By JP Bushey
After jigging up and down through a hole all winter, I’ll be the first to admit that bombing around casts for hard-hitting pike is pure, therapeutic heaven. Whether you rip, twitch or crank, finally being able to let it fly just feels amazing first thing in the spring, doesn’t it? But do you give trolling much time? Pike of all sizes are reachable in May and June, as they stretch their legs eating, resting or just plain wandering. If you keep moving, you’ll contact these fish. Trolling keeps your lures wet and allows you to cover more water in half an hour than you could in two hours of continuous casting. Not many fishermen tap trolling’s big benefits for pike, early on.
Pike location early on is as spread out, in terms of overall area, as it will be until the lakes stratify, based on temperature layering later on in summer. They can stay in cool water over a range of habitats, from shallow structures to featureless flats to deeper, open water. Cooler water lets pike operate freely in big areas. By July or August, water temperatures basically eliminate huge areas of water for fish and fishermen, but this isn’t the case right now. I’ve contacted some of my biggest fish in late May and early June trolling over open water and close to the surface, for lake trout and rainbows. Finding these roamers would take so much longer making cast after cast.
Like any other trolling, stack as many plusses in your favour as you can think of. Speed and direction changes, selectively reproducing presentation features like action, colour or size and keeping your baits in high-percentage zones all adds up. Usually a winning set-up clicks. Do your best to replicate and ride it. Spring is one of the key seasons where I watch for really subtle variances in water temperature, the species, height and quality of weed growth and what types of foods are around. In pike lakes ‘up north,’ finding clouds of perch or suckers milling around in less than ten feet of water can be a great starting point. I’ve done lots of trolling on the Great Lakes and Georgian Bay, and smelts can be the golden key here, staging deeper and waiting for night time to move into tributaries and spawn. Pike will shadow them in and near the depths and also hang out around the moving water and structures close by.
Wherever you want to troll, it’s a misconception that it’s strictly a ‘big water’ method. If anything, borrow a few moves from big water trollers, and turn them loose on waters of any size and style. If I had to pick one piece of gear that has impacted my spring pike trolling over the past decade, it’d be an inline trolling board. Equally good in open water and when skimming the shallow stuff, ‘boards let you watch the exact zones your baits pass through and they help avoid tangling in sharp turns. On top of all that, nothing blows off the winter’s rust like watching a good pike bury one as it bobs along. Anytime you’re working shallow or high in the water, inline planer boards automatically become a great tool. I like Off Shore Tackle’s classic, OR-12. And new for this year, they’ve added their top-end OR19 release clips as a standard. They’re the red ones, with the heaviest tension and the line-keeper peg inside the jaws. They’re perfect for locking down braided lines, heavier mono, harder pulling baits and big fish.
A great way to check differing depth zones is to simply run one trolling board out to the side and one regular flatline, straight over the side of the boat. For working longer shorelines, extended underwater features or open water, you’ll get great coverage. Switch each over by driving in the opposite direction. On pass number one, the board silently drags a minnowbait, spoon or spinner right down main street while the boat rod pulls along the outer rim or along a drop. Re-work the same spot from the other direction, only this time, with the boat rod inside and the ‘board out over open water. Lots of good spring areas—especially as the water slowly warms—have a distinct deeper edge in close relation to those blossoming shallows. Work it all.
You can successfully troll with any lure you’d cast with. Use your boat to trigger fish with lots of stalls, surges and turns. Spoons from any family are great for trolling. I have a group of buddies from Michigan who make an annual spring trip to the Raber Bay area, on Lake Huron. Huge, budding cabbage flats in clear water hold the fish, and they drag trolling boards with Williams Whitefish, Mepps Syclops and bass-sized spinnerbaits with exceptional results. Last year during the same time, they flew in north of Red Lake, ON and ran the same program on small, stained, inland lakes. That says a lot about how transferable and deadly the trolling game can be.
Twitch-type minnowbaits are another ace. Wide wobblers, like six inch Jakes, Ripplin’ Red Fins or Bomber LongAs can be hot, and so can those with less razzle dazzle, like Number 18 Rapalas and Reef Runner Ripsticks. On spongy mono, any bait with trebles will dig in and hold. Braided line is better for punching in heavier, single hooks, like the ones on a spinnerbait. Spinnerbaits are a great option for trolling. I rig mine with a single trailer hook rigged upside down and a large twister tail. That little wrinkle with the trailer hook stings fish amazingly well when you troll, especially behind a ‘board.
Put your boat in gear at some point this spring when you’re out for pike. You’ll like the amount of water you’re covering, and this method kicks out just as many fish as casting does, including big ones. If you’re like me, that casting arm is stiff and sore after the first couple hours anyhow! Trolling keeps your lures in play and that can be all it takes, on the right spots.