My Nephew and myself will be in a local northern pike tournament this coming Saturday. The biggest prize is for the 8th smallest pike. The idea is to catch and keep a lot of small pike. One of the organizers has a recipe that involves scaling the fish and then cutting of some sort but leaving the skin on.
I catch pike only by accident so any info on how to catch a bunch of pike would be appreciated.
THX
On with the slim-a-thon!
Rippin rap burning the tops of weeds or rip jigging. Use braid and a 20# fluoro. Trolling is an easy option if you need a break.
Silver blades over the tops of weeds or white swim baits over weeds. I like the big mepps with a white or black bucktail. Bass spinner baits work, too.
Rattlin raps are another favorite.
Basically anything over weeds that has noise or flash.
I’d run 20# braid and a leader on a medium action baitcaster or spinning rig.
What lake…..sounds like a ton of fun. I love pike fishing.
On Devils Lake its hard to beat a firetiger countdown,size dependent on the depth,but would have to say all of the above are very good suggestions also.
Would reccomend trolling and covering ground have one guy troll a rapala and one guy a daredevil or mepps spoon see what’s working best. Is it a smaller deal or do you mind sharing where it’s at? This weekend bringing my brother out with his fly rod for the first time.
All you gotta do is tell the lake you’re only their for walleye and the pike should throw themselves at you.
Yes!!! 
Personally I’ve had really good luck trolling wind blown weedlines with a jig and ripple shad perch plastic when cloudy and spinner rigs with silver/gold behind bullet weights when sunny, deeper the better when sunny.
don’t forget Chatter raps!
FDR
Thanks for all the ideas!
Its a small local church tournament in the Park Rapid area.
If you need easy peezy throw a Red & White spinnerbait. A white split tail will add to the fun. Trolling the edges will get you slightly bigger fish but casting will get you more fish.
I was out fishing for Pike last weekend in Wright County. Trolling yellow/white spinner baits at 3 mph just off the weedlines was working just fine. Everyone else was too proud to switch baits and I almost ended up catching every single fish.
White spinner bait is my go to for a lot of pike. That and some spoons. Red and white spoon, 5 of diamonds, Hammered gold with orange stripe. Spinner bait or spoon you can always add a big old white K grub to them.
Find a good sized weed bed. Before the first cast say out load “this looks like a great spot for some bass or panfish”. That should bring the hammer handle pike in like crazy.
The last time I cooked northern with the patch of skin on the meat under the patch tasted terrible. I haven’t done that since.
The biggest prize is for the 8th smallest pike
I like that, kind of a cool twist to make it fun.
Good suggestions above. I like the spinnerbaits since I would be going in the weeds after them. Probably too thick for cranks or spoons. Keep it bass sized not big pike/musky stuff
One thing to remember on pike, the bigger they are the colder they like the water. Since you’re looking for hammer handles keep it shallower. 12fow or less if it were me.
I have a friend up in the Chippewa Falls area and he’s a pike guy. His all-time favorite for pike is a Strike King Rage Tail Smoking’ Rooster. Goofy sounding name I know and I often call him “Smokin’ Rooster.” Anyway he swears by it and the one day we fished together last year on the river by Alma the pike did indeed hammer them better than what I was using. He has a whole (big) Tupperware container full of them just in case they stop making them. He Texas rigs them and casts with a couple big split shots and a leader.
http://www.basspro.com/shop/en/strike-king-rage-tail-smokin-rooster
In the thick weeds might want to have a couple of surface baits with to. Those hammer handles will come up and take them just like a bass off the surface.
Tournament results…. roughly 25 anglers and cleaned 75 small pike. Slime was happening big time. Top place went to the 8th smallest pike which came in at 17.25″.
To clean and eat: Scale the fish first, fillet each side leaving the skin on but taking out the rib bones. Then starting at the head end of each fillet cut down through the meet to the skin every 1/8″ to no more than 1/4″. Continue towards the tail until you have passed all the “Y” bones. Then bread/batter and throw it in for a hot oil bath. Very very good and “0” bones!
Best bait for my boat was a bass spinner bait with a pink/chartreuse twister grub. Skirt was Black and white.
THX for the suggestions!
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