Fishing Michigan

As the fall weather increasingly turns colder, its a good time to go bigger with your presentations while fishing Northerns. While some fish will be slowing down while the water temps drop, pike love this stuff, so go big on your baits. Specially minnow imitators like cranks and topwater stuff.

Nothing like seeing a big Jitterbug going over the the top of a weedbed, only to disappear in a surface explosion.  Although most folks think of topwater baits as an early morning or late afternoon into evening type bait, these cloudy days throw that philosophy out the door.  These windy, cloudy type days are perfect for hitting the surface with tops all day long over the right structure.

The only thing that could put a wrench into this fall thinking for attacking big pike is the full moon phase we are presently going through.  What can still give you hope is the amount of cloud cover at night.  Even through a full moon cycle when the moon allows for feeding all night long by the predators, lots of cloud cover means there will still be a fair amount of  daytime action for anglers.

Fall time is also a big cranking time of the year, pike are looking to fatten up for the winter months.  Big greasy golden shiners are a popular fare on their feeding agenda, so imitate their needs with big minnow baits.  In SE Michigan, golden shiners are on the table so find some golden metalics and start tossing. In the Upper, its chubs and suckers, so darker baits work well. Minnesota and Canada, go blues and silvers because they will be chasing ciscos to fatten up on.

Do not put  your jerkbaits away during this fall period either.  A crank here, a sharp whip action of the rod tip there, followed by a pause in the action can be a signal caller to bring in aggressive northerns from a long way off. Specially if your baits have rattles inside the lure body.  One of my favs are the big Pointer 120’s from Lucky Craft.  Expensive yes (DEFINITELY), but this series comes in the colors that the fish are looking for in any region of the pike range.  They suspend,  they have a wider body than a Rapala and they come with super sharp #2 or #4  treble hooks, guessing they are VMC’s. On some of my baits I have changed out the hooks for blood red Triple Grips from Mustad.  Just to change up the colors and to make the minnow type bait look injured.

Change up your speeds to see what type of action the pike want, and just get ready for some heavy fall time northern pike action.

I love pike fishing, give me a toothy critter slashing at bait in clear water so I can see all the action first hand.  It gets your heart pumping to see the roll of a white belly or the turbulence on the lake’s surface.  Rearing back on the hook set and feeling the weight of the fish at the other end.  This is where I would insert the Tim Allen grunt from Tool Time, if I knew how to spell it.

As I get geared up for the annual trip to the Upper Peninsula, many of you are doing the same thing.  Its fall, or will be shortly depending on what the calendar says and big fish are chomping at the bit to put on the feed bag. Whether it be Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin or Minnesota some tactics hold true no matter where you go.

Search and Destroy is a method I like using a new lake, and also one of the most effective ways of not only learning a new lake quickly, but landing more fish as well.  On a new lake, you want to cover water fast, not spend the whole day trying here or trying there….wasted time that you just do not have a week long trip.

Best thing to do is get a map of the lake(s) you are fishing and study up before the trip.  Circle likely areas based on contours, likely weedbeds and drop offs.  Second best thing to do is have your boat equipped with a GPS map chip on your fish finder,  you can scan a lake quickly, but does not give you the chance to really study the lake.  You can also go in blind, and this is where search and destroy plays its biggest part.

My fav search lures are spinnerbaits, inline like the classic Mepps or hairpin style, which is just a beefed up bass bait on roids.  Have a variety of blades on the spinners like the colorado, indiana, french, muskie flute and willow.  Give the fish what they want, but for searching quickly on fast retrieves, stick with the willow bladed baits.  Less resistance, quicker to come back to the boat.

Now do not get hung up on sizes and names associated with these baits.  Just because it says muskie bait on the package does not mean it is just made for the Northerns larger cousin.  Pike do not care, if they can take down a muskrat, they will have no problem taking a 9 inch inline Harrasser spinnerbait running along the surface.  They are eating machines,  and will bite at things 2/3 rds their size without a second thought.

My favorite pike spinnerbaits are the following, and there are more out there to try.

Northland:  Magnum Reed-Runner’s, Bionic Bucktail Spinners and Spinnerbaits.

War Eagle Spinnerbaits: 3/4 oz

Windells Harrassers: Both pike and muskie sizes

Terminators:  with their titanium wire, 3/8ths of an ounce is not too small, and a good size to avoid tangles and snags in shallower edges and bays.  Also use the 1/2 oz and muskie sized baits too.

Mepps:  Been around for years; #5 french blade, muskie thrillers and killers, both sizes of the marabou baits as well.

Get a variety of colors to pitch and you cannot go wrong on your next mission into dissecting a lake for these fantastic fish.

This spring the DNR has two new proposals out dealing with pike and muskie populations.  This one deals with northerns, there is a PDF file with the whole draft, and an email address if  you want to comment.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/PikePlan_270285_7.pdf

DNR-PikePlan@michigan.gov

Since the last two posts vanished into cyberspace, will change direction a bit and take a look at spring pike fishing.  Northerns like many fish who spawn early are on the prowl right after ice out.  And although they are seeking out food sources, their metabolism isn’t quite caught up with the weather just yet.

Spring northern fishing has two main rules to follow, think big and thing slow.  Even though northerns are a cold water fish species,  they are cold blooded.  So when the water temps are still chilled after ice out, these fish have yet to catch up to their normal aggressive manner. 

Its big crankbait time!  Even though my favorite bait for pike and their cousins the muskie are spinnerbaits,  northerns are looking for big meals, easy meals right now.  A large bass crankbait or smaller muskie version are good table fare.  Big Rapala’s, Grandma’s, Ernies and Bombers are all good choices this time of the year. 

Slow down that presentation, or at the very least alternate the speed of your retrieve.  Give the bait a slight wobble, just where it rocks back and forth.  Pause occasionally, if the bait floats let it rise slightly before beginning the retrieve again.  If it is neutrally balanced it will suspend or hang momentarily, then start cranking again.  Often this will trigger the fish into swiping at  the bait.

When the season opens be ready to target those shallow areas where other fish will be coming into spawn.  Mix it up in areas where the gills and crappie spawn, where you know the fish will be there lurking for an easy meal.  If not the shallows, look for weed edges or close by drops.  These are the areas where the pike will be lying in wait.