11/24/99
Early
Ice Pike Bonanza
By Scott King
Fall’s
browned and dying days help build anticipation for winter’s
beginning.
When the first significant snowfall of the year actually
remains on the ground for a few days, you know the time is
nearing.
Your boat is winterized because it’s too darned cold to
be on the open water.
The newly formed block of ice upon which you stand
doesn’t seem so cold.
The temperature associated with new ice doesn’t feel
uncomfortable to most of our finned friends either, as many of the
species we seek exhibit aggression normally reserved for
mid-summer’s approaching storm fronts.
Northern Pike are no exception to this flurry of activity,
and while the time frame of the early ice pike bite is sometimes
brief, the educated ice angler can exploit the pike’s tendency
to strike baits in predictable locations.
The waters these fish occupy lies close to shore.
No vehicles are required.
The presentations applied are simple and fairly large, as
far as ice fishing is concerned.
No finesse is required.
Early ice pike are easy, if you keep a few chief elements
in mind.
Equipment
Depending
on the potential size of the pike in the system you venture on,
gearing up with medium to heavy action ice fishing gear will be in
order.
Many varieties of tip-ups or rod and reel combinations make
the grade. Line weights of 8 to 17 pounds on appropriate spinning
or baitcasting reels can be used for a number of jigging
presentations.
Rod
length is a matter of preference or horizontal space (if a shelter
is used), but a stiff backbone is essential for solid hook sets.
Look for “stiffer” rods when offered a selection in a
tackle store.
If you can easily bend the rod into a U-shape, the action
is too light.
Tip-up varieties feature several options and trinkets, each
of which has its own place and time.
The HT Polar tip-up is simple, effective, compact and easy
to see.
Fewer hassles are better on the ice, so loading up these
basic tip-ups with 36-50 pound tip-up line or some of the stronger
braided lines will be sufficient.
If there’s a question, it’s better to go bigger in the
line department, especially if there’s the potential for big
‘ol dogs in your chosen water.
Steel
leaders are a must for pike fishing with the tip ups, but not for
the jigging rods.
You’ll get cut off occasionally, but an artificial lure
hanging on a leader is often denied by pike, especially in
ultra-clear water.
Using a quality flasher will be necessary in order to
determine depth and the presence of weeds, particularly after snow
has covered the ice.
It’s nice to be able to visually determine weededges with
the first clear ice, but this quickly fades.
Flashers are necessary tools throughout the remainder of
the hardwater season.
Augers with eight to ten inch hole diameters are necessary
for getting the head of larger pike through the ice.
Your equipment will easily ride behind in a lightweight
sled or flip-style shelter – the market bears a number of
quality sleds, which can be dragged effortlessly on early ice.
Locations
As
always, abundant forage is the key ingredient in the recipe for
creating large predator fish.
Pike will forage on perch, sunfish, and various minnow
species such as shiners and suckers.
Forage base in a particular region will vary from lake to
lake, between years, and may even change during a particular ice
season.
However, the majority of forage fish, as well as the pike,
will be at or near the edges of vegetation during winter’s
opening sequence.
The depth of outer weededges varies from lake to lake,
primarily dependent on water clarity.
In some lakes, the weed growth will occur at mid depths,
creating both an inside and outside weed edge.
Both of these edges are worth exploring, assuming the
inside edge is in more than 3 feet of water. Pike will setup
ambushes in the thickest patches of weeds along these edges, and
may even cruise the edges or slightly off into deeper water.
These
are the important areas to start punching holes with your auger,
and don’t just drill blindly.
When going onto new water, carry a reliable lake map that
shows some of the approximate depth contours of the system.
Make a plan, and drill holes in lines to effectively cover
depths, pockets, and effectively find the edge.
A line of many holes quickly enables a flasher-toting
angler to find growth or lack there of, and once the outside edge
is discovered, you can pop a series of holes along the perimeter.
From year to year, the location of certain weededges may
change. Don’t be
surprised if heavy snowfall shortly after ice up causes a die off
in weed growth. Reduced
sunlight from the blanket of snow will cause some of the weeds to
die. Your summer spots that seemed so weed choked may be a
fraction of what they once were, so be prepared to search.
When located however, work the edges and quickly attend to
some of the weed tops. Hovering
bait over the tops of deep weeds is effective.
Pike will occasionally bury themselves within weed growth
if baitfish are skittish and have become aware of a nearby
predator.
In
some lakes vegetation is bountiful throughout the calendar year.
However, if you narrow your selection to the best possible
areas to fish - maybe three or four spots for a day outing - the
number of fishless hours will be reduced.
Remember that you’ll likely be traveling by foot from a
designated access to the lake, so faraway spots may not be
feasible even if they are likely to hold fish during early ice.
First, focus on the deepest possible vegetation adjacent to
other key structural elements in the area.
Weeds near sunken islands, points, and deep breaklines may
all hold forage and pike. Also,
necked-down or funnel areas with weed growth are always loaded
with forage fish and pursuing pike. Current is possible in
these areas, and caution should be exercised! The inside edges of the vegetation in these funnel areas can
be dynamite. Another
structure that really scores numbers of pike shortly after
freeze-up are deeper fingers that project into bays of the lake.
Productive fingers will vary in depth in each lake, but
should be obvious deep extensions of the lake’s main basin into
smaller shoreline coves. Inside
turns of the bay’s weedline at the tip of these fingers can be
knockout pike spots all winter long.
Presentations
Presenting
live bait to pike is most easily accomplished with a tip-up.
It’s basically a rod that can be left to fish itself,
giving the angler the option of fishing another rod, most
typically a jigging stick.
Live bait can be positioned at various depths beneath the
ice or off of the bottom.
It depends on the height of the weed growth, but as a
general rule, the bait doesn’t need to be any closer than three
feet from the bottom.
This will enable cruising pike to see the struggling shiner
or sucker from a greater distance.
Use
a hook with a large enough gap to effectively bury the hooks into
a pike’s bony mouth.
High quality hooks with needle-sharp points aid in this
effort.
When the fish trips the tip-up flag and begins to scream
line from the spool, wait until the initial run has stopped and
then set the hooks with both arms.
Too many people pull the bait from the pike’s mouth
before the fish has a chance to turn the bait.
Used
in conjunction with a tip-up, a heavy jigging stick can offer
early ice pike the One-Two punch.
Productive baits to use will be flashy, medium to large in
size, and have sharp treble hooks (stock or replacements).
Airplane jigs tipped with minnow heads, large jigging
Rapalas, Tube-U-Lures, and Nils Masters, are all excellent
selections that are readily available in most areas. These lures
not only move up and down when jigged, but also swim in a circular
motion when falling - absolutely irresistible for feeding pike.
Strikes while jigging these lures can be heart stopping,
but don’t get so caught up in the action that tip-up flags are
forgotten.
Doubles (two fish on at once) are common for early ice
pike, especially if you’ve got some partners.
Maximize your number of fish for the day by using the
greatest number of rods allowed by law.
The season doesn’t last forever, but its fury can be
unforgettable.
As
productive as early-ice pike fishing can be, over harvest of these
fish is a legitimate concern.
Certainly, release the bigger fish to spawn and keep a few
of the smaller fish for the table if you wish. Studies have shown
that by harvesting smaller pike, many lakes will achieve a larger
average pike size as a result of decreased competition for food.
Larger pike are something we all desire, and now is the
season to take advantage of their willingness to attack a bait.
So many people wait until they can drive a vehicle onto the
ice, and by then it’s too late to find concentrations of big
fish in shallow water.
They complain that the lake is dead, not what it used to
be.
Lastly, leave those little yipping dogs on the home porch,
and head out early enough to bring back some pictures of the big
pike that still swim in waters close to home.
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