New to pike on the fly

[BigDan]

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?

[Crotalus]

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.

[Buddy Sanders]

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

[Philly]

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.

[BigDan]

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?

[Tig]

Red and white and yellow all work great. For pike you can use big flies all the time.dpike.jpgTB2013 037.jpg
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.

[Bill-B'klyn]

I've used flies like deceivers & sometimes flies a foot long. I've caught them on big gurglers too. get a long hook remover!

[Philly]

Here's a couple of the flies that I use. They're 5 to 8 inches long




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[jszymczyk]

always have wondered how pike (Esox lucius) get lumped into the category of "warm water" fish?

[Philly]

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.