Great article on Pike by Corey Schmidt in May In-Fisherman.

Comment

Comment by Slip Sinker on April 6, 2018 at 2:14pm

Exactly Jim!... Smelt was a great bait

I remember my Dad taking care of the bait… he would get it the year before during the smelt runs later on in spring… freeze it till late ice and ice-out the following year. … frozen Herring also worked for us.

Makes me want to go out now and give it a try… 3-4” of snow on the ground though!

Comment by jim cosgrove on April 6, 2018 at 1:04pm

Frozen smelt on a quick strike rig has always been a good choice for ice out pike in the great lakes region.Chicken liver is a well known bait for hybrid stripers in the Illinois cooling lakes.The thinking is shad get torn up in the turbines and the fish learn to feed on them.Not uncommon to find a dead pike that has swallowed another pike of a slightly smaller size.Have found a few bass that died the same way,

Comment by John Sheehan on April 6, 2018 at 10:17am

I 've noticed the scavenger nature of pickerel by catching them dead sticking also.

Comment by Slip Sinker on April 6, 2018 at 9:58am

I once hooked a large SMB with a 24” N.Pike trying desperate to take the deep diver from its mouth. While dragging the SMB onto shore the N.Pike hooked itself on one of the trebles and I momentarily had a dbl header on… the N.Pike eventually shook off before the landing net was employed. Exciting none the less.

I hear ya on the Y.Perch being cannibalistic. I caught many thru the ice on Y.Perch colored baits... one of my favorite color patterns.

One thing though the article didn't cover pertaining to the N.Pike and its nature. N.Pike are very effective scavengers also. Effectively roaming the shallow bays looking for winter kill etc. very big N.Pike fishing pattern my dad and I used to use late ice and early ice out with dead bait suspended on or near the bottom.

Basically I don’t fish for N.Pike with the tiny baits… more or less used to consider them incidental tags when fishing for panfish. Nowadays tag them so often we expect the predator tags as common place... But when I feel like targeting them I go after them with the long jerk baits, slender spoons and spinner baits like you.

Comment by John Sheehan on April 6, 2018 at 7:42am

And you know Slip, I've heard Perch are Cannibals too and I have caught at least one on a Perch Patterned Rapala. I wonder how far these principles extend to other species !

Comment by John Sheehan on April 6, 2018 at 7:30am

Yes Slip , thought of you right away reading the article ,.So Kleptoparasitism may explain why Pike and i guess pickerel will tend toward small baits they can wolf down immediately and not have stolen from them . Of course I still think the big guys in the lake who aren't worried about being challenged will favor the energy expenditure principle and go for big bait. Like my 27.5" Pickerel that grabbed a #5 Mepps Aglia spinner .

 But, I have lost small spoons to the average size Pickerel enough to know that Kleptoparasitism and Cannabalism are on the minds of some fish and maybe the majority at times.I recently bought three Eagle Claw Micro wire Leaders to use with small spoons and the spoons action doesn't seem inhibited.

Comment by Slip Sinker on April 5, 2018 at 2:30pm

excellent magazine and author...

Some great points covered on big N.Pike… Kleptoparasitism and Cannabilism… actions I have witnessed out on the water… amazing fishes.

A couple other points I feel worth mentioning in the article is keeping the small N.Pike is essential to grow the big ones. I for myself need to learn to harvest and clean the smaller ones.

Large N.Pike like small bites… an incredible day last august when I hooked (3) 30” class N.Pike in less than 25 mins on gulp waxies… it was incredible. This article verifies that behavior.