success moving my bait up.

[J_MAKI]

Points humps and saddles in the 12-20 ft range surrounded by deeper water. If you can find a transitional area, like sand to gravel, all the better. I usually present my baits about 6- 12 in off bottom, I know alot of guys lay them on bottom. I will walk around checking my tip-ups every 20 min or so with the vex. Lots of times there are fish down there just looking at the bait.

Good Luck

Jeremy

[pike master]

thanks for the info norhdease and jeremy

[grumpymoe]

the lake I have the shanty on, is producing in the shallows...1-2' of water over healthy weedbeds......and we have been doing very well in 16' of water...clean bottom and working live bait anywhere from 6 inches to 2' or more off bottom....this pattern will likely continue through the hardwater season....Grump

[iceintheveins]

I do best concentrating on points and inside turns inside bays, especially at early ice. The best depth is 8 - 15 feet and about one foot off the bottom.
During midwinter pike will often move to over 20 feet deep just outside the bays but still adjacent to them. You will have best success one foot off the bottom unless your lake has a lot of suspending baitfish.

[fishnut]

That's odd, because I always find them right underneith the ice surface in early winter right after freeze up.  I guess it varies from lake to lake.  Most of the lakes I have fished in do not have suspended baitfish.

[Water Wolf]

These guys all have great info, with pike you have keep moving until you find them. They may be deep like 15-30 feet or they may be as shallow a 2 feet. Some of my largest pike came from only 3 feet of water under the ice. In that case I just hung the bait a foot of the bottom and it was mid water. I usually try some lures near the bottom say a foot and some under the ice and let the fish tell you where they are most active at. I always try and find structure when pike fishing be it "healthy" green weeds, rocks, logs, edges of steep drop offs points and sudden holes in the bottom.
They are usually some of the most active fish during the winter months, so keep moving and changing lures and tactics until you find the right combo.

WW

[Haywood]

I usually go 10 feet or less and make sure I am over weeds.  Then I spread my baits at different depths, above the weeds.  I usually make sure to have one, close to the ice too.  Pike will occasionally cruise the top of the water looking for dead and injured fish that have floated to the top.

[J_MAKI]

What type of lowrance do you have?  Is it the icemachine or just your standard LCD? The advantages of a LED flasher is it works percfect in any temp, longer battery life and there is no delayed readouts. With the vex fish appear as colored lines, the bigger the fish the heavier the line but you also have to take into account postion within the cone. A big fish towards the edge of the cone could look the same size as a minnow. IMO a flasher is far supeior to convential LCD for ice fishing. Alot of guys say you don't need them and they cost too much but then when your fishing with them they are always asking you to come check out their hole when your catching  fish and they're not From what I have been reading I think you may want to look at a marcum I kind of like the idea of having the abitlity to zoom in on any portion of the water colum you want to. I have an FL8 though and have had no problems what so ever, its just that with the wife and 3 kids one flasher just isn't enough. Fishing and hunting sure does get expensive when you have to buy 5 times of everything LOL

[iceintheveins]

In good areas I will give my tip ups two hours. If I don't get any flags I will move them. In areas I'm not sure on or haven't caught fish in past trips in, I will give them about an hour.
The best advice I can offer is that if fishing lakes without heavy weedgrowth, concentrate on points and turns within bays. If you can get close to a flowing inlet, thats great too. Watch for thin ice in inlet areas though.
Pike are definately structure oriented. They will be anywhere there are lots of small fish to eat. In my lakes that means perch and other panfish. So humps, rock bars, and other areas are excellent areas.
Never pass up prominent points or inside turns though. They almost always hold pike.

[GAMBELL]

I fish a drop off that starts in 8 feet of water and bottoms out in 25 feet of water.  I put tip ups along the top of the drop and at the bottom of the drop off.  The pike seem to come up out of the deeper water to feed in the shallows.  I have tried the 25 foot flat with very little success.  I have also tried shallower on this same lake with some success.  Structure is what you want to fish.  Anything like a subtle hump, point, weeds, or drop offs.  If you have a lake or bay with vrey little structure, look for the most subtle changes in depth. 

[esox slayer]

I generally start out 4 feet off the bottom to clear the weeds.  If I can locate a ledge where the water drops off I set some tipups on both the shallow and deep, but I most often target the weedbeds and fish both above them and on the edges.  In some lakes up here finding the edge of the bed is almost impossible though, especially some of the inland lakes.

The pike bite has been terrible up north here for the past 3 days or so, I've been trying varying my depths in an effort to locate them, but the flags are few and far between.  I say the weather has got them unsettled, yesterday there was a lot of open water on the big waters of Jefferson county and a week ago there was ice on all of it.  I see some reports from St Lawrence county that the pike bite has dropped off.

Making a couple "special" rigs for tomorrows fishing, if they work I'll pass them along, if they don't then you'll not hear about it.....if I tell you before I try it out you may be laughing so hard you won't be able to fish tomorrow.....

[Rangerclay]

I ilike to fish in coves where weed beds are found.  I like to fish a foot off bottom or a foot above the weeds.  I like big minnows for big pike.

Ranger