Pike

So I had hand surgery & doc. dude and my wife say no fishing; so I’ve been watching these vids of guys fishing for pike and they have a camera down, love watching that footage (question is coming, really) So pikos are cruising around in like 10′ and the fish are halfway down, all these brillant youtube guys have their set way below the fish. Wouldn’t you want your set at 5′ or even 4.5′?
These vids are fun, bass come in, if you jig too hard they dart away, little less and its a trigger. These guys miss tons of fish too, do we all loose lots of fish that we do not see? Think with the camera you might set too soon or not force them to come up for your bait which makes it easier to spit. Anyway can’t wait to get my hand out of the bandage so I can fish. Thanks

There is one where they use a quick strike rig and a hot dog. That’s great video to watch.

I think you’d be surprised how many fish there are a round your bait that either never engage or bite so lightly you never get a chance to set the hook.

I started using the livescope this year and I had a pike check out a small spoon for about 3 minutes. If I moved the bait at all he would swim away a few feet. I held it still and he slowly inhaled it but he had stared at it for about a minute. I never felt a strike but he just slowly started swimming away with it.

Amazing to see this happen and change my perception on how fish behave.

Sorry about your surgery Tim, hope you’re back at it soon.

I love pike strike videos as well. A guy can really go down a rabbit hole watching them.

Surgery went well, skipped the addictive pain killers they gave me and am sticking to beer Matt lots of people think bass and especially pike only strike hard, wow watch some vids, a pike can suck in a bait with 2 trebles and spit it out without tripping the flag.

Usually sight fish perch a couple times a winter in a lake that is loaded with pike.I have witnessed more pike strikes and reactions than I care to see.Have gotten pretty good at keeping them off the hook but still allways plan on losing some jigs.

that the best part or most fun about spearing……..watching how fish react….act down there.

same with an underwater camera……….

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I know bad pic, but week ago fishing crappie i kept seeing giant marks on vex up really high and so finally I reeled up and had my bait so high vex couldn’t read and I watched this pike barely take in my crappie jig right underneath the ice… Ive heard on LOW of big pike n eyes swimming tight to the ice, so i wonder how common it actually is?????

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Matt Moen wrote:

I think you’d be surprised how many fish there are a round your bait that either never engage or bite so lightly you never get a chance to set the hook.

I started using the livescope this year and I had a <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>pike check out a small spoon for about 3 minutes. If I moved the bait at all he would swim away a few feet. I held it still and he slowly inhaled it but he had stared at it for about a minute. I never felt a strike but he just slowly started swimming away with it.

Amazing to see this happen and change my perception on how fish behave.

I fished with someone that had livescope running for the first time the other weekend up on Red. I’ve never felt like such a bad angler. She’d be giving us play by play, “here comes a walleye, he’s looking at your bait, oh, now he’s looking at your bait! Ah now he’s swimming away!”

Can’t tell you how many times that happened. I figured that’s kind of how ice fishing went, but at least with my flashers I don’t have to know about the failure rate!

Tim, if I’m running two tip up lines for pike, I usually set one high and one low. Hope your recover is a quick one.

Thanks for the tip 14, usually I can only put out 1, so if I’m around 10′ think I would go high, like 5′ down. I have heard that giving the tippie a lift and drop can trigger fish but after watching all those vids I will make that lift slower and add a turn. If you watch closely pike and Walters really do want to take the bait head first and sometimes do not have a good angle for that move-some might be thinking well its just pike who cares? Sometimes pike save the day if you are bringing people new to ice fishing out, plus ever notice how many ice contests are won with a dang 3lb pike?
Hand is doing well but I may need some more liquid pain killer

so Tim, you put your hand where it didnt belong!!! hope recovery goes well sir!!!!!!!!

since i spend a fair amount of time in a spear shack i see all kinds of pike behavior. later on in the season you will see more pike just below the ice.

talking with a seasoned spear chucker many moons ago he said set up your house off a break, weed bed, some kind of structure, late season over 15-20 ft of water. you dont need to see the bottom, set your decoy 3-4 ft below the ice. the bigger fish will be cruising up high later in the ice season looking for an easy meal of crippled or dying fish just under the ice.

made sense to me.

when i fish crappies a never bring my bait up to those shallow marks anymore. 9 out of 10 times its a little snot rocket, there aggressive and they make a mess out of everything else you got down!!!!!

That’s good insight Glenn. It’s always fun talking with spear chuckers because they really do get to see fish behavior.

It’s funny as all get out at times. I’m glad there aren’t people close by once in a while. People might think I’m off my rocker laughing.

I’ve seen those high flyers with my sonar before. They are usually in and out pretty quick tho.

Just another reason 2d is the way to go. The recorded history can be quite useful.

When bobber fishing Pike in the summer we never set the hook on the initial strike. Pike will smoke a bait from the side, stunning it. Thats when the bobber goes down. Then it swims a bit and stops to readjust the bait to swallow, thats when the bobber comes back up. Once the bobber goes down again we set the hook.

I rarely bobber fish anymore mostly because I like to catch & release as much as possible. I don’t know if Pike feed differently in the winter under the ice.

Always good info from the spear guys, wish they would post more.
Here’s a tip: Always bring an xtra set line if you are fishing with someone, never know when they will choose to only use one line-me; I’ll take any legal advantage I can get.

Tim that’s half the reason I bring the wife and kids out these days!

They got me pretty good

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Should have had them cut all the way to the edge and you could tell people that a pike bit you. Hope the recovery goes well Tim.

I love watching underwater clips. Do you have some links of some good ones you would like to share? I have not been super impressed with the ones I have been finding lately.

I’ll try to do that (bit techy for me) I only really liked one, that said if fish are around and a camera is down you always learn something.
The one I liked the guy was in clear shallow water, his rig had a single treble hooked deadbait that was only about 6” and he caught BIG fish, set up was simple/clean, used tie-able leader materiel onto a #4 hook. Deadbait was horizontal and in the ‘strikezone’

I like to set tipups right below the ice for pike, even in 10-12 fow

Tim,

Thought you were are a crappie guy…..

Heal quickly!!

Pete

Thanks Pete, love to fish crappies, but usually put a tippie out too-about one time a year I go to a lake just for pike-might be fun to do a late season trip to ML.

I set my tip ups down 4 to 5 ft if I’m in 12 to 15 ft. I may go down 6 max. If I’m over 15 ft I might set them down 8 ft. It has always worked for me. For both bass and pike. If I’m targeting pike only I try to set up in 10 to 12 ft.

I really enjoy catching pike if they are 35 inches plus. Otherwise I find them to be a nuisance

Bearcat89 wrote:

I really enjoy catching pike if they are 35 inches plus. Otherwise I find them to be a nuisance

A pike over 35 inches is a rare beast these days, at least around here it is. How many that big do you catch in one season? I caught probably over 100 pike last season by accident and the biggest one I caught was right at 35 inches. I would say 75% of the ones I catch are in the 20-24 inch range.

Quality Pike are hard to find in Minnesota but not impossible. Mille Lacs will kick out a couple slobs every years.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I really enjoy catching pike if they are 35 inches plus. Otherwise I find them to be a nuisance

A pike over 35 inches is a rare beast these days, at least around here it is. How many that big do you catch in one season? I caught probably over 100 pike last season by accident and the biggest one I caught was right at 35 inches. I would say 75% of the ones I catch are in the 20-24 inch range.

I guess I haven’t counted. A good Han full at least in the lakes around here. Almost always on accident. And obviously 100 little ones as well. There are plenty of local lakes with good size fish if I catch them bass fishing and my 40 was while walleye fishing.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I really enjoy catching pike if they are 35 inches plus. Otherwise I find them to be a nuisance

A pike over 35 inches is a rare beast these days, at least around here it is. How many that big do you catch in one season? I caught probably over 100 pike last season by accident and the biggest one I caught was right at 35 inches. I would say 75% of the ones I catch are in the 20-24 inch range.

did you keep them to help the DNR with those little snot rockets. It is what they want you to do.

Dutchboy wrote:

Quality Pike are hard to find in Minnesota but not impossible. Mille Lacs will kick out a couple slobs every years.

define quality pike?? most any pike is quality to me. Smoking, pickling, frying!!

Bearcat89 wrote:

I guess I haven’t counted. A good Han full at least in the lakes around here. Almost always on accident. And obviously 100 little ones as well. There are plenty of local lakes with good size fish if I catch them bass fishing and my 40 was while walleye fishing.

You caught 2 just in my boat last year. One local, one up north. If I remember the local fish was a 38″ on a clacking rap on my favorite little bass lake.