Best Open Water Pike Lure

[shrub]

Anything alive... big shiner, sucker, rat, mouse, duckling 

me and my buddies were thinking about going to the pet store and getting soem guineia pigs one day to try for bait, a little pricey thougth.

[Hood]

DUDE, not joking here, use white mice....wrap a treble hook on em with a rubber band then float em out on a wooden shingle or somethin similar, twitch em off and they go nuts all over the surface and get slammed. kills 2 peta birds with one stone 

[Mackdaddy21]

I have settled on the top six pike lures for the waters I fish:

1. Spinnerbait
2. Jointed Minnow
3. Soft Plastic Jerkbait
4. Sassy shad with jighead and spinner head
5. Buzzbait
6. Large In - Line Spinner

[princecraft]

I want to try trolling for northern this fall.  Will be using cranks, traps and other trolled crankbaits.  My question is do you need a wire leader when trolling these lures, or do they generally not bite you off while trolling?

[Water Wolf]

 Hi princecraft, I would recommend using a wire leader anytime you are fishing for pike, those toothy critters can cut fishing lines like a hot knife through butter. They are not usually line shy unless heavily pressured, if you find a leader reduces bites, you may try a leader made from heavy fire line,but, still risk a bite off. There are also titanium leader but they are very pricey. Good luck this fall 

WW

[Mackdaddy21]

Hi princecraft, I would recommend using a wire leader anytime you are fishing for pike, those toothy critters can cut fishing lines like a hot knife through butter. They are not usually line shy unless heavily pressured, if you find a leader reduces bites, you may try a leader made from heavy fire line,but, still risk a bite off. There are also titanium leader but they are very pricey. Good luck this fall 

WW

Water Wolf is right, unless you lose wire you risk a bite off. However using heavy fluorocarbon will make it very hard for a pike to bite you off. Fireline is hard to bite off too but they can.

However I find pike to be VERY leader shy here in Colorado and unless you are fishing murky water, DO NOT use wire leaders. I don't care what Doug Stange says, he is wrong and wire scares pike. Ditching the wire is critical, especially in places like Colorado where pike are very finicky and often difficult to catch.

I have landed 103 northerns this year and had five bite offs. Three of those on regular mono, only two on 15 pound p - line fluorocarbon leaders. I always wondered why it was so hard to catch pike around here, and now I know. I used wire leaders and now I do not. Now I always catch at least a couple pike. It is that simple.

Besides using wire is really hard when fishing with spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, which in my mind are the two best pike lures around.

[fisher rich]

 Casting a number 5 Mepps, silver and/or gold, a johnson spoon, or a giant live minnow on a drift. Just use 12# test mono with a swivel for the lures and you will not lose many on bite-offs. The last time I used coated wire leaders was 1964!

[fishuhalik]

In my personal experience a 10" Suick jerked over about 6-14' fow in cabbage has produced most of my biggest open water pike, especially in the fall.  I've also had real good luck with a 9-12" sucker with just a hook on it.  I throw it out over the cabbage and slowly retrieve it, just keeping it above the weeds.  Obviously the lake I am fishing is very clear and I'm using polarized glasses, but I get some mean strikes doing this.  But heck, I've caught some big guys while fishing for bluegills with a waxie, too!

[Skipper]

Troll a super shad rap, they smash them.

[pikemaster789]

live bluegill always works best or perch

lure though, my unstopable is a firetiger rapala

[Pikeguy]

A good sized Mepps..or any bucktail for that matter is my favorite.

[MasterAngler]

#1 for me would be bulldawgs, especially when its slow going for the big ones, followed by mepps cyclops, black furys, johnson silvers, sluggos and daredeveles.  And I can't forget a bunny leech for a fly.

[arthur]

If I absolutely had to choose....these are all fun to fish with and work great.

1. Mepps #5 in Red and White
2. Dardevle in Red and White
(gotta love the classics)
3. White Spinnerbaits
4. Husky Jerks
5. Jighead/grubs in white or chart.

[buzzbomb]

A  "go - to " selection?  Len thompson spoons 5 of diamonds in yellow and red, asst. sizes in red and white, black and white or the green and black frog pattern for overcast days and the Original Floating Rapala.  You can put an original Rap as deep or shallow as you want with line weights but it's got to be the best top water lure around. (No bass here so I don't know about that, but for pike, yes, maybe take off some of the hooks, though.)

I'm bumping this up because I finally managed to download this pic of the tomic lures.  They're a left coast salmon plug and move so well I've had a seagull grab one off the surface and try to fly away with it!

[1tigger]

It really depends on the time of year. In the spring, I like suspending jerkbaits like huskyjerks and Smithwick Rogues, and soft plastic jerkbaits. In the summer smaller swimbaits like rapalas, spinnerbaits, and  Mepps bucktail spinners work. In the fall I like BIG spinners, 10" Fin-S fish soft jerkbaits (great around boats and docks), and big spoons (red/white daredevil, 5 o'Dimonds).

For colors....firetiger, perch, white and silver, silver/black, hot orange/Chart.

This gentelman is the Man With The Plan ! The only addition I can think I will also use is a Johnson Silver Minnow with a red hula skirt or a black silver minnow with a black skirt .