Outrageous Tactics for Top Predators like Perch, Walleyes, Pike, and Crappies

Bro’s shower of light and spoon silhouettes summoned fish some 20 feet to investigate. So, either the fish were feeding on something less flavorful on the bottom, or they were lying low and feeding high. Consider the forage base on Lake Michigan: Towering plumes of alewives and smelt, as well as lake herring. I’m going with the latter.

The Great Lakes are naturals for topwater tactics, but it doesn’t end there. Small panfish—wheel-bearing-sized crappies and bluegills—often gather in clouds and drift off weeds and structure, presuming they’ve evaded predators. But they haven’t. Teensy perch make this mistake, too. They ball up and meander offshore, banking on safety in numbers. Better look out below.

The whole topwater thing isn’t reserved for distilled-looking waters, either. Bro can manufacture a nasty silhouette in “root beer” water. It takes a bigger bait to achieve comparable results, but it’s doable. He upgrades the profile of the lure in direct relation to water clarity. The darker it gets, the bigger he fishes. And that’s a fine premise to keep in your pocket no matter what you’re stalking, or where.

About Pike

Northern pike, even more than walleyes, capitalize on the first couple of feet beneath the surface. Stand in the middle of your living room and look up. Depending on the height of your ceiling, that cheesy popcorn texture up there is probably at eight or nine feet. That’s the underside of the ice. Now look down. That’s the bottom of the lake. So we’re talking about an eight or nine foot column of water.

Next, reach your hand in the air. Unless you’re of NBA stature, your hand is barely touching the ceiling or about a foot short of it. Your hand is a pike, or perhaps something they’re preparing to eat, like a sucker or sunfish. See how nicely your hand breaks against the white ceiling, like a fish might against the underside of the ice, assuming the lake isn’t cloaked with two feet of snow. Remember this next time you set tip-ups. In the real world, dead fish are available all winter long. Pike learn to check the underside of the ice for this food.

At first- and last-ice, in shallow areas skirted by wetlands, pike also scroll for hibernating and emerging frogs, respectively. Picture the shadow cast by a big frog lumbering below the ice. Also, during early-ice, in remaining vegetation on some northern lakes, “Whitefish and ciscoes find their way into the weeds, the deeper, thicker stuff,” Bro says. “Pike run right under the ice in pursuit. That’s prime time to set tip-ups over the tops of the weeds. Some rigged with dead bait, others with large, live suckers.”

Bro says that, in general, bigger fish tend to run closer to the ice, no matter the depth. That might mean two feet down in 20 or 20 feet down in 40, mirroring the behavior of walleyes. “There’s a lot of big food in the top half of the water column,” he says. “And big food translates into big fish. By fishing right beneath the surface you might not catch the most fish, but you’ll definitely catch the biggest.”

What About Walleyes

Bro is a man of spots: He values location over presentation. When it comes to making a statement beneath the ceiling, however, he chooses his utensils carefully.

In pursuit of walleyes, his first determinant is whether the environment is clear or streaked. His kill-shot in clear water is flash, the array cast by a metallic or holographic jigging spoon. Classic metal patterns, as well as recent releases with foil, are capable of spitting sparks. Hammered metal is a favorite of mine.