As November sets in the ice starts to grow a little more everyday and us deer hunters slowly transfer our focus to the up coming ice fishing season. That’s where I find myself tying quickstrike rigs, sorting tackle and going through my fishing journal. But most importantly trying hard not to think about being covered in slime by a 40 inch plus northern pike.
For the past 6 years I have strictly put my focus on targeting and understanding Northern Pike through the ice, and I will tell you one thing you learn something new everyday. Just when you think you know it all the wolves of the water throw another curve ball at you.
Dec 24 2013 we went out strictly after pike and had tip ups with dead baits of all sizes set up around us. Having had a great day with three pike over 40inchs and a few just shy, an hour before dark I decided to pull a rod out and see if the walleye were feeding. While jigging a PK Spoon aggressively in the middle of all our deadbaits, a huge mark came in on my flasher. I worked it up down stopping it, dropping, ripping it, the only thing I didn’t do was pull it out of the water. Thinking it was a monster walleye I kept on it for several minutes until I got what felt like a perch tap. Setting the rod I yelled at my client to run over and get my flasher out of the hole, telling him this is the biggest walleye I have ever had on through the ice. But I spoke to soon after about 30 seconds of hugging the bottom this fish realized it was hook and took off screaming line. It was at that point I knew it a monster pike. After about 15 minutes we landed her on 6lb Pline the fish was in the upper 20’s and not far off 46inch with a huge girth. And that folks is how unpredictable these fish can be.
In early ice these lakes can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. I know its hard to believe in these lakes because they are simply a soup bowl with nothing to go off for structure. Then you have the lakes that have enough spots and structure to attract anyone’s eye. Those lakes that keep you up tell 3am staring at a map wondering where do I start. The fact of the matter is those lakes could take a lifetime to cover all the spots maybe only holding the odd big pike on a spot. In the end a featureless lake is that much easier to fish early ice because they have two very general successful spots. The first is “Key Travel Routes”. It’s important to be on any slight tapering drop. One thing I have found is pike travel a lot more in these lakes to find food because they realistically have nowhere to set up an ambush. It creates a competition under the ice between fish as well, because all the feed is super spread out this time of year. This makes patience such a huge key and often it’s a waiting game. I currently fish three of these similar lakes and they all carry very similar patterns. The other key area is away from high traffic just outside of perch spots where the traffic and noise push these big fish. You see someone slamming perch go 100-200 yards deeper then him and set up I bet you will go back to that spot the next time your out.
Early in the ice season I like to stay in that 8 to 20 foot range depending on the barometric pressure. In these lakes the pike tend to move into deeper water and become very negative during low pressure periods. That doesn’t mean pack your gear and go home it simply means drop down on the size of your bait on your tipups. Then get off your chair and go hole to hole with a rod deadsticking a minnow on a quickstrike rig or jig changing your hole every five to ten minutes. Because these fish are not moving much at this point a lot of times you have to go to them, kind of as if you were fishing for fussy spread out perch. 3-5inch chub minnows are hands down unbeatable during this period. My best success has been during the intial falling of pressure and a day after the rising of pressure from a normal state. The fish put the feed on hard in these conditions so don’t be scared to put on 10inch long herring, one of my favorite baits for monster pike.
Keeping in mind you should always in any condition have variety of sizes and kinds of bait. “Suckers, Smelts, Chubs, Herring, and Mackerel” are with me at all times. Aggression in this situation is also key, put the wind tip ups out and start jigging anything from a rattle bait to a 8inch soft plastic since these fish are at their all time feeding peak. Even if they don’t take your jigging method or wind tip up it will draw them to your dead baits.
Moon phase is also a key factor in the pike fishing world, but does vary lake to lake, as I have seen from fishing these three lakes every winter on different phases and different conditions. In saying that, the most important thing is “documentation”. I learned this as a kid reading my dad’s old In-Fishermen magazines and started writing notes when I was about 15. If there is anything I cant stress enough when it comes to targeting big fish is writing down everything that happened that day: Moon Phase / Barometric Pressure / Temperature / Wind / Location / Depth / Presentation / Size and Kind of Bait / Time of Day. The patterns you come up with will surprise you in so many positive ways. Giving you confidence on where you should be at the right time with the right bait. The reason we are successful in the pike game is when I flip open my calendar and see the moon phase and use the combination of my journal something will add up to where we should be that day.
Good luck on the water folks, be safe, always check the ice, and when you get a chance take a kid fishing. Check us out on facebook: “Koobies Krankers Fishing Adventures.