November Pike fishing

[apz245]

there are a couple links in a previous discussion that might help with turnover and fishing help

http://www.ontariofishingforums.com/forum/topic/17334-november-fishing-help/

(not trying to pump the tires of my own previous topic just trying to share the knowledge!)

I read through that thread entirely before I signed up, Lots of good information. Thanks again though

 

[iamnickevans]

Hey guys; I tried to make this thread before but I don't think it got approved; I did a search on the subject and found some useful threads, but I wanted to throw in my own experiences.

So twice this November we decided to go for Pike, once at Six Mile Lake, and the other time at Honey Harbour; it didn't go so well.

The first day we had big 6-8" minnows, but started off the day spinning, we covered a lot of water and structure (shallow bays with deep drop offs, still green vegetation, areas with fallen trees and other cover, etc) and absolutely nothing, so my buddies threw on the minnows for about half the trip (while I continued spinning) and yeah, still nothing.

The second trip we didn't get minnows, so spent the day spinning in our usual Pike locations (I haven't been with them to these 2 lakes but they regularly catch pike in both places while fishing for bass), and same story, (the sun came out a few times, but it was more cloudy)

we fished from 5-30 feet, sometimes a bit deeper

The weird thing is, both days I didn't see any signs of fish, I didn't see a single bait fish.

I tried to include as much info as possible for you guys, is there somewhere else we should be looking for Pike in the fall? or was it just one of those days?

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!

 

[FishingNoob]

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!

WOW! That is a load of great info! Thanks!

 

[[email protected]]

Well im sure you've herd before that hot air rises? Its the same for water. During the summer warm water sits ontop and gets colder as you get deeper. But water starts to act weird in a sense when it gets cold (around 39°F). The cooler water becomes more dense and will rise and generally float ontop of the warmer water, "Turning over" in a sense. If this didn't happen we would never have ice fishing because the ice would form on the bottom of the lake.

you've got this a little backwards, when temps start to drop and cool the surface water, eventually the surface water becomes colder than the deep water, and the colder water will sink, not rise, think of air movement, warm air rises, cold air falls, same thing with water

ice floats because of the surface area, its slightly more dense than liquid water, but because of the surface area, it floats, think a ball of bread vs a slice of bread, as for the icebergs, they have air pockets, so they actually weigh less than an equal volume of water

this video also explains it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STG0ppzgrHU

 

[CanadianAngler87]

you've got this a little backwards, when temps start to drop and cool the surface water, eventually the surface water becomes colder than the deep water, and the colder water will sink, not rise, think of air movement, warm air rises, cold air falls, same thing with water

ice floats because of the surface area, its slightly more dense than liquid water, but because of the surface area, it floats, think a ball of bread vs a slice of bread, as for the icebergs, they have air pockets, so they actually weigh less than an equal volume of water

this video also explains it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STG0ppzgrHU

Thanks.

 

[dockmuskie]

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!

very nice fish! and great tips, I copy and pasted that into a word document to save for myself thank you!

 

[FishingNoob]

you've got this a little backwards, when temps start to drop and cool the surface water, eventually the surface water becomes colder than the deep water, and the colder water will sink, not rise, think of air movement, warm air rises, cold air falls, same thing with water

ice floats because of the surface area, its slightly more dense than liquid water, but because of the surface area, it floats, think a ball of bread vs a slice of bread, as for the icebergs, they have air pockets, so they actually weigh less than an equal volume of water

this video also explains it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STG0ppzgrHU

Neat video! Thanks for posting and sharing it with us.

 

[apz245]

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.

Hey, that was a lot of great information, and wow.. Nice Pike in those pics . I apologize for being pretty unfamiliar with the terminology people use to describe lakes; I get what the main basins are, but what about large flats or neck down areas? I'm unfamiliar with both.

As for our presentation, We definitely slowed it down, my buddies used crankbaits and rapalla shiner lures, we used a lot of spinners and spinnerbaits too, I mostly used spoons. Next fall I'll try out some more crankbaits; and throwing in more pauses. Aside from visually identifying what kind of minnows are in a lake? what's the best way to do it? or even find them? Sometimes I can't find any baitfish. (I think we need to look for them more on the fishfinder, we were mostly just looking at structure)

 

[iamnickevans]

Hey, that was a lot of great information, and wow.. Nice Pike in those pics . I apologize for being pretty unfamiliar with the terminology people use to describe lakes; I get what the main basins are, but what about large flats or neck down areas? I'm unfamiliar with both.

As for our presentation, We definitely slowed it down, my buddies used crankbaits and rapalla shiner lures, we used a lot of spinners and spinnerbaits too, I mostly used spoons. Next fall I'll try out some more crankbaits; and throwing in more pauses. Aside from visually identifying what kind of minnows are in a lake? what's the best way to do it? or even find them? Sometimes I can't find any baitfish. (I think we need to look for them more on the fishfinder, we were mostly just looking at structure)

apz245

I have included a map below so you have a better understanding of the terminology i was using, it should help you.

Spoons are also a good coldwater bait, but you must use a pull and stop action too, the bait needs to drop and flutter down after a long pull.
If you are having trouble finding baitfish then your best option is trolling, watch your fish finder closely and when you see bait, there is usually pike around.

As for finding information on minnows and fish species in lakes there is great App available called " iFish Ontario" . This app shows what species are present in most major lakes in Ontario.

If you are not interested in the App then it can be a little bit of a guessing game. If you are fishing inland lakes then most of the time there will be perch, they are very common in all of the Kawartha Lakes as well as many Southern Ontario waters. Lake Simcoe has tons of perch, shiners and cisco. If you are fishing Georgian bay then there is usually several types of bait, but the main baitfish pike would feed on are shiners, cisco, alwife, perch, sunfish, suckers and crappie. In most cases I usually try to match the size and colour of the lure to surrounding bait. silver/black, blue/silver, firetiger/perch and white tends to be my most productive colours, but don't be afraid to try others.

I hope this helps. Goodluck!

 

[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!

Thanks for the great information!

 

[shuynh]

Move over Bob Izumi, Nick is in da house! Thanks so much for the great info, I've learned quite a bit.

 

[rich_ace_G]

just my 0.02cents. how slow did you retrieve your bait? I was fishing for browns last saturday and spotted a nice pike on shallow water hiding on the weeds. it seems it doesn't see me but i see him clearly. I was using nightcrawlers and i've caught pike with them before. I started overcasting and retrieve the same pace when i fish for pike. the pike was having none of it. i was about to give up and tried one more overcast. this time really close...attached a single split shot 1ft away from my lure. retrieved very slow. it passed by the pike with no action but as soon as i paused, it zipped through the night crawler...tore it apart...took the hook and my fluoro leader...like i said, i was targeting browns.

 

[apz245]

apz245

I have included a map below so you have a better understanding of the terminology i was using, it should help you.

Spoons are also a good coldwater bait, but you must use a pull and stop action too, the bait needs to drop and flutter down after a long pull.
If you are having trouble finding baitfish then your best option is trolling, watch your fish finder closely and when you see bait, there is usually pike around.

As for finding information on minnows and fish species in lakes there is great App available called " iFish Ontario" . This app shows what species are present in most major lakes in Ontario.

If you are not interested in the App then it can be a little bit of a guessing game. If you are fishing inland lakes then most of the time there will be perch, they are very common in all of the Kawartha Lakes as well as many Southern Ontario waters. Lake Simcoe has tons of perch, shiners and cisco. If you are fishing Georgian bay then there is usually several types of bait, but the main baitfish pike would feed on are shiners, cisco, alwife, perch, sunfish, suckers and crappie. In most cases I usually try to match the size and colour of the lure to surrounding bait. silver/black, blue/silver, firetiger/perch and white tends to be my most productive colours, but don't be afraid to try others.

I hope this helps. Goodluck!

Thanks a lot for the map, It really cleared things up for me.

I've read about the app before and it seems pretty useful, I think I'll check it out, it's 4.99 but I hear its good.

As for the retrieve I was using, I did try throwing in a drop from time to time, and I was spinning very slowly; However I would just throw in a flutter or drop every couple of casts, it wasn't too often or consistent, I'll try it the way you said (I sometimes use my spinnerbaits like this, seems to work well)

Its gonna be a while before I go for fall Pike again, but this thread will always be here for reference. (Im still thinking of making a word document like the other guy though ).

Thanks again for all the help, its greatly appreciated.

 

[AnglerAnonymous]

Like any predatory fish you find the bait you find the fish.

This time of year water temperatures are cold and most bait fish school up and go to their deep(relative) wintering holes.

If you have a general idea of where these fish are spawning in the spring, study a map or graph and find the breaklines heading towards deeper water just outside these shallow weed choked bays.The fish will use these breaks as highways to travel back and forth, if you dont have electronics find a piece of land that forms a point often times the point will lead into deeper water. The steeper the point the better.

 

[iamnickevans]

just my 0.02cents. how slow did you retrieve your bait? I was fishing for browns last saturday and spotted a nice pike on shallow water hiding on the weeds. it seems it doesn't see me but i see him clearly. I was using nightcrawlers and i've caught pike with them before. I started overcasting and retrieve the same pace when i fish for pike. the pike was having none of it. i was about to give up and tried one more overcast. this time really close...attached a single split shot 1ft away from my lure. retrieved very slow. it passed by the pike with no action but as soon as i paused, it zipped through the night crawler...tore it apart...took the hook and my fluoro leader...like i said, i was targeting browns.

I usually reel at about 1/2 the normal speed you would during the late summer, but if you confident there are fish there, don't be afraid to use a couple of really hard / short pulls but if you are using this approach you MUST us a long pause (5-30 seconds). The hard pulls create tons of vibration and flash which can trigger strikes. Like "rapala" says "twitch, twitch pause..........................................................................................................twitch,twitch pause".

You had mentioned you saw a nice pike while fishing the other day with a worm and nearly placed it in front of its nose and it still would not bite. From experience over the year this situation has happend to me a few times. Sometimes those pike just don't want to bite anything. The only way I was able to trick those fish was to get dead bait such as "suckers" and simply drench it in sent and leave it. You must have the patients of a rock, but it will work the odd time.

 

[rich_ace_G]

I usually reel at about 1/2 the normal speed you would during the late summer, but if you confident there are fish there, don't be afraid to use a couple of really hard / short pulls but if you are using this approach you MUST us a long pause (5-30 seconds). The hard pulls create tons of vibration and flash which can trigger strikes. Like "rapala" says "twitch, twitch pause..........................................................................................................twitch,twitch pause".

You had mentioned you saw a nice pike while fishing the other day with a worm and nearly placed it in front of its nose and it still would not bite. From experience over the year this situation has happend to me a few times. Sometimes those pike just don't want to bite anything. The only way I was able to trick those fish was to get dead bait such as "suckers" and simply drench it in sent and leave it. You must have the patients of a rock, but it will work the odd time.

thanks for that info. and yes, there are times that no matter what lure / bait you throw (unscented) pike will just ignore it.