Are there any recipes that are preferred for the area? My nephew wants to go beyond baitcasting pluge but is concerned about the heavy weed cover. Thanks for comments.
Well, no one else has chimed in, so I have to ask, is there any reason to believe that pike in NY are going to be any different than pike everywhere else? If not, then the usually streamer patterns should work fine. You’ll want something that will run deep, and something that will run not so deep, and maybe a surface pattern like a mouse. Clousers and Whistlers would be my first choice, and a Morrish Mouse works pretty well for top water even with a heavy leader. All of these are easily modified by adding a weed guard, and pretty simple ties. If you google pike flies, you’ll get a bevy of other options, although here’s the choices from one of the local shops: http://store.wileysflies.com/basspikemusky.aspx.
Just my $0.02…I fish mainly Pike flies here and what is mentioned above is exactly that. From my own experiences and fishing lots of weedy areas, Pike will eat almost anything they can ambush easily and it doesn’t always have to be big. They do attract easily to something with flash and bright colours. Weeds can be a hassle at times, so adding weed guards to your flies help a great deal and certainly lesson the frustration. W/O weed guards, I target areas where there are openings or channels around weed beds which are perfect ambush spots for Pike to hide. As they are a toothy predator, wire or heavy mono leader material will help prevent bite-offs. 7wt + up are my preferred rod weights.
Take your nephew out and once he hooks into one, he’ll be hooked!