On the Hunt for the Water Wolf
Prime northern pike hunting starts in the spring, known as the “water wolf” for its endless appetite, they are also referred to as “gators”, because they will snap at anything! Nothing is off the table when pike are feeding, and I’ve been fortunate enough to see several of these take downs over the years. Birds on low hanging branches, snakes, goslins, ducklings, adult ducks and muskrats have all fallen prey to one nature’s elite freshwater predators. Other pike are not safe either, canabalism is just another word for a meal to to the “Esox Lucius”, aka….the wolf.
Hunting wolves isnt all that different than other species of fish. Know your body of water, get a map if you want to save time on your trip and eleminate areas on a lake. Adopt to the season of the year; spring, summer and fall. Have the right tools to do the job right. If that sounds familiar to anyone who worked on a project with your dad or mom years ago, good, because it still holds true today. You should consider your rods, reels, line and baits, all as applying the right tools to better your chances at catching your target.
Have the right type of reels, the line, the rods and make sure you bring the northern’s favorite four basic food groups. Having a good selection of stickbaits, spinners, spoons and topwater baits will help ensure your success. Then you just toss them to where the fish are!
Stickbait is a term that covers a range of minnow shaped lures. Some will sink, while others will float. There are deep and shallow runners, plus those that suspend. Some of the darn things even rattle like your favorite bass crank. Smaller muskie baits work wonders with pike, as well.
Rapala Super Shad Raps and Drifter 6″ Believers are muskie baits that any good sized northern will not hesitate to take a swipe at while being trolled. Suspending baits like the Lucky Craft Pointer 120 and Rap Husky Jerks work well over weedbeds and humps. Floaters can be tossed into shallow water to work around structure. Bring your boat in close to shore, and toss a deep diving lure over a drop-off and bring it back to the shallow water.
Spinners can be inline baits like your father’s farvorite Mepps or the hair pin style that bass anglers are familiar with. There really are too many companies to count who produce good quality spinnerbaits. Some my favorites are Terminators (bass and muskie size), Northland, Mepps, War Eagles, and Bucher Baits. You can get a size 5 Mepps bladed bait if you want, but I suggest going to the Musky and Giant Killer models. Same blade, longer body and hooks with more beef. Another good expample of using a muskie bait while pike fishing is the Mepps Musky Maribou inline spinner. Its roughly 8 or 9 inches long, and is a pike catcher!
Few baits can provide the thrill you get from a strike on a top water lure. There you are, just working your plug nice and slow, got that Jitterbug working just right so you can hear the gurgle sound it makes at the right speed, and then BAM !!! The water explodes, the line goes tight and you are almost too caught up in the moment to set the hook. If you set it too fast, you and everyone else in the boat better duck, because that lure is shooting back at you like a rocket. Your heart is racing faster than when you got to hold Betty Lou’s hand on your first date!
You have your wobblers like the Jitterbug and Heddon Krazy Crawler. Poppers like the Raplala Skitter Pop or Storm Chug Bug. The Mister Twister Top Prop and and Rap Skitter Prop are effective propeller baits. If your reel is fast enough, you can even dance a spoon on the surface of the water.
Spoons are one of my favorite spring pike lures. I have never heard a convincing arguement as to why they seem to be most effective in the spring. Could very well be that pike are really on the feed after the spring spawn, and like a gator, they do snap at just about anything. A spoon provides that flash and wiggle that I believe most emulates the flash off the side of a wounded baitfish.
In the picture, on the left hand side, you will notice several spoons that are made for salmon fishing. Chris Cogan, from Petersburg turned me onto using salmon blades for trolling over tall weedbeds several years ago. Because of the blades light weight they just skim over the weeds teasing the fish below. You can control the depth by the speed of the boat. The slower you go, the more they sink and as you go faster, they will actually rise in the water column.
Weedless spoons, like the Johnson’s Silver Minnow (1,1/8 oz) work well in and around all type of surface weeds. If you like to bass fish, I am pretty sure you have some plastic worms in your tackle boxes. Put one of these on the hook for a trailer, it will get you more bites. I have used lizards, 4 inch twister tails and pork ripple tails with good results.
My favorite casting spoons are made by Little Cleo, in either the 3/4 or 1,1/4 oz size. Of all the spoons I have used, they make the best wobble action so far. I get the same type of action in Michigan’s own Dardevle in the 3/4 oz size, just not so much in the 1 oz version. For a far casting spoon that holds a tight wobble, try the Krocs from Luhr Jensen. Not only do they shoot away from your rod like a bullet, but they are versitile enough to be vertically jigged over deep water.
How do you launch these morsels to where the fish are? By combining the right reel to the right rod. The best bang for the buck when it comes to reels, bar none, are the Ambassadeur C3 5500 and C4 5600 from Abu Garcia. These round reels provide the reliability and effectiveness that would cost you 200 or 300 dollars from another company, for less than $90.00. The C3 5500 with its 5.3:1 gear ratio is best suited for the stick baits and top water lures. The C4 5600, has a gear ratio of 6.3:1, and because of its fast retrieve, would be the lure of choice for spoons and spinners. There are occasionally times when the lures I use are a little lighter than these reels will handle. This is when the low profile reels come in with their extra tension adjustments. Unfortunately from my expierince, there isn’t an inexpensive reel on the market that holds up to pike fishing, and you a really are looking at $100.00 or more.
The rods should match the method of fishing, as well as the weights of the lures that you use to catch northerns. You can tell from the picture that most of the rods handles are longer than you might be used too. Those longer handled rods are for getting some distance on your casts when you are chucking spoons and spinners. They also help in controlling the dirction of your cast by acting as a counter to the force created by your casting arm.
Most pike rods are really just suped up bass rods. Actions are usually “medium heavy or heavy” action. Lengths range from 6 to 7 ft, 6 inches. With some of the muskie lures I mentioned to use, lighter muskie rods are required to handle the greater weights when casting or trolling.
You can find several excellent models from many of the companies producing rods. St. Croix has many models available in their Premier and Avid series. Shimano, Berkley, and Ugly Stik, all make something that will help you catch fish. Retail companies like Gander Mountain, Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops, with their house brands offer some viable options, as well.
good luck
April 6th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Hi Mason,
That commercial on TV is right “life comes at you fast.” I will spare you the details but suffice it to say I’m back. Am I the only one who relishes your lessons, born from long hours of “devilish” experimentation with rod, line, and lure on waters where pike are likely to be found? This last entry is truely a lesson on how to catch these facinating fish.
Of course I can not help but suggest a couple of lures that could be added to the list. One is the Smithwick Devil Horse. I am taken back to Oba Lake in Onterio on a early July evening fishing with my two sons. The water had gone absolutely flat and despite all three of us trying different lures we had not caught a fish in forty five minutes. I knew my sons were getting impatient and if somebody didn’t catch a fish shortly thay would want to go in. We were parked in a cove over an extensive weed bed and as a last resort I put on a Devil Horse. The boys said “that thing will never catch fish.” I would cast the it as far as I could, let it set for a few seconds, and then just rip it, let it rest and rip it again creating as much turbulance as I could. On the fourth time a ten pound pike shot up through the surface right out of the water as it grabbed the lure. In the pine scented still air of that night, a night they will never forget, my sons learned there is more to hunting the water wolf than the ole red and white. We had several more ferocious strikes before it got dark. By the way that Devil Horse was a perch finish.
Another variation of the Johnson Silver Minnow, an idea I got from an In-Fisherman magazine years ago, is to put on an Uncle Josh Pork Frog (green and white) as a trailer. On one trip north this was my go-to lure.
Thanks again for offering up some new ideas to try and some new lures to buy.
April 7th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Collin,
I have looked at the Devil Horse before, the Rattlin and Suspending Rogues have caught their share of Northerns and I always thought why not try that one too.
Its kind of amazing how many techniques make their way into magazines as a new hot tip. My dad and uncles learned that back in the 1930’s and 40’s from my grandfather. I have been hearing about pork trailers for decades, lots tougher than plastics. I’m sure there are things that I will mention from time to time, that are old hat for some people as well.
Got to start typing again, was going to do a piece on fishing crappie this weekend, but the thought fishing in a snow globe didnt exactly excite me. So I started cleaning out the boats, had to dislodge a cat out of the rowboat !! Got some pics of the tackle, so going to throw it all together tonight for folks to read tomorrow, Have a good Easter!