Help me catch a pike!

I'm heading to Navajo lake with a few buddies this weekend to do some fishing. I've always wanted to catch a northern pike but have never even seen one. Any tips, tricks, techniques, baits, lures that anyone has had great success with?

The fishing report said Navajo lake fishing was good for pike so I'm getting my hopes up. I have a few different crankbaits and various lures. Any advice you have would be much appreciated!

Don't know much about New Mexico.
Up in Wisconsin and Minn (where I mostly fish) I like Johnson's silver minnow (weedless) toosed at the weed lines. Sometimes a Rapala Husky jerk (#14 I think). That's about it.

However in NM I'm assuming it's been warm/hot for a while so some deep trolling might be necessary...

I always go Crappie fishing with a black beetle spin with yellow stripes and a spinner. While we'd catch a lot of crappie, the stupid pike would always hit those as well. When you're fishing with ultralight gear the pike are just an annoyance. Never tried to fish for pike specifically, but it seems like whenever we were crappie fishing with those lures we'd haul in a number of small pike or broken lines on bigger ones.

We'll definitely be fishing for crappie as well. It's near the end of the good season for catching crappie in NM. With any luck I will inadvertently land a pike.

The water is definitely warming up. I heard that it was up to ~65 but I don't know how deep that measurement was taken. I'll give the trolling a try as well as try the weeds. I've seen Rapala at a couple stores but haven't seen Johnson's. I'll look for that Rapala tonight.

Ask Larry. He knows how to catch some Northerns - bigguns too.

Larry Dahlberg's Hunt for Big Fish

That's a good link. Several people have already asked the same question. I'm reading through responses now...

Doog_Si_Reeb said:

I'm heading to Navajo lake with a few buddies this weekend to do some fishing. I've always wanted to catch a northern pike but have never even seen one. Any tips, tricks, techniques, baits, lures that anyone has had great success with?

The fishing report said Navajo lake fishing was good for pike so I'm getting my hopes up. I have a few different crankbaits and various lures. Any advice you have would be much appreciated!

Click to expand...

Used to fish a lot of pike with my dad here in CO when I was a kid. We just trolled and they'd hit on anything shiny. Definitely use a steel leader - those buggers got sharp teeth!

jkarp said:

Definitely use a steel leader - those buggers got sharp teeth!

Click to expand...

I hadn't thought about that. I'll have to pick up a couple steel leaders. Also, is 12 lb line strong enough? Or should I use my reel with stronger line meant for snagging?

My dad used to hook a chub on a big treble hook and cast it off the pier with a big bobber on it. Then he'd go off into the kitchen or whatever, have a beer or two and keep an eye out for that bobber. He'd catch some huge northern that way.

Casting with a red Daredevil is an old standby, too.

Doog_Si_Reeb said:

I've seen Rapala at a couple stores but haven't seen Johnson's.

Click to expand...

It's basically a weedless spoon with a single hook positioned under the spoon.

Daredevele is also a good option.

Watch out for those teeth. My mother's father lost part of a finger to a pike. Aways carried a .22 stub-nose full of snake shot in his tackle box after that.

Yes, northern have sharp teeth, but they're nothing compared to a musky. Every once in awhile you hear reports of people having to get literally hundreds of stitches just because they were dangling their toes in the water. They musky struck, and made a bloody mess.

If you are using artificial baits I would try some big flatfish. If you can use live bait hook up a sucker, or a salamander.

Definitely use a wire leader. 12# is more than enough. The wire leader will cut down on the number if strikes you get but will help you land them. Last year I tried using fireline the 8# diameter version with good success without a wire leader. It might be in my head but I think I caught more fish without the wire leader, and didn't seem to lose anymore than normal. I like to use a mepps aglia in a #3 or #4 in red and white or a rapala J11 in black and gold

I'm in Ontario so it could be completely different but that what works for me.

Pike like flash, so you want a silvery flash with movement, like a Mepps, Dr Spoon, Daredevil, johnson silver minnow, etc. Bob said the Dr. Spoon is the best, but is expensive at about $5 or so. I'm not sure about warm water fishing, but that's what works around here.

Definitely use the leader, as already mentioned! Around here, pike are a PITA because we're usually fishing for something else and they are aggressive enough to be caught all the time! I don't like eating them, except one 24 inch pike is perfect for 1 quart of pickled pike.

YooperBrew said:

I don't like eating them, except one 24 inch pike is perfect for 1 quart of pickled pike.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the ones my Dad and I caught back in the early 80's here in CO were around 5 lbs. We usually tossed 'em back as they're so bony they're not worth eating. Good fighters tho.

i've always had great luck useing a red and white daredevil, the northerns just cant hepl themselves.

Doog_Si_Reeb said:

I'm heading to Navajo lake with a few buddies this weekend to do some fishing. I've always wanted to catch a northern pike but have never even seen one. Any tips, tricks, techniques, baits, lures that anyone has had great success with?

The fishing report said Navajo lake fishing was good for pike so I'm getting my hopes up. I have a few different crankbaits and various lures. Any advice you have would be much appreciated!

Click to expand...

Try a Red Devil spoon. Also, try trolling deep & fast. Don't lip them, they have sharp teeth. Good luck! Regards, GF.

jkarp said:

Yeah, the ones my Dad and I caught back in the early 80's here in CO were around 5 lbs. We usually tossed 'em back as they're so bony they're not worth eating. Good fighters tho.

Click to expand...

WHAT?? They got 1 line of bones! You can pull them out with pliers before you cook them!

I love Pike! Flaky and not really strong (although I don't mind strong fish personally).

Pike will hit about anything that interests them. Something decent sized that flashes. Spoons, etc. as has been named all seem to work. Crank baits of decent size too. If it's moving, they will often strike at it.

I've used red and white daredevils and other colors, weedless cranks, etc. Even tossed a chub or shiner on a treble hook and a bobber and sat back and ate sandwiches and dangled for perch while watching the bobber.

Steel leaders are a must, and please don't try to Lip them, like a bass...

Man, it's been a while since I fished for pike!

Doog_Si_Reeb said:

I hadn't thought about that. I'll have to pick up a couple steel leaders. Also, is 12 lb line strong enough? Or should I use my reel with stronger line meant for snagging?

Click to expand...

12lb test is absolutey strong enough. You can catch a 12lb fish (or larger) on 12lb test.

Excellent. Thanks for all the tips. I'm making one more lunch run to pick up a few more lures and spoons from Wally-World. I'll be looking for the red and white spoons as well as some flashy spoons. I hate to admit it because Wal-mart is the seventh circle of hell, but they have a pretty decent selection of fishing lures.

We're hitting the road tonight after work and hitting the lake first thing tomorrow morning. We'll see how it goes, but I feel better armed with some good ideas on how to find them and what to use.

I've also read up on how to fillet pike and how to remove the Y bones that people detest. I saw several sites where people say they like the way pike tastes even more than walleye! Man I hope I catch one!

Good luck! Tight lines!!

Pike is a great tasting fish! you waste a lot of meat cutting out the y bones but worth it.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3-GLr9bTXM"]This video[/ame] is the best exactly the way I do it

That's one of the videos I watched. Interesting method to cut off the strip on top of the spine. I'll probably give that method a try if I get one.

Use dynamite- Pike suck.

We keep having to poison lakes here because some ****** keeps introducing them. They destroy all other life.

Back to life!

How did you make out on your trip?


I went last week this was my biggest of the week at 9#

Gawd that pic makes me think of my much younger years!

We used to fish in the Bemidji area of MN, and catch them all day. Now we are in Idaho, and I don't get to pike fish much. There are a few in northern ID, but not in the desert SW around Boise.

Nice fish! Bet he fought like hell!