Tip –up for late season pike

Backwaters, coves, weedy bays or a marsh are all potential spawning grounds for a northern pike. As the season draws closer to an end the pike start moving towards their prime spawning grounds.

Spearing anglers often see a spike in activity and this can be a signal that the pike are changing their locations. Utilizing a run and gun approach can narrow down the search.

A topographic map will show coves, shallow water areas and potential pike habitat. Your eyes can often produce good areas faster than a graph. Shorelines with limited cottages or homes and areas with cattails are easily visualized.

When fishing with a group a wide swath of water can be covered. Set up a few tip-ups on the shallowest flat, possibly as shallow as five feet of water. Cut a few holes right on the edge of the drop-off keeping a tip-up on the shallower water and another on the bottom of the deeper water.

A good topographic map will show bottle necks, funnels and pinch points coming from the main body of the lake into or towards the shallow water spawning areas. Cut a series of holes where the contour lines are the tightest and if possible where an underwater point might exist.

A pattern might be established or it is likely that you can land a fish from the shallows, the next on the saddle and then a fish from drop-off. It pays to move around or fish with friends so you can cover the spectrum.

During the tip-up festival on Houghton Lake a few years back the DNR polled the anglers on their most productive pike bait. Live sucker minnows were used by far the most, however it was the frozen smelt that actually caught the most fish.

Pike have a fondness for dead bait during the winter and an oily smelt rings the dinner bell. A frozen smelt is fished two ways.

The first is directly on the bottom. Part of the theory is that a hungry pike is looking for the easiest meal and fish die off during the winter. Late winter and at ice-out the food chain is at the lowest of the year.

The second method is balancing the smelt with a nail or using a Swedish hook. In this presentation the angler keeps the smelt within a foot of the bottom. Pike often cruise along the bottom or slightly off of the bottom and this puts the meal in easy eye sight.

A Swedish hook is a long hook somewhat in the shape of the letter C. You thread the frozen smelt onto the hook and the design of the hook keeps the bait in an upright position. When a pike hits you must give plenty of time for the fish to swallow the entire bait.

I like using the quick strike rig. This rig is adjustable for the length of your smelt and with a hook in the front and the back the angler can set the hook much quicker. This reduces the amount of gut hooked fish and catch and release can be practiced.

A quick strike rig can be used with dead bait or with a live sucker minnow.  This is a deadly rig when fishing from the pier fro both pike and brown trout.

Tip-ups can be the standard wooden style from Bear Creek/Stopper Lures or the fancy wind aided or polar thermo models. The key is a free moving reel and a flag that trips.

Tip-ups on late season pike are a sure way to keep warm and have a good time in the outdoors. Head out with a few friends and make it a social event on the ice.

Story by:
Jack Payne

Photo captions:
Dan Loyd with a 20 pound pike
Ryan Buchanan with a fifteen pound pike

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