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Crock Hunters
By Jason Mitchell

Fish that don’t budge on the hook set appeal to anglers. After all, most of us fish because we like to feel something tugging on the end of the line. Some fish tug harder than others and one of the hardest tugging fish that we encounter under the ice are mean, nasty northern pike. Big pike are about as exciting of a fish you can expect to encounter under the ice and what’s better, these predators like to eat. A northern pike’s stomach is its weakness much like the rut is the weakness of big bucks. This willingness to eat all winter makes them great fish to target on the ice.

Serious pike fishing requires some beefed up terminal tackle not to mention a rod and reel capable of handling screeching runs and brute power. We like thirty to thirty six inch medium heavy action spinning and bait casting rods paired up with good reels. These rods might seem a bit on the short side for powerful fish but being able to stay close enough to the hole to get rid of the Vexilar transducer and see down the hole to start the fish is important. We also like to use 14 pound test Fireline for the main line and often tie a six-inch steel leader above the lure.

First ice and last ice are prime times to find big pike in shallow water and pike seem to run the gamut as to what kind of lake environment they will set up shop. We often find good pike in the back bays, main lake points, offshore rock piles and anywhere else shallow water meets deep at first ice. Weeds are always a plus but we catch an awful lot of pike where there are no weeds as well. From what we can find, most of the pike we catch aren’t necessarily hiding somewhere waiting for something to swim by. Pike often seem to pick an area and cruise and patrol the edges.

That being said, focus your effort on edges. The edge could be where the bottom of the lake meets ice (we often find pike in inches of water especially at last ice). Weed lines, drop offs and changes in bottom are also classic edge spots. Figure out the general depth pattern that pike are holding and focus on finding edges. Most of the year, we find most of the pike in less than twenty feet of water so that eliminates an awful lot of water on most lakes.

When actively jigging for pike, I and many other anglers have gotten away from using bait. In fact I have really fallen in love with plastics. I first used plastics on a lake trout fishing trip on Whitefish Bay in Ontario. We couldn’t use bait where we were ice fishing. We fished a lake trout guru by the name of Rick Wood. Rick had been perfecting a system of putting giant lake trout on the ice with nothing more than plastics for years. A pioneer of sorts, Rick’s tackle box looked like it might have come out of a bass boat. Rubber tubes, shad bodies, tails, in an assortment of colors were squeezed into a tub that wasn’t the typical ice fishing tackle box. Needless to say, we fished with Rick for about a week in some of the clearest water you could imagine sight fishing for lake trout.

Huge Devils Lake Pike The light bulb came on and I couldn’t wait to try this tactic back home on Devils Lake, North Dakota and I had the perfect fish in mind, northern pike. I started adding rubber to large Lindy Walleye Flyers and found that the squiggly stuff often out fished the real stuff. In fact, the plastics seemed better because you didn’t have to worry about your bait falling off and you could switch sizes and color so easy

. I also started to customize spoons by removing the treble and adding a large single hook in which I would hook a rubber body onto the hook at about a forty-five degree angle. This angled body really had a lot of action in the water and could really be twitched when a big pike got close. The plastics also stayed on the hook better when hooked this way as well.

Needless to say, when a big pike slides in like a torpedo and hits these lures out of pure anger, the end result is an awful lot of fun. Across much of the upper Midwest, pike are abundant and often overlooked. You can’t help but love a fish however that will completely devour a large rubber salamander or squid, break you off and come back for more. Yes, pike are a good winter fix. Jigging for large predators like northern pike is an experience that can leave you shaking. Tip ups aren’t the only way to tangle with these beasts.

Editors Note: The author, Jason Mitchell is a highly respected guide on North Dakota's Devils Lake and also operates deluxe sleeper fish house rentals (701) 351-1890.

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