Feisty October Northern Pike

Went out yesterday on my 12 footer to chase Pike on the Looking Glass river, and couldn't believe how much action we got in 2 hours of daylight.

7 fish from 21-29 inches and boy were they aggressive.(the bigger ones are in there somewhere so we are heading back out)

Also landed a largemouth bass, must have been glad to be in the boat for a minute with all those hungry pike in the water

I caught the first one on an ancient yellow Roostertail with a single hook and my buddy proceeded to see his red/white Daredevil get scratched up some more as he landed 4-5 angry Northerns.

Can't wait to head out again tonight since we are experiencing a nice "Indian summer" with temps in the high 70s here in Michigan(sometimes we have snow by mid-October).

I did well using a brass hammered spoon with noise-making little flashers that hit the hooks when you retrieve/jig the lure also and will be using that again tonight.

No hits on our Pike minnows at all except for a couple small Bullhead. It was nice to get consistent hits from the Pike since usually it's a Bowfin in that stretch of the river. The Pike seem to congregate there this time of year.

I can add some photos tonight, got a nice video of one of the little monsters thrashing around too.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

How do you retrieve the dare devil? I didn't catch any pike the last time I tried to fish for them on purpose. One of the lake I go to has pike in them and they wouldn't leave my bass lures alone. Problem is my spinnerbaits get trashed when a good one gets a hold of it.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

Lucky!

I went out yesterday and ran spinners all day...didn't catch a dang thing.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

gonefishie said:

How do you retrieve the dare devil? I didn't catch any pike the last time I tried to fish for them on purpose. One of the lake I go to has pike in them and they wouldn't leave my bass lures alone. Problem is my spinnerbaits get trashed when a good one gets a hold of it.

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We use a crank/sink method and try to make it look like a wounded/struggling baby pike or bass. My buddy swears by his tactic of cranking it hard to bring it up to the surface about every other crank and it works. Those daredevils like to sink fast, so you have to crank pretty hard to do this.

He claims that Pike are naturally angered by the color red, and he has two red/white daredevils that are scarred beyond recognition as evidence.

Last night I ran his older red/white and caught a 26" within minutes. We had another big one closer to 30" next to the boat but didn't get a photo.

We didn't get on the water as early as I'd have liked so daylight ran out pretty quickly and the bite died right down.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

eclark53520 said:

Lucky!

I went out yesterday and ran spinners all day...didn't catch a dang thing.

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That's what we normally do on this river, it makes it that much more fun when they do start hitting lures. Good luck to ya!

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

This is the first one I caught on the little yellow roostertail spinner.




Minutes later my buddy caught another small one on his red/white daredevil spoon.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

Northern Pike just aren't friendly.



The bass.



I actually caught this fish but we released it rather than pass it around for pictures so my buddy is holding it up for me. This was one of the bigger ones.



Last catch of the night came after it was pretty dark and getting cold quickly.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

Man! those are massive grass mats in the background. You would catch much bigger bass than the one pictured if you throw a frog on those mats.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

gonefishie said:

Man! those are massive grass mats in the background. You would catch much bigger bass than the one pictured if you throw a frog on those mats.

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I did almost grab my weedless frog lure the other day to see what kind of action I might get, but at the last second opted for the hammered brass spoon.

I may have to try out the frog next time, those grass mats are huge, too much fertilizer making its way into the watershed from the local farmers.

We were targeting pike but there are tons of crappie, bowfin and bass in this river too.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

Red and white spoons are my go to lure for northern ontario pike. Tried and tested for years. Been onto the crappie this summer though. Great eating! Just gotta keep the bait off the bottom, as they eye their prey from below, and light hook sets, their mouths are thin.

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

Here is a 28" Northern that I caught today in the Grand river near Webber dam.

I was casting a small black/white Little Cleo on 8lb test monofilament. It made for a nice fight.

There are hungry Pike all over this fall, I wonder if it means it will be a bad winter?

Re: Feisty October Northern Pike

My buddy caught this 27" pike on a bass minnow in the grand river in downtown Lansing yesterday.