Northern Pike

Techniques and Lures

Use 10 lb line, with a good quality 9" black wire leader with good ball bearing swivels and cross-lock snaps. Try a weedless rapala spoon, in silver, polished brass, silver/blue and orange/green. Cast to a weedy spot and rip it through.  Other good lures include the daredevil series, red and white or five of diamonds, mepps spinners, and spinners with a frog or two-tail twister in white and yellow. Make sure you have long-handled hook removers on board.  Find a weedy bay or inlet, cast into or onto shore and take the bait back to the boat at a medium speed retrieve. Dont be afraid to move around; once you find one fish, you will find more. Pay close attention as your lure hits water, as pike may hit it as soon as it lands. Best action is generally dawn until late morning.

• Flies. Try Mega Divers in colours that match the Pike's most common food source (suckers, perch, walleye, etc.).  I tie some of mine on weedless hooks for use in heavy  weed cover but prefer to fish either along the weedlines or around weed clumps such as coontail or cabbage weeds. Other patterns that will work well are large streamers, or what I call big flirts which have the size and appearance of a mega diver, but are tied with lead eyes, wool, and saddle hackle instead of deer hair.
• Five-o-diamonds. The #1 pike killer no matter what lake you fish. By far the best pike killer. It's a yellow spoon with five red dimonds on it. Use a six inch black leader.
• My favourite is a black body and orange bladed spinner bait. It's great for all types of conditions. Also, big silver or gold salmon spoons.
• Little Cleo. Try the orange/gold and blue/silver combinations.

Some Places to Go

• Belleville Area. Good incidental catches in the quiet bays around Belleville.
• Canal Lake. Near Kirkfield, by the second bridge for shore pike. Fish minnows on the bottom; morning is the best time.
• Clairville Dam. Go by Wild Water Kingdom, taking a side entrance that goes down the the reservoir.
• Diamond Lake. Holds some really huge pike.
• Dunnville, Pt. Colbourne , 15,16 mile creek in Niagara.
• Frenchman's Bay in Pickering has good spring pike. There's also some monsters off the nuclear plant but they're hard to come by.   Lynde Marsh also has good pike, but almost all the good access points have been closed off. You can put in a canoe at the conservation area and fish towards the lake.
• Georgian Bay around Point au Baril station. Tons of islands around that area and MONSTER pike and walleye.
• Guelph Lake. On the outskirts of Guelph,   it offers some  good spring pike fishing from shore.
• Honey Harbour. Stick with 10 lb line (just make sure that you're familiar with your drag settings). As for lures, if u want lots of pike stick with smaller sized bass lures that are loud and/or flashy - such as spinnerbaits, rattlebaits and blue fox spinners. If u want larger pike, try using larger size body baits such as #18 Rapala's, suicks, bagley's and suicks. Once the weather cools down, u tend to have a better chance at bigger fish.
• Leslie Street Spit. The inner lagoon of the Leslie St. spit consistently produces big pike (18 lb+) during the week after ice-out. Either launch a small boat at Cherry Beach (best) or walk out on the trail at the bottom of Leslie St. My best success has been fishing the south facing shore of the lagoon (1-3 ft. deep) with large jerk baits.
• The Leslie Spit is located in near downtown Toronto. Leslie St and Lakeshore Blvd (Lake Ontario). You can get there from Hamilton by taking the QEW. When you get to Leslie St. drive south on Leslie until the end. You will only be able to go so far before reaching the water and marina.
• Lake Simcoe. Walk the shallows of the southern part of the bay close to the Holland River.
• Lake Simcoe. Try out from Keffers Marina either trolling or casting.
• Cook's Bay.  By the reeds near the outlet of the Holland River in September. Use extra large chubs and fish with the longest leaders you can get away with.
• Cooks Bay.  And the area around Georgina Island on Lake Simcoe.
• Cook's Bay Riverside Marina in Keswick has rentals. Great pike and perch fishing in the spring in Cook's Bay; just stay away from potential bass spawning areas.
• Toronto Islands. Take the centre island ferry over walk south past the entrance to the amusement park and restaurant, past the swan rides until you reach a white bridge. Cross the bridge and walk west along the waters edge and you can begin fishing from there. Most of the canals west of the bridge will have pike cruising around, dont get discouraged if you dont catch one right away, this isnt a fly in fishing camp, it can take time to find where they are  every year. Dont be afraid to fish too shallow either, I've caught pike there in 8 inches of water some days. Keep in mind when you're fishing early in the year that these fish are either prespawn, spawning or post spawn fish, so although the regs permit you to keep some fish, it would be wise to release them, especially if they look "fat" with eggs. Slower moving baits seem to work best early in the  year. #4 and 5 Mepps Aglia spinners were always my standby, but after experimenting over the years my preference now is either a slowly worked white plastic worm rigged with a long shank 1/8 or 1/4 oz. jighead, hook exposed, or a Bo-Liz pork bait rigged with a weedless lightning strike hook, no weight (yellow or white). The spinners are good for covering areas faster until you hit a fish, then switch to the slower moving baits to really cover the area well. Also try Red Devils, spinnerbaits, Bluefox Vibrax in #4 or #5 or Sluggo type baits.
• Toronto Islands.Try live minnows (3-6 inches) under a float, you may want to add a steel leader. Best bets are usualy shallow back bays with visable signs of weed growth, present your bait as close to the weeds as possible.
• The marina at the foot of the Spadina Ave.  Lots of fair size pike. Use yellow hairpin spinnerbaits (bring a few).
• Weed flat at the Cinisphere (large white ball). At the marina the water is deeper and there are large weeds which are about 5 feet below the surface.
• Lagoons around Wards Island with slow moving lures such as 7 1/2" black plastic worms with a 1/16 ounce slip sinker or even better, big gaudy pike streamers or divers on a fly rod for a really slow retrieve. The fish won't chase very often early in the spring. Try to get over there before the fish spawn and again after they are done for the best fishing.