HUGE NORTHERN PIKE MAKE LAKE DIEFENBAKER A BUCKET LIST DESTINATION
To those people familiar with northern pike fishing and their habits, March is the time of year to target these giants through the ice. Lake Diefenbaker in Saskatchewan offers some of Canada’s best fishing for giant pike, producing extremely healthy and quality sized fish. Since most of the reservoir is deep and cold, when March rolls around the pike move to shallow bays in preparation for spawn. It also doesn’t hurt that there is plenty of food available, like big whitefish.
LOCATION
Start your search for pre-spawn pike in bays, deep coulee’s, creek mouths and rivers where any current enters a large waterbody. Remember to look for areas that heat up faster on the waterbody you are fishing. This means areas the sun stays on longer throughout the day triggering more runoff earlier than traditional locations.
LOOK FOR WARMER WATER
An influx of warm water gets the female pike fired up. An area with large hills on the northern side of the reservoir, especially Lake Diefenbaker’s typical terrain will produce runoff faster than the south side of a waterbody. This doesn’t mean to only target north side structure as south structure can produce quality fish as well, but large fish can often be found earlier than normal in locations where this occurs.
In addition to the above locations check areas that have large weed lines and points. Target water depth from 4 to 16 ft deep. Stained or dirty water is also not a problem. In areas that are relatively structureless such as big flats, fish any minor change in depth as it will attract fish as they move in to investigate the spawning grounds.
BAIT SELECTION
Baits to use can range from large frozen 5-7″ dead baits such as suckers, herring, anchovies, or ciscoes. Large profile jigging baits, rattle baits, large tubes, and other soft plastics can trick one of these giants into biting. By far the most effective and widely used bait on Diefenbaker is frozen dead bait. Pick whichever is the common forage in the area you are fishing. Typically, ciscoes work extremely well all across Diefenbaker. Earlier in the season smaller profile baits will be more effective and as the season goes on the larger baits will start to work better.
GEAR AND RIGGING
Dead baits rigged on tip ups are the most common and traditional way of catching pike. IFish Pros are a new style of tip up brand that allows you to fish with a tip up presentation but lets you use your ice rod. This method has become a favourite of many good anglers as it allows for more control when fighting the fish (and more fun in my opinion) and presents the bait exactly where you want it in the water column. After the strike the fish still feels no resistance as your line is free spooling, until the angler closes the bail and sets the hook.
The Jaw Jacker brand can also be extremely effective on giant pike. The Jaw Jacker lets the fisherman set the rod and bait, then sit back, observe, and wait. It also allows you to set the bait at the desired level in the column and when a fish strikes, the trigger will engage, and the rod sets the hook for you. The one downside is it can pull the bait away from the fish and raise the bait in the water column preventing a follow up strike if the fish did not get hooked on the first strike.
TIME OF DAY
Daylight hours are the most productive to target pike in the shallows. Once daylight penetrates the ice the bite turns on and quickly turns off after the sun has dropped. Bright sunny days with lots of light penetration can be some of the best days for trophy northern pike in the spring.
Managing your frozen dead bait can be a real key to your success. Make sure to separate your baits in smaller packages and take enough thawed bait for the day of fishing. Frozen bait does not hook well or sink properly, and a frozen bait can turn a fish off from striking. By having freshly thawed and managed bait it will ensure you are able to hook the bait properly and sink it to the desired depth. Bait that has thawed and frozen multiple times will turn soft and cause problems staying hooked. It will also not look proper while sitting on the hooks.
MOVEMENT ON THE ICE
Big Pike are extremely sensitive to noise and movement across the ice in shallow water. Vehicles passing by, augers drilling holes, and even footsteps walking to a tip up in some circumstances will spook them. Minimizing movement across the ice or walking softly to a flag to set the hook can increase your hook up ratio as pike have been known to drop baits and swim away if startled from movement across the ice, above them, or nearby.