I recently picked up an 8 wt for catching pike. I've never done fly fishing for pike. Does anyone have any favorite flies for pike that they wouldn't mind telling about?
Printable View
I recently picked up an 8 wt for catching pike. I've never done fly fishing for pike. Does anyone have any favorite flies for pike that they wouldn't mind telling about?
Big, usually articulated streamers. Things like double deceivers, Bohen's optic minnow and variations using reverse tied bucktail. Barry Reynolds Pike on the Fly book has several patterns including his Bunny Bug, he uses a lot of rabbit strips in his patterns. You can also use topwater poppers, frogs and mice.
Colors can vary to match the baitfish in the water you are fishing in.
Dan,
I like big, flashy streamers. I prefer synthetics and bucktail. ( Long bunny strips are a pain to cast once they get water logged, but are very effective.)
I don't try to match anything, except maybe the old 'light on bottom/dark on top' thing. One of my most effective pike 'flies' is a two hook articulated mess with large clumps of gold flashabou tied on each hook, using 50 pound nylon coated wire to attach the hooks together. You can see it ten feet down and twenty feet from the boat, and pike just kill it.
That being said, I've caught pike on so many different patterns that I'm inclined to believe that just about ANY fly that a pike sees when he's feeding, he'll eat....as long as it's not too small.
These are voracious and aggressive top end predators. They are not often subtle.
Buddy
Like Buddy, I prefer the synthetic materials for bait fish patterns and use a lot of buck tail, spey hackle and long estaz for my other patterns. My patterns aren't very flashy just a subtle hint of it. They're cross over patterns that I fish for more than one species some which don't like a lot of flash. My most productive color has been all white or Red/white. Fire Tiger/Perch, shad/bunker and herring patterns for bait fish. Most of my flies are in the four to eight inch range.
Am I right to follow some of what I've learned using conventional tackle? Things like red/white work really well; smaller flies in the spring, bigger in the fall?
Red and white and yellow all work great. For pike you can use big flies all the time.Attachment 12670Attachment 12671
The fly in the picture is on a paddle. It is articulated with a trble hook in the middle just behind the red area that shows through the bucktail. Aprox 8 inches long.
I've used flies like deceivers & sometimes flies a foot long. I've caught them on big gurglers too. get a long hook remover!
Here's a couple of the flies that I use. They're 5 to 8 inches long
Attachment 12767Attachment 12768Attachment 12769
always have wondered how pike (Esox lucius) get lumped into the category of "warm water" fish?
When you say cold water fish, most folks would think trout. I guess cool water fish might be more appropriate. I've caught pike in mid-July in Northern Ontario when the surface temperature of the lake and down to 8-10 feet was in the mid-70s. They've been stocked in lakes that are well south of their normal range. I have friends in Europe that stalk them in salt water marshes. Does that make them a salt water fish? It is what it is.
I was strolling through the internet and stumbled upon a couple of good looking flies for pike.
http://thefeatherbender.com/2014/03/27/the-bulldozer-a-monster-popper-for-spring-pike-2/
http://thefeatherbender.com/2014/03/25/helter-skelter-pike-fly-jig-2/
I like the look of the helter skelter pike fly jig. I know pike will eat off the surface but I have never even heard of one being caught that way where I'm fishing, so I'm reluctant to tie up a whole lot of topwater pike flies.
Dan, here in MN. topwaters take a good share of pike in the early spring but mainly in the fall, Sept/Oct. time frame. They're a total blast as they come "elbows and ----oles" out of the water, charging vertically and surging on top to get to your fly.
Think shallow...really shallow! This one was taken in less than 2ft of water in the fall...from a handful of yrs back now...trolling motor was jammed up w/weeds!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...on-the-fly.jpg
Poppers??
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...e/IMGP0327.jpg
Don't leave w/o them in the fall man!
Here in Ontario I use 6" - 8" long flies made of bunny strips, saddle feathers, long bucktail, synthetic hair, etc., .......anything long, but have started to bullet proof them a bit using 5 minute epoxy along the hook body wrap (pearl) and the head. Wanted to extend the lifespan of the flies as well as try something new. Getting ready for 2nd Sat in May when Pike season opens here in Ontario, so I've been working on Perch Clousers............3/0 hook, long materials, deep sea alum dumbbell eyes and they're lookin pretty good. If I can ever figure out how to post a pic here I'll send in some. Have fun with the fresh water Barracutas fellows.