Our Biggest Pike Stateside

Top Picks 1) Fort Peck Reservoir, MT 2) Devils Lake, ND 3) Lake of the Woods, MN 4) Red Lake, MN 5) Rainy Lake, MN 6) Portage-Torch Chain, MI 7) Big Bay de Noc, MI 8) Little Bay de Noc, MI 9) Green Bay, WI 10) Washington Island, WI 11) Door County, WI 12) Lake George, St. Mary’s River, MI 13) Saginaw Bay, MI 14) Lake Michigan, MI 15) Box Butte Reservoir, NE 16) Eleven Mile Reservoir, CO 17) Taylor Park Reservoir, CO 18) Stagecoach Reservoir, CO 19) Williams Fork Reservoir, CO

Colorado

Eagle Claw Fishing Tackle is based in Colorado. Matt Smiley, sales manager for Eagle Claw, says pike fishing in his state is on fire. “Eleven-Mile Reservoir in South Park has had large pike in it for years,” Smiley says, adding the lake is about 2 hours down the road from Denver. “It’s one of the best bets for good numbers of pike running 10 to 15 pounds in Colorado. But the real pike hot-spot right now is Stagecoach Reservoir, in the northwest part of the state, near Steamboat. The state record was broken there with a fish weighing 30 pounds 11 ounces in 2006. It was only 461⁄2 inches long but very stout. The catch-and-release state record, over 31 pounds, also came from Stagecoach, so the hardcore guys are focused on that lake right now. Test nets have captured quite a few pike even bigger. The state record prior to that was 30 pounds 6 ounces, taken from Williams Fork, which is still a good lake for trophy pike though Stagecoach has overtaken it for top-end fish. Williams Fork is near Granby, about 2 hours from Denver.

“Colorado pike are different from Canadian pike in the sense that the food base is heavily dependent on stocked rainbow trout,” Smiley says. “Rainbows can make anything grow big fast. And anglers put much less pressure on these fish, too, because the population of Colorado is relatively low and the most popular fish here are trout.

“Swimbaits and big soft-plastic jerkbaits, in white or rainbow colorations, are big here. Buzzbaits take pike on top in early summer and late in fall. Jointed lures, minnowbaits, and anything that imitates rainbow trout work here. Anglers try to mimic the sizes of the most prevalent trout from the last stocking. Imitating rainbows in behavior, size, and color is the primary tactic. Pike come off the spawn hungry in Colorado, chewing heavily from ice-out through early May. In May and June they get very aggressive. Most of the pressure is centered around shallow, weedy bays at that point in the season. Almost nobody here is targeting deep or suspended pike during summer, but there is very little pressure overall. Most people target them at times of year when pike are shallow—at ice-out and throughout spring.”

Smiley adds that Taylor Park Reservoir in Gunnison County, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, might be one of the highest trophy pike lakes in the world. “Pike in the 20-pound range are pretty common there,” he says. “At that elevation, most people are seeking trout. Conflicts exist, but we don’t really have an anti-pike sentiment. The Colorado Division of Wildlife wants to protect fish they stock, which are primarily trout, so they sometimes open lakes to indiscriminate harvest of northern pike. Pike are quickly developing a following, though, and those kinds of regs don’t sit too well with pike anglers, who are outnumbered but have some greatly under-pressured trophy pike fisheries here.”

Smiley says he doesn’t need big baits to catch big pike in Colorado. “I’m using Swim Shads or paddletails with light jigheads, but the key is always using rainbow-trout patterns. We still have guys fishing whole baitfish on quick-strike rigs. But you’re not allowed to use livebait anywhere above 7,000 feet.”