Ontario Northern Pike Fishing

How to choose a pike rod for Ontario waters: length, power, action, blank materials, one-piece vs two-piece, brands, and a free finder tool.

Choosing the right lure is essential for successful pike fishing. Whether you’re fishing in weedy areas, open water, or near submerged structures, using spinnerbaits, weedless spoons, swimbaits, crankbaits, and topwater lures will significantly boost your chances of catching pike. This guide highlights the best lures to add to your tackle box for an exciting day of pike fishing.

Pike Fishing Tips! The majority of northern pike are caught by trolling or casting, and they attack with ferocity. You can tell when a northern smacks your lure. It's not the type of fish where you can say, "I think I felt a bite kind of fish." Spoons, spinners, hard...

Top Lure Picks for Early Season Pike   With spring finally upon us, thoughts of hefty pike in shallow water dance through anglers heads. Fresh from the spawn, pike will be found in specific locations and can be caught with a variety of lures. At this time of...

Spring Pike Fishing   Some of the best pike fishin' is early, just as the pike season opens. At this time of the year, you will find pike feeding on smaller fish that are still holding in spawning areas such as rivers or river mouths. Search out the water that...

Ways to Catch Pike!   Pike are a very aggressive species of fish. But they are also rather lazy, and more often than not, they will take a free meal rather than forage for one. A tried and proven method I often use is to present a dead sucker minnow on a slack...

When the Predators Return   Boats crisscrossed it all summer long; personal watercraft here, tuber there. Weeds uprooted and shredded, fouling the surface like bees in a beverage. These disorderly but auspicious shoreline flats are playgrounds for people and...

Spoon Fed Pike   It seems that more and more emphasis is being put on the use of body baits. Tackle companies are spending more money developing the perfect swimming action, the perfect wobble, or rattle, or any number of other characteristics. The spoon seems to...

Cold Water Pike   Esox luscious. The Northern pike. The water wolf. Whatever the name, the attitude is the same; MEAN! The cold and ice only seem to add to the pike's cranky personality; it dares you to try and yank it through a hole and pull it out of its turf....

Jigging Early Summer Pike   Yes, my pike box is full of the same large jerkbaits, big thumper spoons and wild looking spinnerbaits as yours probably is. And yes, hitting a big pike casting one of these classic lures is a rush when it happens. (If nothing else, it...

Pike & Muskie: Try Open Water   Seasonal changes to lakes and rivers aren't normally consistent from one year to the next. Yes, lakes will freeze and thaw, and they'll also warm and cool. All of this is 100% guaranteed. In the fall, regardless of what the...

Dead-Bait Tactics for Hardwater Pike   Snow-covered landscapes and frozen bodies of water have a deliberate way of changing a pike anglers' methods and routines. Gone are the oversized spinnerbaits, cranks and spoons - the familiar tools of warm weather fishing -...

Go on the Deadbait Diet for Trophy Pike!   Most people’s New Year’s Resolution is losing twenty pounds. Once the ice is safe and the season opens, I’m normally out on the big bays and shoals trying to gain twenty pounds. Twenty pound-plus pike, that is. Early...

How to fillet a pike .... one version   1. Make vertical cut behind head, down to, but NOT through the backbone. Turn knife horizontally and cut backward along the top of backbone. You should be able to feel the blade "clicking" along the top of the "Y" bones. 2....

Slip One By Those Early-Season Walleyes And Pike If you own a medium-action spinning rod, a selection of sliding floats and have access to a good supply of natural bait, there's a presentation you'll want to spend some time with this spring: float fishing. Pike and...

Hair Jigs And Spring Pike   In cold water early in the season, jigs are a top-choice for all species of fish. When pike are the primary target, the characteristics of baits dressed with natural hair, in particular deer hair, make them a deadly choice. Most...