Adam Johnson Outdoors • Reading Outdoors

Pike are Fun Too

By Adam Johnson

On many a day that I have been chasing walleyes on deep structure or bass in the slop it's been the pike that has made my day. When those walleyes are tight lipped and the bass won't explode on my topwater lures I can almost always count on the northern pike to provide some action.

Pike love lurking in vegetation and many times a spinnerbait slowly retrieved over the tops of some cabbage or coontail will generate a number of bites. There are plenty of other great ways to entice the pike to bite. Here is one of my favorites.

Northern pike love the base of the weedline. I've also discovered they love a plastic worm. A great way to present a plastic worm for pike is on a standard quarter-ounce leadhead jig. The problem with this presentation is that those pike have sharp teeth and can bite the lure right off the line if you don't use a wire leader.

The best wire leader for jig-worming pike is the lightweight stranded wire that you can actually tie knots into. They make a five-pound test stranded wire that works exceptionally well for this technique and you can tie one end right to the jig and one end to a small barrel swivel on the line. This works better than those heavy stranded wire leaders that have the big clips on them. Those heavier leaders just don't allow the lighter jigs to hop, skip, and swim well.

The best plastic trailer is a worm with an auger tail. When you move the lure the tail twists and swims and this action gets a reaction from any pike that are close by. Use about ten inches of wire between the jig and line and you won't lose the lure or the fish.

Present the jig in a vertical fashion right over the edge of the boat. This way you can position the boat right on the edge of the vegetation and work the base of that weedline thoroughly.

Drop the jig to the bottom and raise it about a foot or so. Snap the rod tip, let the jig settle, then twitch the lure a few times before snapping it again. When the pike hits, you will know it.

It's a good thing there are northern pike swimming in the waters where I do a lot of my recreational fishing. That way when the deep rocks are hiding all the walleyes and the lilypads are shading all the sleeping bass I can still bend the rod tip on a northern pike or two.