Pike

[Baron]

Is there a place where Pike are terribly happy to jump onto my fly line Near the Lehigh Valley or do I have to go to NE PA?
Can you recommend the best places to find Pike state wide?

 

[RLeep2]

If you mean northern pike, the preponderance of pike waters in PA are in the Allegheny River basin in the NW quarter of the state. Pretty much any slow to medium current warmwater stream in the Allegheny drainage is a decent candidate for finding pike, Some are better, some are worse.

Otherwise in PA, they are pretty spotty.

Fly fishing for pike in PA is almost completely a cold water pursuit that is best very early in the spring or late in autumn. It slows way down in the summer and the pike go deep.

 

[wgmiller]

You can find pike in the Susquehanna River, Lake Marburg, and a few other places in Central PA, but not many. As mentioned above, they like their cold water and are best targeted outside of the warmer months.

PFBC Northern Pike

 

[Baron]

So lets say I find a lake that from all research is known to be a good producer and I go there in Late October or anytime in November, on an overcast Day, would I fish for them exactly like I fish for Pickerel? 2-5 feet of water and around weedy areas or near rocks and cover?
Do I need wire tippet or will 25lb mono do?
Do you lift them from under the gills like I see online or is that harmful? Net only? I know that I mis-handle some fish.

Buggers, Leaches, Baitfish patterns, frogs? What do you use?

I was hoping someone would tell me how to have one placed right onto my hook. :-D

 

[Baron]

Size Hook? 4, 2, bigger? My larger rod is 7/8 and Has 8wt 333 on it.

 

[RLeep2]

>>So lets say I find a lake that from all research is known to be a good producer and I go there in Late October or anytime in November, on an overcast Day,>>

This would improve your odds, but early Spring is considerably better in my experience. Within a couple weeks of ice out.

>> would I fish for them exactly like I fish for Pickerel? 2-5 feet of water and around weedy areas or near rocks and cover?>

In late autumn, yes. In early spring though, the pike will be spawning and will often be in barely enough water to cover their backs. Often, this is sight fishing and can be pretty exciting...

>Do I need wire tippet or will 25lb mono do?>

It's a trade off. Wire leaders will help you land more fish, but some also tend to deaden fly action a bit. Good stiff 25-30 lb. mono will work but an occasional fish will shear you off.

>> Do you lift them from under the gills like I see online or is that harmful? Net only? I know that I mis-handle some fish.>>

Land them however you choose.. Under the gills is a pretty good way to avoid the thrashing machine that is a pike's mouth. Generally, try to avoid using a net. Pike, especially bigger pike tend to go pretty spastic when netted. I once saw a bigger (maybe 10 lb.) pike knock a partially full 2 gallon gas can clean out of a boat with his tail when netted. Try to exhaust the fish and bring him along side the boat and either cradle lift them or do the thing with the gills.

>>Buggers, Leaches, Baitfish patterns, frogs? What do you use?>>

Sometimes bigger flashy flies are better. Other times small dark flies are best. It's up to the pike and they change their minds often. Here are 10 good pike flies:

https://news.orvis.com/fly-fishing/tuesday-tip-top-10-flies-for-big-northern-pike

Flies with rabbit fur bodies/tails like #5 are very effective, but get waterlogged and difficult to cast. In contrast, you can cast flies like #1 and #2 all day without wearing yourself out.

 

[Dave_W]

Agree with the above posts.

Pike are something of a novelty target in PA although they are fairly widespread and even numerous in some waters, mostly in western PA.

Definitely agree that very early spring would be the time to target them in lakes. For gear, just up-size your bass gear and flies.

A few turn up in the Susquehanna but mostly up in the North Branch. Every once and awhile someone will get one around Harrisburg but they are too few to bother targeting in that section of the river. I have fished that section of the river for decades and have never seen a pike there.

 

[moon1284]

no clue about pike in pa. But the lakes that I know that have northern and muskies all have yellow perch. And the yellow perch are usually on the weedline. It's not terribly uncommon to hook a pike fishing at night or just before dawn throwing something big along the weedline. Where I'm from its not unusual for a muskie to eat a smallmouth while you are reeling it in.

8 weight is ok but not ideal. 333 line is fine. I'd find the weedline, throw as big of a baitfiah pattern that you can with that rig and fish when it's dark out. You might get luxky.

 

[JerryC]

The only time I really fish for pike is when I go to Northern Ontario. Though Upper Saranac Lake where i'm headed this weekend has pike. Maybe I'll run into one.
You're most likely find big pike just after ice out when they're feeding up after spawning. Fall would be another good time. We usually go up to Ontario in early August and we catch mostly small pike in the 20 to 30 inch range. The bigger pike are following the bait fish schools out in deeper water.
Pike are a by-catch up there fishing smallmouth so I'm normally using a 6 wgt. The biggest I've landed on a fly rod is 28 inches.
I have flies in the 6 or 7 inch range that I use for pike. Mostly they take smaller flies.
Pretty much what everybody has said. Structure, like beaver huts or fallen timber, weed lines, rocky points, if you're in a large enough lake and have a depth finder, mid-lake shoals or humps.
You might want to check out the Finger Lakes area in southern New York. I'm pretty sure they have pike in them.
Be careful if you handle them by the gill plate. The edge is razor sharp and can slit your finger or hand open
Here's the average size pike we catch in early August in this lake in Northern Ontario.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Caution on gill landing pike: Their gill rakers are very sharp. I found that out the hard way when I was 15 in Canada on a 12# Northern. It cut my hand pretty good. It was probably a novice mistake, but not fun.

Edit: Haha, JerryC beat me to it!

 

[Baron]

You men are like regular Jeremy Wades'! I enjoyed His feature on Pike in Scandinavia a couple years ago and that is somewhat where I was re-introduced to the love of the entire Pike family. So when I fish for Pickerel I have realized that they have no Jaw pressure . Its their slashing action that hurts you. If I have gloves on I just lip them. May I assume this to be okay with Pike or is their weight and tooth length too considerable for such a trick?

Best wishes for you this weekend Jerry! If you get a minute ask around and see if their is Pike in that lake. My son is going to Saranac Lake this weekend and I have him investigating for me Though I prefer smaller lakes for my safety.

 

[sarce]

Re: flies - deceiver style flies about 5" long on size 1 or 2 hooks have worked for me. It kind of depends what size fish you expect to run into. I've only fished where there isn't much chance of a big pike, 25" is a big one where I go for them. And at that size I think they have zero hesitation toward eating anything that looks like a minnow, much like pickerel.

 

[JerryC]

Baron wrote:
Best wishes for you this weekend Jerry! If you get a minute ask around and see if their is Pike in that lake. My son is going to Saranac Lake this weekend and I have him investigating for me Though I prefer smaller lakes for my safety.

The battery in my car died this morning. So I'm sitting here at my computer instead of tooling down the highway to Vermont. Off tomorrow morning, driving straight up to Adirondacks.
Saranac Lake is a big lake. I'm going to Upper Saranac Lake. There's a Middle Saranac Lake and a Lower Saranac Lake. They're connected by canal or river. The Upper Lake has Lake Trout. The other two don't.
I assume the other sections have pike in them. You'd have to check.
Pike on a whole are bigger than Chain Pickerel. You don't catch a whole lot of Chain Pickerel in the 20 to 30 inch range. Pike get a lot bigger than that.
If you get a chance to fish for them be careful handling them. I've been bitten, sliced and slimmed by them. I have pair of Kelvar gloves that go with me to Canada to handle them.
As far as fly sizes, the biggest pike I hooked up and lost when it didn't fit in the net in Canada, I was using to 15 inch suckers for bait.

Here's one of my pike flies. It's about 8 inches long and tied on a 4/0 hook.

 

[Baron]

Batteries, I hate them (don't ask).

I have that fly in five" in about #2 hook. Once I go I'll fish like I do for the little Pickerel I catch.

 

[GeneBeam]

I fished to Pike and Musky when I was living in the UP of Michigan in the mid-70s, during the same time I started fly fishing. A friend asks me if I want to go Pike and Musky at his cabin northwest of Ishpeming somewhere north of Deer Lake. He told me to bring the heaviest spinning gear that I had. I only had mid wt. spinning gear so off we went.

What a day we had, no Musky but a bunch of Pike and no I never took the hook out. He had gloves and he unhooked all of the Pike. They can take off on good runs. Make sure of your backing because your are going to get into it.

That night we were sitting on the porch of his cabin, smoking a cigarette, that was back when we both smoked, drinking a Stroh’s. Just looking at the lake when a mother duck and her ducklings paddled by, just then a big splash and 3 less ducklings. I jumped up and said what was that, Dennis said either a Pike or Musky, they like duck.

Beautiful country, beautiful people, somedays I really miss being back in the UP with all of the great fishing and being able to see almost every star in the reality dark sky.

 

[Baron]

Great Memories. They play scrabble all winter up there :-D

 

[GeneBeam]

Everyone I know up there at the time, during the winter, either took up cross country skiing, snowmobiling or went to hockey games at Northern Michigan University. I cross country skied and went to every NMU hockey game.

 

[Baron]

They’re a hardy bunch. Like none other

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Best PA Pike fishing I ever experienced on the fly was at Meadow Grounds Lake in Fulton County. Sadly the lake was drained and it will stay that way until someone coughs up the funds to make repairs to the dam and refill it. I've caught Pike out of there up to 35-36" along with a ton of big bass. Really miss that place. If it were open, I'd recommend it to anyone searching for Pike.

 

[Baron]

Sure. Now you tell us, lol.