Best approach to get pike on a fly?

[rex.stpierre]

I plan on fishing a couple small lakes on the Quebec side with 12-20 feet of water everywhere but near shore.

Would anyone have some good advise as to the best approach I should take to hook a pike on the fly?

Pike is the prevalent species on these lakes, perch, sunfish...haven't hooked a bass of walleye there yet...

Bite indicator? Floating line? Weighted streamer with a 7-8 foot leader?

[Todd B.]

From what I've read, when the water starts to cool down, pike will move into shallower water and put the feed bag on in prep for winter. You might be able to get away with floating line, however most serious anglers will have a couple of different sinking lines in case they're not near the surface. Weighted flies, sink tips or sinking leaders can help a little, however you would probably only be looking at a max depth of say 6-8 feet.

Because they should be actively feeding, big flies and active retrieves are probably the wat to go, and just cover as much water as you can until you dial into fish.

[NMG]

I suspect that you could get away with a floating line and heavier flies if the fish are in shallow. The weight of the fly and/or you leader should be enough to get it down enough, especially if you let it sink a bit before you start your retrieve. That said, I'm only guessing and I do intend on testing this theory this fall, LOL

[FlyMaker]

Pike aren't really fussy, anything big, streamer or gurgler would work.

[rex.stpierre]

Tried this week with three different streamers...

Casting, stripping, drifting, and trolling...nothing for a solid hours...

The I pulled out the bait caster with a fire tiger mepps spinner 4, two Greenbacks and about 15 pike in a couple hours, nothing big but at some point, I was getting a fish every cast.

I miss the way my brookies hit the dry flies...