Fishing Forum

I want to go after some northerns and I want any info you got on them! Or at least what your willing to give up. Thanks in advance.
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well, it is a pretty vague question. What do you want to target - numbers or size, what kind of equipment do you have, how much you wanna spend, how far you wanna travel, any certain body of water you are thinking about - SOOOO MANY variables to answer this question. Why are you targeting pike? have you ever caught any? what is your fishing experience? Techniques?

like bigguy said your question is pretty broad. here's a few things that might help. braided line or steel leader is a must. j-11, j-13 rapalas have worked for me, also bottom bouncer and worm harness have worked. hope some of this helps. later chuck
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Havent targeted or even been on water with them for that matter. Planning a trip to Yuba. Want to catch a decent sizer for Utah, no trophy fish but a good fish. Heck right now the biggest thing I've caught was a 20 inch brown out to Grantsville, so if I can step that up I'm happy!

I'm fairly new to fishing, but I've been every weekend for the last four months or so. Learned alot, and just want to target a bigger fish with lots of fight!

I can spend a little bit but I dont want to go all out on stuff that I'm only going to use a few times per year though. I know I gotta have a steel leader if I dont go to a braided line. But thats about it.

Anything else?
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Do you have a boat?

Your main choices are Yuba for Pike (100 mi south of Salt Lake City) or Pineview (15 miles East of Ogden) or Newton (15 miles east of Brigham City). Pineview and Newton have Tiger Musky. They are a strile cross between a Muskulunge and a Northern Pike, used for forage control.

For gear, I like a 7 to 7 1/2 foot pretty stiff casting with the best reel I can afford.
I also have a softer 7' spinning for lobbing bait. I think Yuba is the only Pike water that allows whole fish as bait. PV and Newton are limited to 1" chunk.

Want big fish? think big lures. Rapala, Bagley, storm crankbaits in perch and trout colors. Deep, med and shallow depth lips. Spoons like Johnsons, Dardevle, Red eye and castmaster, from 1/2 to 1 1/2 oz in gold, Perch, Trout and red and white. Big spinner baits in black, perch, chartruse. Gold, black and perch spinners, with some kind of plastic frog, lizard or bushhog thing to bulk it up, make it sink slower and be retrieved slower.
On your inactive rod I would run a fresh preserved minnow quick rigged on a jighead under a slip bobber.
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Do you have a two-rod permit? If so, based on my last couple of trips to Yuba, I'd say rig one rod with a nightcrawler or minnow. Let that one sit while you cast crankbaits with the other.

You'll catch lots of carp on the bait rig, but you are just as likely to pick up a pike that way as casting cranks.
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I'm actually picking up my two-rod permit tonight. I have a 7 foot Whuppin stick for a rod. Shimano reel. I've also got a heavier duty reel, but the name escapes me at the minute.

No boat, I could probably get one if it would be a huge help to catching but I dont own one . . . . yet lol.

I will be buying more lures mostly depending on what I've read on here cause right now I've still got a pretty basic setup as far as tackle goes.

Thanks again for the help thus far guys. I really appreciate it.
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I've caught at least 10 pike this year fishing for perch at Yuba. I was fishing from my tube, but within easy casting distance from shore. I have not specifically targeted them, they took either a 3" jig or a 1/4 oz. roadrunner that I was using for perch. I would fish by the dam if fishing from shore.
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Awesome! I'm glad to see the success from Yuba!
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well my personal favorite to catch pike is a 3 inch salted grub with a pink head. works amazing, but if you find the pike you can throw almost anything in and catch them. i've caught them with cigerette butts, pickeral rigs with no worm on it. pretty much if there's pike there you should be able to catch them. i think my best day has been 105 in about 3 hours. of course that wasn't very much fun by the end. and that was also up in alberta
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That made me really hopeful, till you said it was in Alberta! I think thats a little too much of a drive for me right now.
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Yuba pike are weird the bigger they are the smaller lure they hit. I have caught more pike while perch fishing than when i have actually targeted them there. Find the perch and the pike wont be to far behind. When it cools down pike get more active so you picked a good time to start chasing them. When do you plan on fishing for them?
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Just because I had fried pike for supper tonight with a good bottle of white wine doesn't make me an expert, but I have fished Yuba many many times this year and I can assure you that catching pike day in and day out is not an easy thing. You can get lucky but the water temp is very warm right now and the bite has been slow. Yesterday by late afternoon it was in the mid 60's and 58 at 7;30AM.

Big pike have been caught on rapalas, spinnerbaits, jigs, swimbaits, spinners, tasmanian devils, bottom bouncers with night crawlers, with yum baits, I investigate every big pike (over 20 lbs) personally and I cannot find a pattern.

Yubas waters are very low now, but rising. There is virtually no structure save a few gravel bars and ridges. Compared to most pike waters you could say that Yuba has NO structure and you wouldn't be far off. There is also very little vegetation still under water and there isn't much when it is at full pool.

Without knowing if you have a boat, it is hard to advise you, but I can tell you there have been several respectable pike caught on small spinners (Jakes and tasmanian devels cast from the launch area and southwest towards the dam. Nice place to park along the road or in the park if you don't mind paying a few bucks. Bathrooms are clean and there is a cleaning station at the park at Oasis. Give that a try and have patience, patience, patience. In the last 8 trips I have caught only three pike, no perch nor walleye. The pike were 3 lbs (tonights dinner), 6 lbs (released) and 16 or 17 pounds that the siesmic crew wanted to eat.

I have lost at least $100 worth of lures, 1 anchor (caught in a christmas tree weighed down with concrete blocks, burned a swimming pool full of tall dollar gasoline trolling and even more diesel getting to and from, Are you sure you want to be a pike fisherman? If so, you might want to consider moving to Canada. Best of luck and tight lines. Oh incidentally, I am heading back again tomorrow and both Saturday and Sunday whether in rains and snows or not. How's that for being hard headed? My wife say that I'm obsessed and shes probably right.
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if ya just want to catch some pike! try redmonds.. the pike are easyer to catch there than yuba! wait for a month (pike are cold water fish at redmonds they don't like the warm water) get some cable leader's try and get 15 lbs.. some big red and white bobbers and some 0/2 to 0/4 bait holder hooks or the 2 prong minnow hooks.. put the hooks right on the leaders the bobber go about 3 feet up the line.. get some anchoves chubs or sucker minnows.. cast out and wait for the fun! some days ya can catch 5 to 10 pike.. somedays they dont want to play... that's pike for ya.. i was knocking them dead this spring that way..

yuba is alot harder to get the pike but the pike are alot bigger. the best one i cought there this year was 16 lbs 37 1/2 inch's. trolling all kinds of rapalas work the best in open water or casting into shour with rapalas. in the fall they slow down some so the bottom bouncers work good at the slower speed. on the ice perch like jig's and suckers work well to..

if ya do a search on this site you will find alot of info on redmond and yuba pike.
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Like I stated in on of my reply posts, I do not have a boat, but if it improves my chances alot I could get my hands on one. I have started buying some lures, a few tasmanian devils, some rapallas and just sort of stocking up for my trip.

I'm looking to the 19th of this month for the entire day. Couple buddies with me. Date might change, but so far its looking like the 19th. If it does change it'll move back a week to the 26th.
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I think Ron has the right idea, take a lawn chair and two rods and find a place somewhere between the dam and the launch ramp at Oasis, put a chub or anchovy under a bobber and start casting rapalas, jigs, spinners, spinner baits (perch or chartruse colors seem to work well). Change up frequently and make sure you have a shock leader to prevent the bite off. If you are casting, a 6 inch steel leader is OK. If you're trolling, a longer leader is in order due to the abrasion when the line and lure come across the rocks. I use 60 lb fluorcarbon instead of steel as I think it is less visable, but since I don't know how well pike see and if they are leader shy it might not matter.

As the water cools the fishing will, hopefully, get better. The pike prefer the cooler waters and will start to feed in advance of ice over. I wish you the best of luck. I personnally know of a 23 pounder and several pushing 20 that have been caught right in that area from the dam to Oasis campground.

Redmond is in striking distance from Yuba. If you are not catching anything at Yuba you might consider going to Redmond for the afternoon bite or save it for another day.

The DWR encourges anglers to keep all pike from Yuba, that certainly is a personal matter, some do and some don't as their fishing and personal philosophy dictates. However if you elect to keep one or several, they are great table fare in spite of what many think. They have what are called Y bones in the white meat. I fillet them like a trout and then cut the Y bones out leaving a delicious fillet. A google search on filleting pike will show you how to do this. In spite of the currant slow fishing there appears to be an abundance of pike in Yuba. Here's hoping you break the state record and take a monster home. Good luck.
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Hey Steve, talking about the steel leader, a few years ago at pineview my friend was using a steel leader and I was using braided line and I was getting fish and bites and he didn't get one bite.
I don't like using them because it has an effect on the action of the lure, and I just don't like it. I tie a foot long piece of braided line to 12lb. mono and fish that way.
later chuck
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Thanks for the advice on the leaders, maybe I'll take a few of each of those and we'll see if there is any difference.

I am not actually a fan of eating fish at all but my girlfriend loves them, I throw back probably 80% of most anything I catch currently, she hasnt ever tried pike but I've had several people tell me it is great to eat, so I was instructed to bring home any and all we caught!
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I have gone almost exclusively to braid for a myriad of reasons. I have wondered many times if it would work tied direct to a snap or swivel then the lure. Since it is so difficult to cut unless you use a pair of scissors or a sharp knife it might be hard for a pike to sever it. The problem I'm experiencing with trying it is that I'm afraid that I might loose a monster IF they can cut it.

I'm going to strap a pair of cajones on and try it. Anything to increase the hookup ratio. I use 12 lb crystal, The diameter is tiny and it is almost invisable in the water, at least to my ol' eyes. Thanks for sharing your experiences with it. Tight lines
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Alot of people use those giant lures for pike and musky, but Ray Johnson who has the state catch and release record for Tiger Musky with a 53 1/2 incher from Pineview would consistently catch big tiger musky, sometimes a few in a day near 50 inches, casting small 2 to 3 inch crankbaits from shore.

That's how I landed my first tiger musky - with a small #5 lipless rattlin rapala. It was 42 inches and a hair over 20 pounds. Had 12 lound test line with no wire leader either, (although it did saw through the line once I got a hold of it, and I had intented to put a leader on).

I would use up to 20 lb. test green braid if you asked me, and in fact that's what I'm using next week. Many people use exclusively braid and say it works very well. You get better lure action with braid too.

Another trick is what was used by Ray. He would simply use 20 lb. mono and double it back so he had two strands of it for the leader section. If one was bit through, then he still had the other.

Some words of caution - Those teeth really are like razors. Get a good pair of jaw spreaders!
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