Pike help!

I need help getting set up for pike. I have been trying to talk her into getting into muskie fishing but the startup cost is so high, we haven’t done it. We did purchase two guide series muskie rods that were on clearance two winters ago so we could try it out before spending a lot of money on rods. But after looking at reels, a new net, baits…well we haven’t purchased anything else. My fiancé caught a 36 inch Northern on Red Lake while trolling for Walleyes a couple weeks ago and now she is hooked. She finally agreed that this is something we should get into. Well with our impending wedding in August, we don’t have the cash to get right now so we are (so I thought) waiting until next year. We leave for Canada on Saturday to chase some smallies around. She informed me that she also wants to go after Northerns (the lake has 10+lbs). She was grabbing some huge baits that she wanted to buy and I said they were too big for our current equipment. We both have medium spinning rods. So she wanted me to explain why baitcasters are better than spinning reels and why her current set up isn’t good. I tried to explain but in reality I don’t totally know why. So now she wants to get a medium-heavy baitcasting or spinning setup. I’m telling her maybe we should instead use one of those muskie rods since we don’t really have the cash right now, but I am wondering if that would be too big of equipment because every Northern sure isn’t going to be a 10+ pounder. Plus it would only be used on Northerns for now until I am able to upgrade my net, wire cutters, etc. I’m trying to convince her that her current setup will work fine, but then she starts to question about what baits she would use that wouldn’t be too big for her current setup but good for Northerns…please help.

I can’t believe I am the one trying to be sensible about buying fishing equipment, but I have also seen how much this wedding is costing us. Part of me thinks I should take advantage of the opportunity and splurge on getting everything I need, but I also know that when she wants to get a new pair of shoes and I mention the cost of the wedding, the fishing equipment will be used against me!

Also, today is our 4 year anniversary of being together. She thinks this should be her present, where as my present is Wagner power painter system so I can stain our deck and fence. Is this what I have to look forward to, she get cool gifts and I get gifts to work around the house? I would rather be getting a new rod and reel.

should of put that foot down 3 years and 11 months ago

Congrats on the four years. I’m sorry to hear about the up coming wedding though

Currently I have been pulling in 30″ pretty consistanly I can’t help my self it’s like an addiction. I currently have a Shimanno Spirex spin set up on a medium action rod. Not my dream set up but it’s been working pretty well for me. I feel like I need to have my drag set a little loser than I would like at times, however I have only loss 2 so far this year and that was at the boat because of a less than perfect hook set, and the lack of a net

I’m not sure of why a baitcast is better than a spin, however I feel like I can’t put as much muscle into my spin, as I can my friends baitcast. It feels more sturdy. I bet one of the muskie guys will have this answer.

As far as bait goes, I would load up on a few colors of the Jointed shad rap #7 size if the lable on the box doesn’t say JSR7 it’s just not worth it. over 20 have just pounded on 3 of the lures in the past week and ahalf alone. they’ll bite other things but they will bite twice as much if not more on the JSR and the 7 is a good size at 2 3/4″ here are a few other recomendations for bait form another post.

If you don’t have a jointed rap, five of diamonds spoon, rattle trap, red and white spinner bait, just stay home.

Congrats on the up coming wedding, and yes this is what the rest of your life will be like.

I believe your spinning rod and reel at the moment should do fine for northerns, if your on a budget. Musky rods kind of takes the fun out of pikes due to the stronger backbone/stiffness of the rod. You feel the strike then they come in too ez, especially when I’m fishing a Heavy ski rod. I think the real difference depends on how you like to be set up. You can cast better with baitcaster set up but it will take time to get used too if you aren’t experienced with a baitcaster, will get ugly on you fast. I also think the drag system is better on a baitcast, meaning it will be more durable than a spincast for larger fish. It can also take more pressure than a spincast reel. Although I’m not an expert. As for bait, Deluxe has it covered. Other than that I’d recommend chucking Mepp’s Musky Marabou in Black with the silver blade. Dang marabou has never given me a ski yet. But it has provided nonstop northern action + an occassional upper class bass. Anything musky spinner type bucktail or marabou in the smaller version will keep northerns on with a chance to hook up w/ a ski. Fish it medium fast to burning and it will sure put you on northerns.

deluxe247 is right on with that. I’m heading to Canada on Sunday and that is what is in my box. light grear is fun with the pike. I would put power pro line on the reels.

your first option would be to convince her to elope and take all that money you save and buy a bunch of fishing stuff, new boat,rods, reels everything.(this is a long shot)
secondly about the gifts, get use to it, it’s just a fact of life.
now on to your question, sunday i was at a local river doing some shore fishing for nort’s and caught a 36″ fish,(just shy of 13#) i was using a med. action rod with an old abu garcia reel spooled with 10# test line, i was casting a spinner bait(the ones you use for bass) and i had no problem landing this fish.
this is my usual northern set up(although a stiffer rod may be desired if trolling)
the main thing is that your equipment be good working order.

P.S. congrats on the up coming wedding

Tell your wedding guests that you are both fisherpeople and tell them you are registered at Gander or like Gander Gcards or elsewhere. If you buy quality stuff and take care of it. It will last for years. It would suck to loose a huge pike in Canada due to too light equipment.

I forgot my other suggestion, If you can use live bait, find some good 8″+ suckers, and hook them up on a live bait harness, and give that troll if you aren’t getting hits on anything else. That seems to work well too.

Oh trust me; I worked the eloping angle very hard. I almost had her convinced to do that but she couldn’t get past the little issue of having her dad walk her down the aisle. I’m not sure why she wouldn’t rather have fishing equipment?

Thanks for all the input. I have a lot of that those baits already and have caught a lot of little northerns on the jointed shad raps. We caught several last year while fishing for smallies, but I wasn’t sure if actually targeting them if I needed something else. You know, bigger bait = bigger fish.

Her medium rod actually has a pretty soft tip, almost a medium-light rod. Maybe I will look into upgrading that for now.

Thanks again!

If you have any chatter baits for smallies, add a white or chartruese 5-inch K-Grub and chuck-n-wind for pike. They have a hard time resisting a chatter bait and the K Grub adds bulk for the larger pike. Have fun!

Ohhhh I never thought of that. Dang just another thing to try this weekend. look at that not even my own post and I’m learning something new.

Thanks for all the input. We mostly fished for smallies, but when we targeted the pike we caught a bunch around 25”. The best of the week was this 39incher caught on a husky jerk while fishing for bass. It was a lot of fun on my medium spinning rod.

Now that’s a nice looking fish. I need to get myself one of those. Sounds like a good time.

Just a thought, if your rods are like bucktail action say 7 feet. Buy a couple of 5500 c Garcia’s for around a 100 bucks then you will have a great pike and good light musky setup. Buy mono at first and learn to cast, you will have backlash’es but dont give up. finish your cast with a vertical reel, handle up , less chance of back lash.I wish you Luck. Maybe if my wife fished we would still be married, then maybe not