In the cooler regions of North America, northern pike offer heart-pounding adventure.
Agressive, powerful, and full of fight, few freshwater species can match the pike pound for pound.
And once winter releases its grip and the ice melts, it’s well and truly time to hit northerns hard! But that can be tough unless you really understand pike, what they’re looking for, and where they’ll be headed at ice out.
If you want to know more about catching spring pike, keep reading.
I’ll cover everything you need to know.
Northern Pike Basics
The better you understand pike biology and behavior, the better armed you’ll be when you hit the water.
Northern pike, or Esox lucius as biologist know it, is a hyper-aggressive predatory species common across northern latitudes the world over.
Native to much of the upper Midwest, it prefers cool temperatures, clear water, and plenty of aquatic vegetation to provide cover for ambush – and plenty of prey!
Description and identification
Long and muscular, a pike’s body is shaped for power and speed. And while pike will cruise just beneath the surface, hungting actively, they’re far more likely to hole up in ambush, launching themselves like a torpedo at anything – and I do mean anything – that looks like a meal. That stream-lined shape and powerful musculature allow the pike to launch itself at lightning speed from ambush, and there’s nothing in your local lake that they can’t chase and catch if they want to.
Pike are relatively distinctive from most other freshwater species: look for a long, powerful body covered indistinct olive green scales that fade to a yellowish-white underside. Their sides sport elongated pale spots, and their head is long and pointed. Expect large eyes high on the head, providing excellent binocular vision for judging distance.
When you land a northern pike, you’re unlikely to mistake it for a bass, walleye, or lake trout, but they can be confused with the muskie, as well as muskie/pike hybrids. Given the slow reproduction of muskie, it’s essential that you accurately identify your catch if you’re keeping fish for the table, especially if muskie are native to the area you’re fishing.
If you’re unsure about proper identification, check out this article.
Size
In North America, pike get big, but not as big as they do across the pond in Europe.
That said, in prey-rich conditions, northern pike can reach a weight of nearly 50 pounds. Most pike are smaller than that, and it’s common to catch them in the range of 20 inches or so, where they’ll weigh in at about 4 pounds.
Reproduction
This species reproduces quickly, and although mortaility is high among small pike, they’re in ni danger from sportsmen like you.
Pike spawn when the watyer reaches a cool 48 F, and for their fry to hatch, those temps need to remain above 43 F for the eggs to survive and hatch.
The males are the first to transition from deeper water to spawning shallows, followed closely by the females a week or two later.
Pike spawn in relatively shallow water, typically among cat tails and other vegetation. This gives immature pike (and fry) a place to hide from other pike, as well as a place to hunt and grow. But due to their hyper-aggression, most fry won’t survive to adulthood.
Habitat
Pike prefer clear, slow-moving or still water, and they’re intolerant of high temperatures. As a result, you won’t find them in the warmer regions of the country.
This species thrives in water temperatures below 70 F, and the cooler the water – within reason – the larger the pike get! In face, trophy pike need water temps in the 50-55-degree range to reach their full potential.
Lakes, reservoirs, and ponds with abundant aquatic vegetation, especially those with rocky or sandy bottoms, are prime locations to find them hunting.
Feeding behavior
Pike generally hunt by ambushing prey as it swims past. Blessed by nature with incredible eyesight, pike are best able to feed in clear water, where they can see at distance and detect prey. They also have excellent low-light vision, making overcast days, especially with “walleye chop” great times to find them actively hunting. Dawn, dusk, and other low-light conditions favor the pike over its prey, and bright sunny days are probably not the best weather for this species.
Aquatic vegetation, rock piles, points, drop offs, and other structure allow pike to find a place to hide. They’ll find a good spot and remain still, just using tiny sweeping motions of the last fin rays of the dorsal and pectoral fins. Motionless, the wait before exploding from an “S-shaped” posture into sudden, blazing speed.
And to describe pike as “voracious” doesn’t really do them justice!
Northern pike are so aggressive that they’ll suicidally attack prey too large to swallow, resulting in death.
Pike are laregely piscovorous, but anything in the water is fair game: rodents, birds, snakes, lizards, fish of all kinds, and even other pike.
And as you can see from these pictures, pike aren’t shy about hitting large prey!
Pike tend to bite prey items from the side, only later maneuvering their meals head-first into their mouths.
This is a critical detail for anglers using live bait: you must wait a few seconds to set your hook after a pike hits your bait. Otherwise, you won’t be sure that the hook is in the pike’s mouth at all!
Spring behavior
Pike weren’t troubled by ice-over, and cold water temps didn’t really slow them down all that much, unlike bass and other warmer-water species.
But iceout is a big time for pike, in part because you’ll find them in motion, slowly transitioning to shallow spawning areas as the water hits the low 40s. In some areas, pike season is closed during ther spawn, so be sure to check your local regulations and always follow the rules!
Pike will have stayed in the deeper parts of the lake during the winter, but with the ice gone and temps rising, they’ll transition to shallow bays and flats with sandy or rocky bottoms and plenty of aquatic plant life. As I mentioned before, the males will make this move first, followed by the females, and until the spawn actually starts, pike will be feeding very actively.
They may be a tad slower than they will be later in the spring, when warmer water temperatures will provide them with more energy, but you better believe hungry pike will be looking for an easy meal as the days get longer and the snow melts.
By late spring, when the water is the 50s or 60s, the pike will be hyper-agressively feeding. As Greg Keefer explains, “Most pike begin feeding heavily when the water temperatures reach the 55- to 60-degree range and go into the spring feeding frenzy when it climbs to 65 degrees.”
Tips and Tricks
Catching pike isn’t hard once you know where to find them.
Search channels
Early in the spring, pike will hunt channel edges, especially where you find live weed beds.
They’ll still be just considering transitioning while the water is still in the high 30s, and the first place I’m headed is a clearly-defined channel, large depression, or other deep structure.
Using good fishing electronics, identify those edges and structures and work them hard. It’s important that you’re thorough with your casting and work every inch of water as early-spring pike are less likely to chase your lures.
Look for weeds
Channels with live weed beds on their edges are a great place to start your search. They provide cover for prey items, plenty of oxygen, and places for the pike to wait in ambush. Don’t worry about sandy shallows just yet; the pike won’t be there until the water hits 40 F or so.
But featureless bottoms and open water aren’t where pike hunt, and where I don’t see weeds or other aquatic plants, I’m probably not going to bother casting.
Pike like cover of all kinds, and they’ll hold close to blow downs, rock piles, logs, submerged trees, and anything else that provides cover – but that cover needs to offer habitat for prey items, too, which makes living vegetation your best bet.
Run-off and feeder creeks
Snow melt, rain, and feeder creeks and streams sweep all sorts of meals into the water, and pike will lay in wait where these water sources meet the main body of a lake or pond.
If those inflows are muddying the water, expect pike to stick to the edges of those turbid areas, where their keen sight provides an advantage.
Choke points
If you can identify a choke point where the water narrows creating a funnel through which prey must pass, you can bet your life that pike will be hanging out near this feature, sticking close to cover and holding tight to weeds, grass, and other vegetation.
Shallow bays
Male pike will reach their spawning grounds when the water rises above the low 40s, and they can be targeted in just a few feet of water until the spawn ends.
Then, both males and females will resume feeding agressively, and you can find them dispersed in shallow water, typically above 15 feet in depth to even just inches.
Techniques
Their insatiable appetite leaves pike vulnerable to a variety of techniques. Whatever you choose, a strong leader is essential to guard against all those sharp teeth!
Live bait
Shiners, smelt, suckers: pretty much any small fish will be attractive to hungry pike.
I like to rig mine under a slip float, using a #6 treble and a steel leader. A bit of split shot at the end of your mainline will help your bait to sink properly.
And while there are a number of ways to rig live bait for pike, I prefer to run my treble just in front of the dorsal fin.
Why?
Remember, pike hit their prey from the side, and a centrally placed hook is going to connect more often than one in the head or tail. And it’s essential that you wait after the pike sinks your bobber, setting the hook when it stops or changes direction!
Lures
But my favorite way to catch pike is to throw an effective lure, and the good news is that there are plenty of good options to choose from.
Hard-bodied swim baits
Easily a top choice for pike, a hard-bodies swim bait can be nothing short of murder fished properly.
The 6th Sense Flow Glider 130 offers 5 inches of wriggling, attention-grabbing action
I also really like Truscend’s Swimmax. The eight-segmented design and color patterns work well for me, and the swimming action is fantastic.
I’ve found several different techniques work well with these hard bodies.
When I identify those channel edges in early spring, I run these down them with a steady, slow retrieve. This early in the season, I don’t generally go for erratic darting action or rapid starts and stops, but if the pike are feeding hard, treating these lures a bit like a jerkbait – jerking them on slack line – can really get them turning back on their tails and keep them in the strike zone longer.
As the water warms up, I’m a big fan of getting these guys moving, forcing an erratic turn, and letting them glide to a stop. When the water’s in the 40s or 50s, this is nothing short of murder!
Soft-bodied swim baits
A swim jig sweeted with a big trailer is never a bad idea for pike.
6th Sense’s Divine is simply fantastic. I throw the 1/2-ounce in natural colors.
I sweeten my swim jigs with a variety of soft plastics: 6-inch Zoom lizards, Yamamoto ”D” Shad, Keitech Fat Swing Impact paddle tails – you get the idea.
I vary the size and action as conditions – and the bite – changes.
I throw this combo in several different ways.
In early spring, much like the hard bodies, I’ll swim this combo slowly down the side of a channel, right over or next to live weed beds. As water temperature warm up, I’ll get more aggressive with my presentation, and I’ll run this pike killer into every stick, branch, weed, and rock I can find to create darting deflections that trigger reaction strikes.
I also sometimes pulse my rod tip on a steady retrieve to get the swim bait rising and falling in the water column. I find that this technique works well if I let me lure dip into the top of live weeds and rip it through.
Crankbaits
Small, medium, and large crankbaits can be money for spring pike fishing as they allow you to target a precise depth, cover a lot of water quickly, and create darting deflections that trigger strikes.
Realistic, natural options are the way to go, and among them, I count the Berkley Flicker Shad as a great choice. Patterns like “HD Bluegill,” “HD Emerald Shiner,” and “HD Fathead Minnow” are real winners in water as clear as vodka, and the tight wriggle really works to cover water effectively.
I typically opt for the 1-1/2 inch, 1/8-ounce models in early spring, and I don’t try to burn them through the water.
Instead, I’ll run them into the tops of live weed beds adjacent to channels or drop offs, ripping them clear of the salad before plunging them back into the very tops again. This grass cutting method really draws pike in for a hit.
As the water warms up and I’m working the shallow, I pitch these guys into the weeds. I know, that sounds crazy with two trebles ready to snag, but hear me out. The magic of crankbaits is that the lip forces a head-down orientation, keeping the sharp hooks behind and above the head. It’ll snag a lot less than you think, and the subtle darts and turns crated by impact with grass ring the dinner bell for hungry pike.
Strike King’s KVD Square Bill is another great option. I like the 5/8-ounce for working the shallows, as it dives to three to five feet reliably, runs in tight wriggles, and just plain slams pike when you choose the right patterns. My secret weapon is “Nude,” a clear model that’s far more enticing than you might think in very clear, clean water.
A big Yo-Zuri minnow never hurt, either, and you can count on these guys to get hammered all spring.
Spoons
Spoons are a classic pike lure that have been landing trophies for decades.
A 3/4-ounce Dardevel weedless spoon is super effective in spring, especially if you rip it through weed beds next to a drop off or channel, or run it down the side of submerged vegetation. The weedless design really helps to avoid snags and trash, and pike can’t get enough of the Dardevel’s distinctive wobble and flash.
Lucky Strike Bait Works’ Half Wave Spoon is no slouch either, and as the water warms up, that red and silver combo becomes irresistable.
Spinners
Big in-line spinners like a 1/2-ounce Rooster Tail can be deadly, and they work really well as search lures to cover a lot of water, too. White is one of my go-to colors, and with bthat big silver blade, you’ll get plenty of flash and thump.
Run them down the side of cover, over the tops of weed beds, or around stumps and blowdowns and hold on!
The Blue Fox Classic Vibrax is a legendary pike lure, and if you’re not throwing this in-line spinner, you’re missing a lot of attention from pike. The 3/8-ounce version is a full 4 inches long, and you better believe that pike won’t leave it alone. The 1/4-ounce size 3 is also a getter, and I like both in silver.
There’s something about all that flash and vibration that triggers pike – they don’t wait, thjey don’t think, they just bite!
I also like spinnerbaits like Booyah’s Pikee. This 1/2-ounce spinnerbait features two willow blades that add a lot of flash and vibration, and their shape helps to keep this lure higher in the water column – and a bit faster – than Colorado blades would. I think that’s a good thing when you’re running this spinner through grassy, weedy shallows.
Personally, I skip the bright hues and day-glo colors for pike, even in low light, and run colors like “Midnight.” That subtely in clear water works for me, and I’ll bet it will work for you, too.
I run these bad boys down edges and weedlines with a steady retrieve in early spring, adding a pump every now and then as the water warms up. In the shallows, once the water gets warmer, I’ll throw these into grass and whatnot, varying my retrieve and cadence until I find what the pike are looking for.
On cloudy days with a light breeze, when the sunlight is low and dappled under water, black spinners with silver blades can be just the thing you want!
And last, but definitely not least, The Berserker from Delong Lures is a must have. Yeah, it’s a bit pricey, but you’ve never fished anything that pike like more.
Thump, flash, vibration: this lure’s got it all, and running this over the top of a weed bed, along the side of a point, or past lillies or cattails will make you a believer.
