Fly fishing Pike: The Essentials

Northern Pike are at the top of the list when it comes to freshwater species to target, especially on a fly rod. They offer explosive eats, incredible speed, willingness to chase a fly and they grow quite large. To top it off they look awesome, have a mouth full of teeth and allow you to throw some big flies that are quite fun to fish and watch get inhaled. While their aggressive demeanor and big appetite may make them appear as an easy fish to target and catch, that isn’t always the case. Getting started in this game can seem overwhelming especially considering predator fly fishing has just recently gained a lot of traction in the last few years. The flies are overwhelming, the gear seems foreign and confusing and there isn’t a lot of quality information readily available. Luckily for you, I’ve spent years learning this game by trial and error so you don’t have to. In this article we are going to cover everything you need to start targeting pike on the fly.

To get started lets go over the gear to make sure you have what you need to start targeting pike with flies. When getting started we need just one versatile set up. I would say the most versatile pike rod is a 9wt, it’s big enough to throw big flies but also doesn’t over power your mid size fish and has enough backbone to have you covered when you stick a giant. For a versatile line I would recommend a full intermediate or sink 3 line. If you're fishing big buoyant flies or fishing in current I would lean towards the sink 3. 

Fly Fishing Pike

My leader set-ups are really simple for pike. It starts with a butt section of about 3-5 feet of 40lb fluorocarbon, down to about 6-12 inches of wire bite. You can make your own or buy them pre-made. A heavy duty snap swivel at the end will do, but if you want to be extra safe using a split ring to attach your fly ensures almost zero chance of a failure, as I have seen swivels open when they aren’t supposed to on rare occasions.

Next we need to pick your fly. You can either be a tyer or a buyer, personally I am a tyer but that is a whole different can of worms to open up if you are just getting into it and want to get on the water. What is most important is the criteria of a productive pike fly. The nuances definitely vary by the fishery but the core criteria applies everywhere. When picking a good pike fly my checklist usually goes in this order: size/profile, movement, color. Size is influenced by the time of year, the fishery I am on and the class of fish I am targeting. When thinking of movement, think of conventional baits, your flies are the same. You have gliders, some wide and slow glides, some very choppy,  flies that move like jerkbaits, jig flies,topwaters and gamechangers that swim, kick and provide lifelike movement. This varies day to day, season to season, and sometimes fishery to fishery. Quite frankly when it comes to pike, if you have the right profile and some kind of good movement you’ll have the opportunity to catch some fish. Lastly, I am thinking about how much water my fly will displace to help utilize the lateral line to help get the fish's attention and trigger them to eat. One thing I cannot stress enough, your flies don’t have to be perfect, they don’t have to look pretty or be fancy. They just have to have the right profile, good movement and a color that shows up well in the water you are fishing. Either black or white works in almost all scenarios, If I was getting started I would get flies in different sizes and movements in black and white.

Your rod is rigged up, you have a few options in the fly box and it’s time to hit the water and look for some fish. I spend most of my time fishing for pike in the river so we will start there with where and how to fish for them. When fishing in a river with any significant kind of current, any slack water area or somewhere where the current slows way down to almost nothing is a great place to start. This might be a small 10 yard spot or a stretch that goes on for several bends, take your time through these places and be ready. We are also looking for the spot within the spot, looking for structure in these areas, trees and wood, rocks, weeds, drop offs and holes. These places are almost guaranteed if you're fishing a river with a good pike population. That is not the only place we are going to find them, they will be on the main river and current as long as they have something to break the current up and something to hide in. Look for places where the current is broken up and slowed down with some structure for them. 

Fishing lakes are a bit different. We are focusing more on the water depth they want to be at that time of year, where we need to be in the water column, and what parts of the lake inhabit. A basic starting point, spring shallow, they transition deeper moving towards summer, summer deep, fall they transition back up, winter mid to shallow depths. Find breaks or drop offs, the pikes location and depth is always relative to the break. We are looking for weedy areas with the right corresponding depth, fish the different parts of your drop off, 

The last thing we are going to cover is how to work your fly. This is a loaded question with an open- ended answer, whatever works that day. However, we are going to cover the options and thought process behind figuring out what they want. To put it simply, we are just trying to figure out what kind of mood the fish are in. Everyday we follow the process of changing retrieves until we have a pattern figured out.  Slow and lazy, fast and aggressive and somewhere in between. I may even fish these different retrieves within a spot, especially somewhere that I know has fish. 

I hope this article helps you successfully get into pike fly fishing and on the water having fun. If this article helped you there are many more coming if they aren’t already posted. Feel free to contact me with questions or to book a guided trip to help cut the learning curve and jump start you into the pike world. 

John Wielinga

Owner/Head Guide

www.getbentguideservicemi.com

269-277-9293