Icing Trophy PikeBy: Richard Sims

It’s really no secret at this point that pike eat everything. Minnows, perch, bluegills, crappie, bass, trout, other pike, birds, mice, frogs, crayfish, dead fish.. anything that fits in their mouth and will sustain them can easily make their next meal. This is probably the reason pike are so prolific and relatively easy to catch in the right conditions. But what about through the ice? Casting and retrieving fast-moving lures takes up the bulk of my spring, summer and fall time and becomes a near-impossibility when there’s a coating of hard water over the ecosystems pike call home. Hopefully with a little patience, perseverance, and this article, you’ll soon be on your way to locating and catching trophy northerns through a little hole in the lake.

Okay, so you pull up to a body of water. First thing to narrow down is find out if there are pike in that water and how plentiful they are. If they are the main predator and there’s a population issue, you can probably go set up at any likely spot. Finding perch or other panfish in numbers usually means the pike are nearby. If the pike are not plentiful in the waterbody you’ve chosen, you’ll likely have to do some searching and drilling. I use an underwater camera, not to find fish, but more to find likely pike habitat. Having a color LCD screen and lots of cable

helps me distinguish small features, like hidden panfish or simply green (live) weeds, or even subtle things like variations in sand.

What’s a likely pike spot? Well, in a few years fishing them through the ice, there are days that I’m baffled at the locations we catch pike. But usually when I hit the waterbodies in this area I’m looking for 15 – 20 feet of water with green vegetation at least nearby. Short weeds (moss and premature coontail) seem to be prime spots

for trophy fish. But more so than anything, find the panfish. If you can drop down a small jigging spoon or other bait down the hole and quickly get into a perch, crappie or bluegill, chances are there are pike in the vicinity. The larger the panfish in the spot, usually, the larger the pike will tend to be in the area. If you don’t have an underwater camera, flasher or sonar to be your underwater eyes; use a heavy spoon or bell sinker to probe bottom. This way you can determine with a rough estimate the depth and bottom composition of the area you’re fishing.

Find Panfish, Find Pike

Now you’ve located what you’re sure is the spot of all spots for catching Mr. Northern. What now? Well first of all leave the shiners at home. When it comes to big pike and the last 5 years of chasing them, I have seen only one fish come through a hole over 40” or even pushing that mark on a live emerald shiner. Plenty of 18 – 24” fish are caught on minnows, but those big girls have seen their fair share all through winter, and won’t waste their limited winter energy chasing baits that will not even fill their stomach. If you’re real interested in using lures – go big or go home. 5” spoons jigged aggressively, 5-8” Swimbaits, Offshore fishing grubs, giant wacky rigged senkos and even jigging lipless crankbaits can catch active pike. Keyword there being active. Unfortunately, that being said, I only come across the ‘active large pike’ situations about twice a season, if I’m lucky. I usually keep a spoon going in one hole, but your dead bait is your crutch. No matter what, keep a dead bait out there, inches from bottom (or the tops of the weeds if you’re fishing a weedbed).

“Dead bait”? Now you’re wondering if that was a misprint, right? No misprint. Not even a secret. The pike guys up north have been using dead bait since the 1800’s. It just seems to now be catching on in popularity in the southern reaches of Canada. What do I mean by dead bait? Well exactly as it sounds.. a big dead fish. You can use fish you’ve caught (I net suckers and shads in the fall) but if you’re hard up sardines, smelt and mackerel from the grocery store works almost as well. They’re usually sold in the frozen seafood section and run less than 5 bucks for enough to last a day or two. The greasy smell of a frozen sardine really seems to get those pike going.

“How do I rig this bulky frozen fish on an ice rod?” .. Well the answer is pretty simple. What you’ll need is a strong, heavy barrel swivel, 2 lengths of (preferably fluorocarbon) leader material in at least 40lb test (I use 80lb), and two large treble hooks (single hooks can also be used). You’ll want to tie one end of each lead to your barrel swivel at the top, with each lead attached to one treble hook. It should end up looking like a clumsy triangular rig. Stick one treble hook in just behind the head of the bait, and one opposite the adipose fin. You will end up with a perfectly horizontally sitting dead bait. This rig has accounted for 90% of our big pike in the last three seasons. Because the way the bait is rigged horizontally, and how pike tend to eat their prey in the winter months, the dead bait is rarely swallowed. In fact, it is almost always perfectly hooked in the tip or corner of the mouth of the pike.

Rob Hewitson with a Decent Pike that Fell Victim to Dead Bait Strategies

There are tips and tricks you can use to fine-tune your dead bait, live bait and lure rigs – but I figure those are things best learned through experience. The biggest secret I have to fishing trophy pike is – LOTS of patience. I fished a minimum of 2 days per week for 4 months last winter and landed three pike. My two biggest, 42” and 46”. My partner who actually fished more than I did caught one or two every trip – however never broke the 36” mark last season. Difference? I was fishing the less productive, slightly deeper spots and running two dead baits most of the time. I also didn’t move my rods around. When I drill a pike hole, it’s my hole. Moving the bait (at least my theory) confuses the larger fish and generally makes them more sceptical to bite. My largest pike last year was caught after almost 6 hours of waiting. Patience, perseverance, and a lot of walking!

I am in no way trying to come off as an ice expert. However in the last couple of years I have fine-tuned my pike fishing skills through hard water to the point where I think I can give general direction to those looking to try it out.

Whether you use my tips and tricks or not, happy fishing to you! Stay safe, sober, comfortable and warm out there on the ice folks. I hope you catch the biggest pike of your life this season. Thank you for reading.

Richard Sims

Host: Action Angling

This pike was caught within 3 feet of the shoreline, on a steep, sloping point.