early pike questions

[allextremesfishing]

how deep should i be fishing and how big should my bait be if im serching for pike? an any other tips would be appriated.

[chillywillie]

Depends what you're fishing for.  I fish in as little as 2 feet of water to 120 feet with bait from one inch to 7 inches.

[troutnfool]

ya this seems like the wrong place for those questions   lol

[woodab17]

I don't like the deep water this time of year for Pike.  Just off weed edges are where you want to be.  As for bait size, if you are looking for just big pike then you want BIG bait.  It can't be big enough.  But with big bait you may not catch anything.  If you are just looking to catch some pike in general I would go with shiners or suckers 4-7 inches long.  As for the hook set I have never had a problem.  Just use 3/0 Gamakatsu hooks and you will not lose many on the hook set.

[TheOutdoorsman]

I hate Pike I have the hardest time getting hook sets with these fish finally just started letting them swallow it to the rear and then taking them.

You should try quick-strike rigs if you haven't already.  They look really nasty, but they grab fish without much of a hookset (you don't need to let the fish run with it), and if you rig up the bait right, they won't be hooked really deep either.

[Bigmac]

I find early pike fishing to be really good action. I try to use bait that is 6 inches or larger. I fish a few feet off bottom and if it is a weedy bottom I try to put my bait just above the weeds. I tend to fish in shallower water 10-20ft deep. Hope this helps.

[Jibber82]

If you can find it there is a great article on quick strike rigs for pike in this months In-fisherman magazine.

[keepah seekah]

quick strikerigs...i swear by them. my best luck on quickstrikes has been with dead bait. i have seagar 60# test flouro leader material with size 4 or size 6 trebles that i use for live bait. everyone has their opinions about where to fish for pike in the early season, as stated before, trial and error is best, you need to find your "confidence zone". pike can be anywhere, a good rule of thumb is to find structure like a boulder all by itself, sunken islands, rock piles, weed beds, etc. if it's BIG pike that you want, use big bait (8-12 inch) and be prepared to be bored. if it's pike in general, smaller bait will do. i tend to spilt the difference and use suckers/shiners about 5-6 inches long. hope this helps!

[PIKE FISHERMAN]

Didn't you just ask this??

Anyway, i do my best in 10' of water or less. As others have said, around weed beds, rock piles, steep drop offs ect. Any place that attracts perch or other bait fish, will guarantee the pike will be hanging around somewhere. My favoirte spots are deep weed beds with the beds 3-4' high in 10-12' FOW. I'll put a few traps right over the weeds, a few on the outsides of the weeds and go from there.

Again for bait, bigger bait is harder, but can produce bigger fish. I've often seen a pike take a 10-12" shiner 10' then drop it, come back in 30 seconds and take it again, they beat it up pretty bad before they eat it. I rarely fish with bait that big. I like 4-6". One of my friends from work (a woman) smoked us last year with 3" shiners. She caught a 12 lb, and a 7-8 lb about 30 minutes from each other.

Best advice to do your research in the summer, find the rock piles, weed beds, then go back for ice fishing.