Pike Fishing in a smaller inland lake....

[UP_ROKTOY]

I have caught a fair amoung of pike on my lake, mostly through the ice. However I have also caught some pike with a rod and reel in the boat, mostly on accident. The thing is I want to catch some pike on purpose. My lake is fairly shallow and has a few holes, but not many. It is very gradual from shore all the wway to the average depth of 10 foot or so, with a few spots going 20-30 ft. Lots of weed beds, black muck bottom for the most part. The couple pike I did catch on accident were small and on Black and silver rapalas. I have lots of mepps spinners and an assortment of spoons. I have a boat, so I can troll, or drift. I am looking for some early spring suggestions for catching a few pike this spring.

HELP?!?:fish:

[ESOX]

Most inland lakes are closed to pike fishing in early spring. The ones that are open have large populations that can be found in back bays and around creek mouths, particularly on the north shore.

[alex-v]

Esox,

I thought that all inland waters were closed to Pike fishing from March 15th through till the last Saturday in April. Do you have a list of the open lakes or is there one available on-line?

[UP_ROKTOY]

I guess I am still on my UP schedule thinking April is early spring. Regardless I wuold like to try and hit some pike come april/may time frame and would like to start getting some tips between now and then.

Are there some lakes that are open to pike right now?

[ESOX]

Esox,

I thought that all inland waters were closed to Pike fishing from March 15th through till the last Saturday in April. Do you have a list of the open lakes or is there one available on-line?

Look in the regs on the DNR website or in your license brochure. The open lakes will be listed in the "Exceptions By County" listing. There are also lakes with special regs regarding size, possession, tackle for various species. I always check that section before heading to any inland water.

[ESOX]

Here is the link:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/exceptions-by-county_151598_7.pdf

[alex-v]

Look in the regs on the DNR website or in your license brochure. The open lakes will be listed in the "Exceptions By County" listing. There are also lakes with special regs regarding size, possession, tackle for various species. I always check that section before heading to any inland water.
The listing of lakes with No Size Limit and liberal possesion limits is already marked in my 2006-08 guide. Forgot about the listing of Exceptions by County so I am going to have to go through that looking for lakes that might be open. Might make for an interesting weekend drive just to see the lake.

[duckman#1]

Troll with a white mister twister or med size daredevil spoons. Use bright colors. I actually use salmon spoons and they do great at getting pike ( they love those bright colors).
change up speeds and don't forget to try by the weed edges.

[alex-v]

Dang, can't find any inland waters that are open. But, I am going to have to give some thought to more of the lakes listed in the No Size Limit section of the guide. I just noticed some counties that I had not thought about earlier.

[PIKERPETE]

When you do figure out when you are going out for inland lake Pike I would try the following. Casting or trolling Spinnerbaits yellow green or white, double blades I like the Northlanders they sell at Gander Mountain. I have also been having luck banging Pike by with 1/2 oz silver blade Panther Martin with yellow body with red dots on sunny days, black body and gold blade on cloudy days, only available from Cabelas, the Rapala Jointed shad raps (2nd biggest size) has also been a slammer for Pike both trolled and casting, the x-rap last year also produced a lot of Pike. As a matter of fact last week I caught a nice Pike in Florida - aka "Chain Pickerel" last thursday on a white spinnerbait.Good Luck in the hunt for Esox Lucious! There sure are a lot of them in the inland lakes. They never get the respect they deserve!

Pete

[DZtaxidermy]

I have had good luck on your lake casting spinnerbaits over the weedbeds. We have gotten some nice fish in the 32 to 35 inch range.

[superfishingfreak]

hey my friend and i fish GunLake all the time for pike and thats a pretty shallow lake too..... we usually catch a pike a day on what we use and we use is a red and white daredevil....they're our favorite lures and catch not only pike but bass too...... daredevils are one of my favorite lures to use.

[fire-tiger]

Once the season opens back up I will use Daredevle spoons in red and white or firetiger / chartruse casting on the drop-offs until the water warms a little.

The fun really starts with the first emerging weed beds in early May. Brightly colored spinnerbaits ( white, pink, chartruse, melon) thrown and retrieved as quick as you can crank along the tops of emergent beds gets some of the most fun fishing of the year for me.

The pike really slow down as the water warms into the 70's and I believe alot of the mature fish retreat to the colder depths for the summer.

[redneckman]

Try using a chrome 1/2 oz. Rattle-L-Trap. Crank it fast around weed edges and drop offs. I caught so many on one last year it is now white from the chrome finish getting chewed off. Also a large hot-n-tot with a rattle works well. Anything the shines works great.

Redneckman

[Dedicated Sportsman]

Use a red and yellow mepps agilia in size 4. They sure do smack those mepps!

[ESOX]

Right after the season opens up, I would use Devils Horses, big poppers or buzzbaits, start out looking in the deeper water in the spawning bays or close near by. (by deeper I mean 4-7').

[MrBluegill]

any shad like spoon or daredevl.......but make shure you dont give it to much speed thos pike arnt ready to move fast for a bait water is still to cold!

[jstfish48162]

i'll second that ESOX.....fishing a Devils Horse for pike is great fun. just like you see the guys on T.V. fishing for peacock bass.....rip-pause-rip-rip-pause-SLAM!!!!! it's amazing what a pike will do to that bait. i had one day on Fletchers Pond where the pike were coming out of the water and a couple actually hit the side of our boat in mid-air. it got almost scary:yikes: they are vicious predators, thats for sure.

[davev]

I like a weedless Johnson's silver minnow with a white twister tail

[CubanFisherman]

Live kittens. :evilsmile


(I'm just being facetious.)


(Or am I?):evil:

[wolverine301]

Daredevils are the best trolling pike lure ever. Troll slowly to cover more ground rather than casting. If the lake holds good number of pike you'll kill 'em.