Spring Has Sprung! Fishing For Northern Pike

There's nothing good after a long winter than hitting the water that first time. In this narrative I will form a few basic tactics and skills that will help you catch more pike this spring.

The northern pike, also known as the water wolf, is a fish that will give you a good fight when trying to be caught. It can reach pretty serious weights, but even the smaller ones are perfectly capable of fighting and jumping straight through the air.

Shimano Fishing

Equipment
When chasing the northern pike, the tool you choose can often be a needful component to your success. Beefy tackle is recommended, and baitcast combos are the way to go.

A good rod would be a 7 foot medium-heavy action. This should suffice unless you're using de facto heavy bait (and if the fish are very big where you are), in which case you may want to upgrade that rod to a heavier one.
Line choices are simple. Use monofilament or braid. If you use mono, choose at least a twenty pound test. For braid, the thorough should be a minimum fifty-pound. Regardless, a leader is a must when attaching main line to lure. Wire leaders of one foot to eighteen-inches will cover all bases. By religiously using a leader, your chances of teeth and gill rakers cutting straight through your line are drastically reduced.

Spring Locations
Northern pike spawn during the early spring in shallow water, often when the ice is still sitting on the lake top. The period right after the ice leaves is often best for catching the larger pike, as the majority of "just spawned" will linger in this shallow water for some time.

As the pike make their way out of the shallows, they will stage on the first structure they can locate. This can be weedbeds, points, or the first drop-off situated in the main body of water. Looking these gems can often be easy, as working your boat outwards from the bay itself will have you de facto stumbling upon the prime fishing spots.

Your Tackle Box
Outfitting your box for pike fishing is also not difficult. Lure choices are quite universal, and having a small range of baits at your disposal will not be very expensive. I would make my choices from the following list, and get ready to hang on tight to that rod!

Spoons Spinnerbaits and Bucktails Jerkbaits Topwaters Soft Plastic Stickbaits

These tips should help you be more successful, but to me, just getting back out on the water after a long winter is a success story in itself, regardless of how many northern pike I may or may not catch first time out. Good luck!

Spring Has Sprung! Fishing For Northern Pike