Taking one of the many fine fly-outs from Selwyn Lake a few years back, we courted big pike with many things. In-Fisherman Art Director Chuck Beasley caught some nice specimens on the biggest Lindy Tiger Tube, with white the best color that day. I continued to experiment, finally settling on 6-inch white Lunker City Salt Shakers—basically, shad bodies—presented on 3/8- to 1/2-ounce jigs. The combo was allowed to fall vertically along a break into 5 to 12 feet of water, and pike were hitting it on the drop, illuminating the fact that you can’t always depend on pike to be pike or to slash horizontal presentations with gusto whenever you want them to. That day, specimens over 40 inches obviously wanted fish flesh and they wanted it falling straight down. Can pike be selective, like trout? Not like trout, maybe, but patterns definitely hold up from one area to the next over the course of several days or a week.
In the middle to southern latitudes of the Far North, when faced with big, deep cabbage beds in places like North Knife Lake, the Churchill River, Lake of the Woods, and Rainy Lake during August when the fishing gets tough, I’ve relied on larger bass-sized spinnerbaits many times to get the job done. One of my favorites is the Hildebrandt Okeechobee Special, which sports a single size #7 willowleaf blade. Another favorite is a small muskie spinnerbait from Fudally called the Musky Candy Spin, a twin-Colorado model with a short, tight-angled arm. Spinnerbaits in those sizes are must-have items for the slime-covered toothies of the Far North.
Spinning blades, in general, maintain a universal appeal for Esox lucius. Smaller muskie bucktails, like the Lindy Musky Roller, can be amazingly effective at times, but don’t forget to pack a few without hair. Filming on Wollaston last year, our guide Rob “Crash” Wilson boated one big pike after another with a size #6 bare-bones Blue Fox Vibrax spinner. Though it’s still a good idea to pack a series of spoons like Dardevles from 3 inches up to 6 inches in length, spinners and spinnerbaits seem to consistently outproduce spoons these days, in terms of boating big pike. That could change at any time, because the effectiveness of spoons has been proven over time. But it’s the very effectiveness of spoons that creates the dilemma, conditioning more big, long-living pike with each passing year.
A lighter 1/2-ounce Cobra matched with a Jelly Hoo is still a big favorite of mine around cabbage beds. The cupped underside of a Cobra helps keep the package up in the weedtops, with the rod tip held high while being constantly snapped upward, reeling as the rod tip is dropped. I used this tactic at Misaw Lake many years ago, and it continues to entice big northerns whenever I find them in weeds.
Mann’s Jelly Hoo is a necessary ingredient, because it’s so incredibly flappy. Take lots, though, as big toothies tend to tear them up at a rapacious rate. Where the weeds get really dense, another must-have item becomes the Musky Innovations Chatterbait, basically a jig with a big blade on its face that makes the package rise. This bait wobbles and walks over the nastiest tangles of weeds and precipitates some monstrous, frothing boils. It produced some giant pike for us on Lake of the Woods last year.
Few lure types, however, seem so universally appealing to trophy pike as suspending minnowbaits. In waters where the biggest pike have seen it all, a Rapala H14 Husky Jerk is hard to beat. And that’s why the best hardbait to pack for big pike this year, bar none, should be the new Rapala X-Rap Xtreme Slashbait. A bait that transforms in an instant from wild, erratic, side-to-side action to motionless suspension is a lock. Something about suspending baits just drives big toothies nuts—probably the fact that they stall without rising or dropping, forcing following pike to make a decision to turn or strike. Filming with the Xtreme Slashbait on Wollaston last year, it produced the biggest pike of the trip—a fish that followed it to boatside, lunched it, and proceeded to throw water all over the camera, the cameraman, and everything else within 20 yards or so.
That’s why we go—to get impromptu showers from fish almost too big to handle and with a proclivity for hitting lures at our feet. We go to stare down a mythical 50-incher. But we also go to figure them out, when they’re being tough. It’s not that easy anymore, but the rewards are even better. To trick something that’s never been tricked isn’t much of a trick. But tricking a 50-incher that’s been around the block a few times is an accomplishment worth noting. To do it requires thought, and more finesse than ever before. This year, think about anything pike haven’t seen that should work, and pack it.
Up in the Northwest Territories and in Nunavut province, big pike stay shallow all summer and well into fall. If you want to chase big pike in open water, consider driving to places like Tobin Lake, Lake Winnipeg, Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods. On Rainy Lake, for instance, big pike often cruise the flats in 40- to 60-foot depths during summer. On windy, cloudy days they come up and take over the shallow reefs. One of the best methods to take them in both arenas is a big jig-plastic combo. I like the heavy 1- to 2-ounce Bait Rigs Cobra heads coupled with a 7-inch Reaper Tail or Mann’s Jelly Hoo. The best plastics don’t have action tails, which slow down the combo . The idea is to get it on bottom quick in 50 feet of water, and a straight tail facilitates that. When they come up on the reefs, suspending baits become the ticket.
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