Trophy northern pike can be found in waters all around Michigan

Looking for fishing with a capitol “F”? Consider the Esox clan—especially Esox lucius, more commonly called the Northern Pike, or sometimes, “water wolf.”

As gamefish go, a pike is a senior citizen of the piscine world. Northern pike have lived in waters of the northern hemisphere from England to Russia, from Alaska to Labrador, and over all the waters of the Great Lakes and connecting waterways. Pike swam the waters of melting ice age glaciers millions of years ago. Fortunately for Michigan anglers, the pike stayed around here after the ice melted off.

Watching a pike come up after your lure or bait is a thrill. Your pulse rate can kick up fast as you see a dark form emerging and gathering speed in a thrusting, accelerating lunge. As its large mouth flares open and the bait is engulfed by the pike’s jaws, you may be glad it’s the lure and not a piece of you.

At the jab of a sharp hook a pike will roll, dive, thrash, trash and rip apart the waters trying to lose the offending barb. Action of that kind is what turns on anglers looking for a big fish with a bad attitude.

You can thank the English for bestowing that common title, “Pike,” on the fish. In earlier times, the foot soldier was often armed with a long pole topped with a sharp spear-like point with a hook. With this weapon, the “pikeman” could thrust at a mounted opponent, stabbing the rider or toppling him from his horse while staying out of sword range. Well-trained pikemen were considered among the most dangerous troops in the English army.

Since the pike pole struck with a sudden stabbing thrust, observers noted that the first lunge of the striking pike seemed similar. Hence the name.

The teeth of the pike curve backwards, so that when it grabs its prey the teeth act like hooks to hold the victim. When a pike is hooked and landed, one look at the rows of jagged teeth makes clear the need for pliers.

Where To Find Them
The weedy shallows that rim the edges of Great Lakes estuaries provide good spawning habitat and cover for pike young until they grow large enough to cruise for bigger prey. Estuary pike, when they become mature, stake out their own territories. During spawning time, pike can move long distances (a pike tagged in a Michigan study had moved 40 miles), but once they return to their summer ranges, dominant northerns will establish lairs within a definite and limited area.

In warmer times pike will go deeper, but still within their territory. In the cooling fall they move back into shallower waters.
Weed beds close to drop-offs with good cover and a good population of bait fish is a likely pike hangout. Big northern pike are the king predators in such places.

Michigan, surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes, is a rich place for big pike, and the truly trophy-sized fish often come from the estuary areas, especially the drowned river-mouth areas. Examples of such sites are Pentwater Lake, Pere Marquette Lake, Boardman Lake, Manistee Lake, Skeegamog Lake, Thunder Bay River, Squaw Bay, Bays DeNoc, and the wider Saginaw Bay. There are more inland lakes and rivers in both peninsulas offering pike fishing within easy range of most Michigan locales.

Tackle and Lures
As to tackle choices and lures, a good quality graphite rod, either bait-casting or spinning, with a good spine that offers enough muscle to set a hook hard and deep in the hard mouth of a pike, is vital. Carry a variety of sizes and colors in lures— weedless hooks where needed—and enough variety to meet all conditions you might encounter. I carry a variety of wobbling spoons, usually a DarDevl in several colors and sizes, with dressings to enhance the lure’s attraction. For weedy situations, I go to Johnson Silver Minnows, a proven weedless wobbler that you can snake through the weeds, but which, with dressings, such as pork strips or pork frog, can be counted on to evoke interest from hungry, weed-lurking pike.

Working a surface noisemaker over the tops of deep weeds can often bring a big northern a-running. Soft-bodied copies of frogs, mice, or other creatures often tempt pike, to their regret and your pleasure. Deep-running crank baits are another choice. When all else fails, hang a large minnow or small sucker on your line suspended from a large bobber.

Wherever you find them and whatever you rig to catch them, the fang-faced scrapper called a pike is worth every effort. Few fish can give you a more exciting time than a big, hook-stung northern with its rolling, thrashing, pit bull response at the end of your line.

You need not travel far in Michigan to put yourself in that picture as May’s hungry, post-spawn pike go on the prowl once again.