Fish-Hawk.Net

With the beautiful weather this weekend I could not resist putting my boat in the water... I now need to get some good use out of it before the opening of bass. I have never fished in the early spring and am looking for some tips on catching pike. I was wondering what type of bait to use, depths, sunny vs. overcast etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated !

Generaly you would want to fish shallow bays with dark bottoms. These tend to warm up alot quicker and hold many pike. Keep your eye on the wind. If the wind is pushing cold water from the main body into the bay you might wanna try a different bay on the lee. As for baits, usualy i like something thats long and runs shallow. Bomber long A are my go to in the spring .


Best of luck!

Seabass

Deff bays or openings to rivers,try along reeds close to shore as well. Spoons you cant go wrong with,a fav is LiL Cleo spoon in green/silver or blue/silver 1/8 oz.

Bigger spoons or minnow baits as season goes along. Long leader and strong line above 8pnd test to pull them out of those tricky bay areas that collect sticks.

Its always been a toss up between sunny and overcast days for me when fishing pike early spring,so i cant say one type of weather is better then other for bites.

Color deff is a factor tho...brighter lures for overcast,darker for sunny days.

For location: what Seabass said.


For baits:

Spinnerbait
Good ol' daredevil: red & white or firetiger
In line spnner with bucktail
Rapala floating or suspending

Colors:
Since your fishing muddy water use fluorescent colors or gold. Sometime dark colors can be dynamite too (cold front).

LL

If you're fishing in Division 9, you'll have to wait till May 12.

If you are looking at fishing for Pike this weekend you better be heading down the the St. Lawrence down stream form Cornwall.

This is the only area around that is open year round for Pike.

Hi, folks well I've been reading many postings about new regulations and so on so here goes: When does Pike season open on Mississippi Lake, White Lake and the Ottawa River/Cumberland/Rockland area?

Thanks


BBD

(Big Bass Daddy) wrote: Hi, folks well I've been reading many postings about new regulations and so on so here goes: When does Pike season open on Mississippi Lake, White Lake and the Ottawa River/Cumberland/Rockland area?

There won't be any new regulations until Jan.1 2008...
The '06 regulations are effective until then.
I'm pretty sure Pike season opens May 12th in the areas you speak of... but it's best to double check the regs.
The regs can be found on the MNR website.

I just checked the MNR site and Big-Ty was correct, May 12 is the opening date for pike in FMZ 18 (Belleville,Ottawa, Kingston, Cornwall and Brockville)
Copied from the MNR site
"Northern pike
Jan. 1 to Mar. 31 & 2nd Sat. in May(May 12 2007) to Dec. 31"

I just checked the MNR site and Big-Ty was correct, May 12 is the opening date for pike in FMZ 18 (Belleville,Ottawa, Kingston, Cornwall and Brockville)
Copied from the MNR site
"Northern pike
Jan. 1 to Mar. 31 & 2nd Sat. in May(May 12 2007) to Dec. 31"
http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/fishing/fmz/s_ ... escription

Below the dam in Cornwall to Valleyfield is open all year. I do believe this will change with the new regs in Jan 08

Rapala "Husky Jerks" are deadly anytime
of year!

I have a perfect, dark bottom bay in my backyard basically, husky jerks have been very good for me, as well as a len thompson black and white. Got my biggest Pike to date on one, although they slammed it so hard that I now have a new silver spoon. 10 days til opener, not that I'm counting or anything!!!

Guys,

FMZ 18 is part of the "new" regulations that will not come into affect until Jan 1st 2008 (hopefully). The open seasons currently listed in the new regulations are "proposed" seasons. For 2007, the old regulations are still in effect. That being said, Division 11 will be open for Pike the first Saturday in May.

Seabass81 wrote: Bomber long A are my go to in the spring .

This is a tip I picked up off this site a couple of years ago, and it works for me, too. I would say keep the presentation slower this early on, unless you find the pike are responding to something otherwise.

I'll be making my 1st pike outing in a few weeks and can't wait.

W.