Key Fishing Patterns in March

I have said before that I never fish so well as when my target is fish for the table. Pike are one of my favorites. They are wonderfully firm and flakey and work in just about any recipe, save a few that herb-, spice-, and saucewise bend heavily toward salmon and trout. Many “light” salmon recipes work, though, because the pike has more robust flesh than walleye, perch, or crappie. There’s real character to it, whereas the walleye is nice, but fragile and really mild. Pike are pretty much what they eat. This is most apparent in fish feeding on oily, fatty, high-protein prey like ciscoes—even more so in fish feeding on smelt, trout, kokanee salmon, or smolts of Chinook and coho. The meat of pike in these waters takes on a yellowish—at times orangish—sheen. This isn’t the same as the marbling in beautifully finished beef, but I suspect it does have something to do with the increased fat content that comes with feeding on the aforementioned forage. I suspect, too, but have never seen it addressed, that these pike, which are eating fish high in Omega 3s, heart- and general-health beneficial compounds, probably are more nutritious for us because of it.

To me these pike taste different from pike that have been feeding on leaner forage. The only way I can think to describe it is “buttery.” Pike like that are just as wonderful served in a starkly simple salmon recipe as they are in more typical pike fare like deep-fried fish strips.

But you’re here to learn how to catch pike so you can eat them—or maybe catch a giant one? I was just saying that it’s the prospect of good eats that spurs me to the catching. We’re going after pike to harvest selectively. The ax handles go back, the hammer handles go home. These are options in March, a month of great transition across much of North America.

Late-Ice

All of the very biggest pike I’ve caught—those surpassing 25 pounds—have been through ice in late March. A couple of these fish were close to 30. One memorable fish weighed 28 and measured just 44 inches. It was a tight fit through a 9-inch hole. Ten inches is the way to go if you have hopes of landing a 30.

In each situation in this article, deadbait plays a potential role. The fish are at times on the prowl, moving toward spawning areas and feeding along the way. But they’re usually in no mood to chase. Oily deadbait like smelt, ciscoes, and market fish like herring and mackerel are good options. We use suckers successfully in most places. I’m sure shad would work but have never had the chance to try them. I used 10-inch brook trout with great success one trip. As I remember it we had to have with us a sales voucher from the fish market. Better check regs on that one before you try it. It was a long time ago in a galaxy far away. I have been doing this for 40 years.

In all the patterns we’re reviewing, the first step is to figure where pike are going to spawn and then guess where they could be—in this case, within a mile or so of the area. If there’s a big bay with a lot of shallow weedgrowth, get on the deep edge of the weedline and look for points and pockets along the largest bar in the bay. Set baits along the edge and just up on the flat.