Tjh70

Hi apz245

I think I can help you out with some very useful information.

I spend close to 200 days a year on the water and I must admit, cold water pike can be tricky but with a few simple tips you should be able to get a few hook-ups.

If you are fishing Honey Harbour you first need to find bait fish. If there is no bait I can assure you you won't catch anything. You mentioned that you had fished your normal locations, weeds near drop off and stuff like that. Generally in late Novemeber a lot of bait starts to move outwards near or adjacent to main lake basins on large flats or neck down areas. Small weed beds rarely hold bait in late fall, so look for large dominant structure with pockets and sharp drops close to large flats in the 15-30 foot areas. It is key to use your electronics when locating late fall pike and bait.

Once you have located bait your presentation usually needs to be slow. I like to use suspending jerkbaits, crankbaits and soft plastics or livebait, the key is to fish these baits slow with lots of long pauses. 90% of your hits will be on the pause. If you are using plastics a slow steady jigging presentation is most effective or simply drag the bait . Another key is boat control, in summer you may fish an area for 10 minutes then leave after a few casts, in late fall make twice the casts and be patient, you may spend most of the day only fishing 4 or 5 spots over and over rather then fishing 20 spots for only a short amount of time. Last but not least is trolling, pick a lure which matches the hatch on where you are fishing and start covering water generally at a slow speed while doing lots of "S" turns to trigger strikes.

Here is a few photos of some pike caught while water temps were below 40 F.
Goodluck!