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Northern Pike Tackle Tips

by | May 3, 2023 | Fishing

Northern Pike Tackle Tips from
Six Carefully Managed Fisheries Where
the Fishing Is Like It Was One Hundred Years Ago!

Best Tackle Tips for Northern Pike Fishing

One of the first questions asked by our guests is – What is the best fishing tackle?

Of course this is followed by a list of other questions such as – What kind of rod & reels are best to use? What are the top lures? What size lures? What colors are best? What size monofilament line should I use? And the list goes on.

On this page we will answer questions about the top equipment and offer proven tackle tips. However these are simply suggestions and testing these fishing tips and tackle recommendations is up to you while you are on the lake fishing.

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Fishing Rods:

We advise fishermen to bring along the rod and reels they feel comfortable using. Casting & spinning are the most popular and top rated, but we can see here that fly fishing for Northern Pike is also an effective way to catch a trophy!

Medium to light action rods get good reviews. They allow the best action and good hook setting ability. Ultra light rods may also be used for northern pike, but hook sets are more difficult. They offer tons of action once the fish is hooked.

Pike caught on a fly rod in Big Rock Bay on Trout Lake, near Ear Falls, Ontario, Canada.

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Reels:

Regardless of the manufacturer or type of reel, always ensure that the reel has a good drag system that allow smooth release of the line throughout the range of the reels drag setting & allows for easy setting of the drag.

If the reel has jerky or erratic release points or is difficult to set, consider the purchase of a new reel. The real need not be expensive, selecting one of the top 10 reels in your local bait shop is all you need. The drag is the most important part. Our guests land big fish with light equipment but it always comes down to proper drag setting while fighting the fish.

Line & Line Test:

6# to 10# test seem to be the most popular fishing line. 8# is a good choice. For casting with larger lures, some guests have a second rod equipped with 14# to 17# line.

Once again, the drag setting is important, set the reel for the line test, the line must release before it reaches its breaking point. When BIG fish are hooked, set the drag back a little lighter to allow for the strong immediate force these fish place on your line when they run and dive.

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Suggested Tackle For Northern Pike:

Light to medium action rod with a 6# test line.

  • Little Joe spinner, with a 1/4oz in-line sinker in gold, chartreuse, orange, green, white or red.
  • 1/4oz lead head jigs with 2″ twister tails in yellow, smoke, brown, white, chartreuse and black.
  • We highly recommend live bait, minnows, crawlers or leeches when fishing with jigs.
  • Deep diving stick baits such as Rapala’s, Hot to Trots, Hot tiger Black & Silver, Black & Gold Shiners.

Medium to heavy action rod with a 10-12# test line.

  • Rat-L-Traps, shad, blue, silver and chartreuse.
  • 7″ floating Rapala’s blue, silver, black/silver & chartreuse.
  • Spoons, 4-5″ long in red/white, gold, silver, or strip – Orange daredevils, blue foxes or doctor spoons.
  • Little Cleo’s 3/4 oz. In the above colors, gold/silver work the best.
  • Bucktail Mepp’s #4 & #5, dressed or undressed.
  • Large Bass spinner baits.
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Heavy action rod with a 14# test line.

  • 1/2 to 3/4 oz Heddon Sonars, gold, white or silver 1/2 oz jigs with 4″ white gist tails.
  • Sutton spoons – Flutter spoons. – All in gold or silver.
  • 3-way swivels and snap swivels to handle 2 to 8 oz weight for late summer fishing Dipsey divers
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Summer Smallmouth Bass Fishing Tips

by | May 3, 2023 | Fishing

Summer adds more sunlight and warmer water which starts the underwater vegetation to growing and showing to the surface. When this happens schooling bait-fish seek the vegetation for cover, then the post-spawn Smallmouth Bass start hanging out in these areas for food all throughout the day. Some of the best lures include spinners such as Mepps and twitch minnow baits.

Top water lures, usually in the mid-morning hours is excellent on calm mornings. Any lure that floats and can cause ripples can be good when the water is glass-calm. If the fish are active on these faster moving lures, keep throwing them. If it slows down try using Bass jigs and plastic baits. Live bait works well year round for the Smallmouth even though the action can be so fast that it is a lot of work re-baiting all the time.

Summer Smallmouth Bass Fishing Tips

If you can’t find the Bass in the vegetation areas then move out to deeper weed line edges away from shore. Move out to underwater rock shelves or rock points.

Smallmouth Bass

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Crank baits can be an excellent selection, especially along these deeper edges using Berkley Frenzy crank baits or Rapala Shad Raps are popular in deeper water. The bass may move in and out of the weeds all day long so be ready to move around to keep on them.

Deep Water Fishing For Bass

When Smallmouth do go deep, they seem to like the 30 to 40 foot depth range. If you are fishing deep water in late summer or early fall, then bouncing a worm colored Tube Jig off the bottom also works real well. When fishing shallow rock shoals, yellow or white spinner baits as well as shallow diving crank baits have proven deadly.

In our smaller Ontario Canadian Shield Lakes that we fish, like Sumach, we are prone to using a big worm on a Bass hook with no weight and just let the worm slowly sink down to the bottom along a ridge.

When you are drifting over the ridge, just jig it towards you about 2 or 3 feet and then let the worm sink again, repeating this step several times. When the Bass hits the worm, let off on your bail and let the Bass swim 3 to 5 seconds and then set your hook. Real worms work the best but tube jigs will also work.

The best summer Smallmouth Bass fishing tips focus on finding the fish in deep, cool waters.

Fall Fishing for Smallmouth Bass

by | May 3, 2023 | Fishing

Later in the year, as you are fall fishing for Smallmouth Bass in late August and early September, many of the vegetative weed lines are dying off due to cooling water temperatures.

When the cover and plankton start to disperse out of the dying weeds that the bait fish have been using for cover and feed they usually move out to a little deeper water around rock piles or even the main lake and find submerged basins. As the baitfish move out, the small mouth will follow them.

Try varying depths as the smallies will vary there depth depending on where the bait fish are. Long, slender, diving crank baits that dive from 12-30′ are very good choices for fishing these deep smallies. Another way of finding these bass in our waters is trolling crank baits or deep divers.

Minnow colored or white crank baits work great also. Rapala Husky Jerks and larger Shad Raps are great baits also. Don’t be surprised to pick up a large northern pike or walleye while trolling this deep water as many species of fish forage on these schooling baitfish.

More of Faron Buckler’s Fishing Tackle Tips

Best Smallmouth Bass Lures on Our Lakes:

  • Medium action rod with a 68# test line.
  • Bass spinner baits 1/8 to 1/4oz
  • Jig and twister tail 2″4″ long.
  • Shad Raps
  • Jerk Baits
  • Crank Baits
  • Rapalas Countdown
  • Rattle Traps
  • Beetle spinners Roadrunners
  • Mepps
  • Tube Jigs
  • Walleye Diver
  • Devil horses
  • Rapala Husky Jerk

Wherever possible, it is highly recommended that you use live bait when fall fishing for smallmouth bass – like minnows, leeches – but if you can get them, crawlers work the best.

Do Smallmouth Bass Like Artificial Bait or Live Bait?

by | May 2, 2023 | Fishing

Artificial Bait Or Live Bait?

Some days on your fishing trip to Canada, you may find smallmouth bass will not hit not matter what you throw at them, they will be hard to find. That’s when you have to switch and use live bait which usually works all the time.

How To Catch Bass With Live Bait

Using a bass hook and put on a big earthworm. Cast over top of a shoal or the shores edge and let the worm slowly sink. Let the worm dangle off the hook. Use light line like 4 or 6 pound test so you can cast farther. When doing this you generally don’t have to use any weight at all or very little.

Night Crawlers - Live Fishing Bait

You can use a minnow or crayfish if you want also. As it sinks down a couple of feet you gently reel the worm in towards you until it hits the surface then let it sink down again.

Crawfish

Make sure you pull it very slowly and gently letting it sink and then pulling it to the surface again and again until the bass hit. It’s best not to use any weight even if you find it frustrating to cast.

You can also use a small float about 2 feet up from the bait to cast out and draw back. Another popular method is to let the live minnow drop strait down from the boat using none or just a small weight.