Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Little Pike?

yeah, my buddy chris was saying the same thing. He's got some roaches in an aerated bucket already. The only problem i have with that is how many roaches or shiners will be lost to bass. Remember there is a skinny bass problem here too, the bass hit everything, and hit it fast. That's why i loved the rat-l-trap, for some reason, the pike came for it first & beat the bass to the bite whenever there was one in the water, who knows why.

Accd to dad, though, the pike he's catching now are more like 25 inches.

With the 13 i've taken out, the total is up to 25 after he talked to some neighbors who took some out as well.

That means my wish to get that number into the thirties has risen to getting the number into the forties.

Yeah i bet i could put a couple of stinger hooks on the gill-bobs. Last time the size of the gill didn't seem to bother the little pike, though. we did get the biggest bass we've ever seen in the lake on a gill-bob last time too.

Alright, I am on my way up north in about 2-3 hours. Wish me luck.....the pike hunt begins tomorrow @ 5am. There's a wager for me and all my buddies going out that whomever gets the fewest pike by 330 pm tomorrow has to run out and buy the red stripes.

Again, wish me luck.

-Skinny

Good luck and take lots of photos.

Oh and I had to Google "red stripes" because I wasn't sure if that was an adult beverage or festive underwear. I'm assuming you're talking about the beer.

That is for me to know and you to lose sleep over, JHAP .

-Skinny

My first thought was "is red stripe some kind of regional term for a daredevle spoon?"

I could be wrong, but don't you need the Red Stripes while you're fishing?

Sunil, you are very correct, and throughout the weekend they flowed like water.

Unfortunately, nary a pike was caught, although 2 were spotted following lures up to the paddleboat, both times folloowing rat-l-traps. what is it about the trap that interests them so much? the action? the noise?

Fishing was generally slow all weekend, even the skinny bass only bit a few times, usually on whacky worms uber-deep in the center of the lake. I have some pics of the skinny bass to post, as well as a few shots of the lake to post as well.

All in all it was an awesome weekend, lots of swiming, the nephews reeling in tons of bluegill (which seem to have grown exponentially since winter, i have a few pics of that to post as well....). thanks to the latest PB edition i think i have them identified as native gills, warmouth (hoping i don't have that mis-id'ed, and it is a gsf), and a very rare pumpkinseed.

But yeah, everything was just hanging out in the deep water, not very interested in eating what we had to offer. Hot dogs again reeled in the most, bluegill and bass.

But no pike. Dad and my brother & kids are still up there, and will probably fish at least a little bit all week, if they get one i am sure i'll get a pic to post.

thanks, all, i'll be getting up there again in a few weeks, and hopefully we'll get a few more of the toothy bastards.

-skinny

Is the lake clear or murky? Try using bright obnoxious colors for clear lakes and ponds or on sunny days and darker colors for muddy ones and cloudy days. Pike are solitary hunters and are extremely sight oriented. Look for lures with very erratic and fast wobble and again, crazy colors as this will help attract them. All of this will make your lure stand out. Maybe they were at a different depth level? Anything that rattles will help too. Finally what size pike are being caught? Pike can eat prey up to 1/3 their size and sometimes greater lengths so choose an appropriate size. They will almost always go for the bigger meal instead of ten smaller ones. Good luck and have fun catching them.

Hey Thanks, CB.

Lake is very clear. VERY clear. The weekend i was up there was a lot of sediment floating around, lots of people adding sand to their beaches. But all in all you can see straight down to the bottom at 3', and at 5' you can still make it out. 6' is where it starts to get hard to see what is going on down there.

The Pike are young, added to the pond by a resident without permission of the HOA last november, they were about 18" when they first started getting caught, now they are getting caught at between 20-25".

Yeah, A buddy of mine had a fish finder on the back of the rowboat, all of the fish were deep, very deep, and we went there to get them, just couldn't get them to bite.

Another tidbit....swarms of minnows everywhere (whenever the sun wasn't directly overhead). Perhaps the predator fish just had their fill?

Going back up to help dad stain his deck in 2 weeks, i'll give it another shot for a few hours then.

Thanks
Skinny

Drop shot a 4 inch golden shiner, leach or night crawler during the summer on a clear deep lake. Use a heavy weight 12 to 16 inches below your bait and bounce the weight off the bottom fishing vertically straight up and down. Dont anchor, but do keep your boat as stationary as possible slowly moving around until you key in on a school of active fish.

You have the best chance at catching any species of fish in the lake using this method and generally you will get some real good ones. Even on bright sunny days.

Fish the shoreline at the butt crack of dawn or just after the sun sets, but fish deep the rest of the day.

Yeah, dad called last night to say that the neighbor got 2 pike on minnows just off the bottom in 12' of water yesterday.

gutted them and tossed them back in the pond as fertalizer. no pics, though.

i'm going back up in 2 weeks to help paint the deck. any and all tips that continue to flow in are more than welcome. I love catching the pike, and dad loves getting them out of the pond. So.....keep em coming!

Again, the rat'l trap seems to be a huge +. even last week the only pike seen were seen following traps. I wonder why that is. the bass wouldn't bite them, but the pike followed them.

-Skinny

Bass arent going to chase the rattle traps in clear water this time of year. You got to be and stay in their preffered zone to get them to bite. rattle traps may catch lots of bass this time of year, but not in the type of lake your describing unless you are keeping them next to weeds, wood, or big rocks for a majority of the time they are underwater.

Bigger fish let smaller fish swim right by them all the time. They dont go around chasing everything they see swimming, especially out in open water. For the most part they only go after what they know they can catch with the least amount of effort.

Times of day and especially seasons change conditions and tactics and feeding patterns. match all that up exactly and you can put what your looking for in the boat on a consistent basis throughout the day. There are always dumb fish out there that people can stumble upon and catch here and there, but if you want to consistently catch fish, you need to consistently fish in their zone. match the hatch is not just for flyfishing trout.

I agree with n8ly, although I know that pike are very aggressive and will sometimes go out of it's way to bite. Yet, these are lures we're talking about so the fish don't have to try too hard to catch them. Match the hatch is a good motto, definitely try it but also try variations, sometimes it is what is different and stands out in movement and color that will get fish to bite. It seems minnow fishing had some success.

Pike love rocky shorelines, points and aquatic vegetation. Does this lake have a flooded spring marsh? Because that's were they reproduce very early in the year when the water temperature is around 48 degrees. Try running a seine through there in the spring to see if there is any reproduction going on.

After a quick visit to Wikipedia I also found this. Pike use a lateral line system to register low frequency vibrations. They seem to recommend spinners to use this. Also, funfact: In Finland, catching a kymppihauki, a pike weighing at least 10 kilograms (22 lb), is considered the qualification as a master fisherman. Have fun.

I think a drop shot to get a minnow down deep might be my plan in the near future, assuming that the fish will be deep again, that is. I suppose i'll just have to keep testing and see what comes of it.

Hit dad's pond a little bit this past weekend. Got a couple of skinny, summer bass, one black crappie on a minnow, and a couple of those warmouth (i think they are warmouth, maybe rock bass, but i don't remember the orangish-red eye). plus about a thousand bluegill on hot-dogs with one of the neighbor's grandkids (that never gets old...at least when there are kids around).

Not a pike caught by anyone i know for the last 2 visits. April we couldn't keep them off the lure.

I know we haven't exterminated them, because you can still see them cruising the weed beds, i even saw one cruise past while swimming.

Do pike slow down drastically in the summer? I know they do much better than other fish in cold weather.

-Skinny

Good observation, skinnybass. Yes, northern pike definitely slow their movements and activity during hot weather. They are a cool water fish. Even in our research lakes down in north-central Nebraska, they are very hard to catch in mid-summer. They also get quite thin -- water too warm, metabolism is high, yet they aren't feeding or moving much. However, they sure are plump in fall and spring! Given your location, I suspect you are dealing with water that is too warm for the pike, but not high enough for a long enough time to kill them.

Thanks, Dave. Much appreciated.

Honestly it is so hard to believe this kind of stuff, although I know it is true. The lake stratifies temperature at about 1.5 ft, and then again at about 6 ft, by the time you are at the bottom, 10-12 ft, it feels like ice water.

But that is me, and I am not a fish, obviously they feel something that i don't .

Thanks again, Mr. W. You rock.

Well, if you are that cool, and if there is still oxygen in the cool water, the pike certainly will seek it out!! If so, they may not have the summer problems. If that was the case, it does make you wonder if you have put a pretty good dent in the population abundance, doesn't it? Just in general, pike tend to be most active at the pre-spawn, spawn, and immediate post-spawn times. Usually, there is a fall bump in activity, but not as big as the spring bump. So, maybe you are just seeing normal pike behavior? The males tend to really put on the feed bag in fall, and that's when their testes get up to spawning size. The females tend to feed in winter, and really feed in late winter, and they (of course ) have peak gonad size just prior to spawning.

see, i doubt that we have done that bad of damage to them, because you can still spot them cruising. I've been up there for 2 trips, 3 days of fishing without landing one, and seen at least 1 pike cruising on each day...one right past me while i was swimming! The NERVE of that guy!!!

I mean, the max estimate of pike added was 75, the minimum 35 ***. about 20 have been taken out (13 that i witnessed). At worst (and until this problem is solved for certain {that is to say until there are no more than 15 in the pond, as much as dad wants it @ 0, none, nil, i love catching pike ;)} i have to be a pessimist) only 26% of the pike have been removed. So i would venture to guess that the fact that it was 95 degrees on the 4th of july and a downright chilly 90 degrees on the 23rd, the water at the bottom wasn't as close to ice water as i think it was by diving down there.

Rock on....we'll see what happens in the fall and winter ice fishing. I bet there are plenty more to be had.

Just to reiterate a question i asked in a different thread, the pike spawn early spring, right? so any we can manage to take out of the ice and cull can't add to the gene pool, can they? Furthermore, with the average length getting to 25" last time they were caught (mid-may), they are ready to spawn this year, right?

Thanks
Skinny

Disclaimer: Dr W....please feel free to shoot me down regardless of the confidence of my response. You're the man, i just want to catch them....

*** lol.....the story of where the pike came from keeps getting more and more complicated...now apparently the guy responsible DID get them from a city worker, who WAS supposed to put them in one of the bigger lakes in the chain. Now, not only did the guy break HOA rules, but he was using tax-dollar acquired fish to stock in a lake that didn't want them. No wonder anyone who might be in the know gets all clammed up when you ask for details!!! lol...add to the facts the rumors that a bunch of semi-retired folk add to it, let's just say there have been some real fish stories around the lake this year, and the guy responsible has apparently had enough of dirty looks, and is moving out of the neighborhood.

Skinny:

Yes, pike spawn in early spring, very early, I've heard that they might spawn under the ice in some areas. They look for shallow water that is the first in the BOW to warm up. I've seen spawning temps listed as bewteen 34° and 40°, shallow areas <20" deep, eggs are scattered on vegitation and are sticky. No nests are made.

Skinny, esshup is right, pike spawn very early. They are also very aggressive during winter, and bite very well at cold temps, so they should continue to be vulnerable to you in the winter. In fact, they are a fun winter fish!

Next time they're following rattle traps try hooking on a small 1-2" twister grub, usually that turns those trailers into biters. Good luck.