Pike fishermen

[dirt nap giver]

Hey guys, I'm on my annual pike trip and am finding males at the mouth of spawning bays. I'm am racking my brain and am having a fart. Any ideas where to locate the females?
Thanks.

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[remmag]

Can't help with the pike, but good luck. Hope ya find em. Just got home from a week of steelhead camp, wishing I was back on the river!

Fish on!

[ Post made via Android ]

[whitetailassasin]

Hey guys, I'm on my annual pike trip and am finding males at the mouth of spawning bays. I'm am racking my brain and am having a fart. Any ideas where to locate the females?
Thanks.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

DNG, any cuts, creeks, or tributaries off said bays? I've found some monster female pike in these in the spring when the ice melts. A few years back, there was a creek that came in from a river on a golf course. I had permission to fish here, long story short there was a culvert that was dug around and it was about 75 yds long and 15 yds wide and maybe 4 ft deep. I pulled 5 females over 36 inches out of it and one that was 42. They were laying on the edges where the cattails were surrounding it. I've also many times over both spearing and walking the creeks fishing found really big pike in the creeks, rivers and tributaries off lakes, bays, etc. Just an observation of mine. Side note, there were 4 other female pike in this culvert that were all over 24 inches.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Dhurtubise]

find your 63 F water and above and you will find the big spawning females. Also, fish them slower than you would normally when you find them. Big swim baits are money this time of year. Dark bottom back bays and warm water tributaries really draw them in. Good luck. We still can ice fish up here.

[Dewey]

Here is a good article.......http://www.gameandfishmag.com/fishing/f ... aa036702a/

[Florida]

find your 63 F water and above and you will find the big spawning females. Also, fish them slower than you would normally when you find them. Big swim baits are money this time of year. Dark bottom back bays and warm water tributaries really draw them in. Good luck. We still can ice fish up here.

What he said... not that I have any idea personally, but he is very convincing. Good luck!

[dirt nap giver]

Thanks guys.
From my observation, and speaking to the local wildlife biologist, spawning has just ended. Which is why the males are at the mouth of the bay's. Water temps on the lakes are +\-43 degrees. Rivers are +\- 51 degrees.
We have caught a few smaller females at the mouths as well, along with 4-5 pound smallies. Clear water lakes have been non productive.
Big swim baits.......... Thanks! Chubs close to the boat might entice

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[Hodag Hunter]

With temps you posted I'll assume you're in the upper midwest. More than likely pike spawn is over. One if the 1st game fish to spawn, they sometimes spawn under rotting ice. I was in a WI DNR boat last weekend checking fyke nets for muskies spawning and worked up a few and all incidental pike catches were finished spawning.


I've found females to collect in certain bays.....even bays where they didn't spawn in the shallows. If no past experiance or history with the lake I start at bays with feeder cricks and bays on north side of the lake. Soft bottom over hard this time of year. North bays will warm first on a lake. This is usually your first ice to go also.

Dead bait is a better option the first few weeks after spawn. Once surface water is in the low 60 degree range they should have slid out to the 1st and 2nd breaks. Weed growth will be key and close to shallow weed beds to periodically slide shallow to feed. Artificial lures work great then and the bite can be exciting.

Fishing right after the spawn can be tough as the large females are lathargic but males can be easily caught yet

Good luck

[ Post made via Android ]

[Edcyclopedia]

With temps you posted I'll assume you're in the upper midwest. More than likely pike spawn is over. One if the 1st game fish to spawn, they sometimes spawn under rotting ice. I was in a WI DNR boat last weekend checking fyke nets for muskies spawning and worked up a few and all incidental pike catches were finished spawning.


I've found females to collect in certain bays.....even bays where they didn't spawn in the shallows. If no past experiance or history with the lake I start at bays with feeder cricks and bays on north side of the lake. Soft bottom over hard this time of year. North bays will warm first on a lake. This is usually your first ice to go also.

Dead bait is a better option the first few weeks after spawn. Once surface water is in the low 60 degree range they should have slid out to the 1st and 2nd breaks. Weed growth will be key and close to shallow weed beds to periodically slide shallow to feed. Artificial lures work great then and the bite can be exciting.

Fishing right after the spawn can be tough as the large females are lathargic but males can be easily caught yet

Good luck

[ Post made via Android ]

I was going to say the same thing.!
Even though I've never Pike fished:)

I love the word spawn; I used to use it at the bars trying to pick up females...

Just like Gold...
Hey babe - you want to spawn; they would line up waiting for a piece of Eddy - ohhh yeahhh!!!

And in any temperature!

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[Hodag Hunter]

I say it to my wife all the time...."drop the kids of somewhere for the night, we need a spawnfest."

It works about 25% of the time......a lot better percentage than my bar days. :)

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[BassBoysLLP]

[ Post made via Android ]

[olivertractor]

With temps you posted I'll assume you're in the upper midwest. More than likely pike spawn is over. One if the 1st game fish to spawn, they sometimes spawn under rotting ice. I was in a WI DNR boat last weekend checking fyke nets for muskies spawning and worked up a few and all incidental pike catches were finished spawning.


I've found females to collect in certain bays.....even bays where they didn't spawn in the shallows. If no past experiance or history with the lake I start at bays with feeder cricks and bays on north side of the lake. Soft bottom over hard this time of year. North bays will warm first on a lake. This is usually your first ice to go also.

Dead bait is a better option the first few weeks after spawn. Once surface water is in the low 60 degree range they should have slid out to the 1st and 2nd breaks. Weed growth will be key and close to shallow weed beds to periodically slide shallow to feed. Artificial lures work great then and the bite can be exciting.

Fishing right after the spawn can be tough as the large females are lathargic but males can be easily caught yet

Good luck

[ Post made via Android ]

I was going to say the same thing.!
Even though I've never Pike fished:)

I love the word spawn; I used to use it at the bars trying to pick up females...

Just like Gold...
Hey babe - you want to spawn; they would line up waiting for a piece of Eddy - ohhh yeahhh!!!

And in any temperature!

[ Post made via Android ]

Lol

[ Post made via Android ]

[dirt nap giver]

Most females get sick of having a snack and want a meal. So it helps to fish with big chubs.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[BassBoysLLP]

Most women get sick of having a snack and want a meal.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Careful. Pike are known to have eyes bigger than their pie hole.

[Dhurtubise]

With temps you posted I'll assume you're in the upper midwest. More than likely pike spawn is over. One if the 1st game fish to spawn, they sometimes spawn under rotting ice. I was in a WI DNR boat last weekend checking fyke nets for muskies spawning and worked up a few and all incidental pike catches were finished spawning.


I've found females to collect in certain bays.....even bays where they didn't spawn in the shallows. If no past experiance or history with the lake I start at bays with feeder cricks and bays on north side of the lake. Soft bottom over hard this time of year. North bays will warm first on a lake. This is usually your first ice to go also.

Dead bait is a better option the first few weeks after spawn. Once surface water is in the low 60 degree range they should have slid out to the 1st and 2nd breaks. Weed growth will be key and close to shallow weed beds to periodically slide shallow to feed. Artificial lures work great then and the bite can be exciting.

Fishing right after the spawn can be tough as the large females are lathargic but males can be easily caught yet

Good luck

[ Post made via Android ]

Yes, kind of. Just north of there. Our pike spawn when some ice is on the lakes too, but those fish will always seek out the warmest water the lakes have to offer until the main lake temps climb above 60 F. They stick around those areas for a few weeks, more even. In fact in the colder lakes, we'll hit those spots with tremendous success even in the first couple weeks of July. I guess our conditions are quite a bit different. By the time the 3' of ice melts, we are deep into the month of May. The forest snow has melted more than a month ago and thus the water coming in from the creeks are significantly warmer than lake water. When we find small stagnant creeks spilling into dark bottom bays 2-5' depths, those are money. In some of the waters we fish, we can pull out 100 fish over 10 lbs over a weekend, fishing the spots for 1-2 hours a day. You try and keep the 10-15 pounders of your line

North east dark bottom bays are the first things we hit on any new water we fish. Side channels of river systems where current floods lowlands are also super productive, especially if you have beaver channels in those flooded fields.