Pike fishing report

[Muskyfanatic]

One of my customers suggested posting my weekly report up here, I hope it's useful to some of you that may be coming to Canada.

 

The Lake Ontario pike are becoming more active as the water in many bays begins to warm up. Several trips this past week produced some respectable fish for us but the fishing was generally slow until the weekend. At the start of the week the water temps were between 34F and 36F, by the weekend the temperatures had risen to 39F to 41F. This seemed to turn these pre-spawn fish on the feed, the hits were more frequent and aggressive by Sunday. A solo trip to one of my favorite bays on Sunday produced 10 fish for me. However, I only managed to boat 3 out of the 10 with the others coming unbuttoned before getting them boat-side.

 

The most effective lures and presentations for the cooler water temps were Rapala Risto Raps. These we cast out to tapering shorelines and cranked very slowly back to the boat, incorporating intermittent speed changes into the retrieve. Try areas where dead weeds are present, this somewhat sparse cover seems to give the fish the security they need.

 

Once the water warmed up slightly and the fish appeared to be a little more aggressive we switched over to the good old Husky Jerks. Anything with a chrome or silver finish to it seems to be productive. Again, a slow retrieve seems to work best, incorporating an erratic twitch pause retrieve. Long pauses are a key factor (3 to 4 seconds), many of our fish hit while the Husky Jerk was stationary. Don’t forget to use a fine diameter, good quality stainless or Titanium leader for both of the above presentations to avoid spooking the fish.

 

You can take a look at some of last seasons pike on my website at: www.eurocanadianoutfitters.com, look under the Recent Fish Pictures pages. Page 11 is a good one to see some real trophy Lake Ontario pike.

 

Please remember that Pike season is now temporarily closed on Lake Ontario from March 31st to May 1st. The action should be hot in May though!

 

Keep those hooks sharp!

Muskyfanatic

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Muskyfanatic