I only have $25

[Mykester]

Looking for some good pike lures effective on the T.O Islands. Something to be found at Le Baron or Canadian Tire.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Mykester

[Gerritt]

really hard to beat a Husky Jerk.... black and silver has served me well.... (more minnow like colouring)

 

I prefer HJ-11

 

G

[SBCregal]

daredevl, black fury would be another 2

maybe even get all 3 for 25 bucks

[Kinger]

Toronto spoons and spinnerbaits are my favorite pike lures.

[EC1]

Mykster, unless you find something good in the CTC half price sale, it's pretty much not worth it there.

Do you have a bunch of leaders yet? If not, go get yourself some...like in the other forums discussed, steel or floro or titanium is good. Steel being the cheapest.

 

Get some x-raps, husky jerks.

Also, see what you can find out of the other brands out there. Those might be a bit cheaper, and you'll be happy with an extra crankbait.

...Bomber Long A's, cotton cordell wally divers, Can't name any off the top of my head anymore..

 

I don't know too much about spinnerbaits and spoons, so I hope others chime in on those.

 

But to be honest, get maybe ONE xrap OR the husky jerk and get the cranks from other names. I find that rapala is good at just selling you products that aren't as good quality as ones that are cheaper than them-although their action is often really good.

 

I had 4 rapala's that needed new hooks after 1 year of use...and I don't even use them all that often. I've had hooks break or get bent to the point that I don't feel confident in hooking fish with it afterwards.

My wally diver finally got its hook changed after 3 good seasons with it.

 

Size wise, I like ones that could work as walleye and bass cranks also, somewhere between 3" to 4"

Colours - firetiger, gold with orange back - these ones are proven to work. I also like purple and pink ones although they don't seem to catch me that many fish.

Good luck with your purchases.

[MuskyGreenHorn]

Agreed about CT. Just go to lebarons or another indie store.

 

x-rap xr12 or 14 (salt water model)

husky jerks

williams wabler

mepps susky killer, giant killer, sassy shad, musky maribou

spinner baits

topwater for summer time,

 

pike love mashing topwater later in the summer, but spiners, spoons and jerkbaits get the nod in the spring.

also condiser some plastics for spring pike. i have good luck dragging lizards, leach immitations, slugos early in teh season when the pike are lethargic and don;t have teh energy to chase something down.

 

as pointerd out, get some leaders or you are going to donate all of your new baits, i buy segar flouro leader material and tie my own. Way better than steel leaders. for pike 50lb should do.

 

season isn't open yet, watch the classifiedshere for used baits, and kijiji, craigslist, ebay and whatever else you can think of. If you are on a budget, u can fid good used stuff cheap if you aren't in a rush to get it amd you spend time tracking it down.

[holdfast]

Rapalas, no Leaders, that's why maybe they dont work so hot for some.. Actually any stick bait. Good chance you may get other species. Im not a fan of spoons or spinners because I like to troll and they twist your line. Since you have a small budget, get yourself a cheap pair of needle nose pliers in lieu of the leader.

 

[muddler]

I often just take some jigs and twister tails. 1/4 and 3/8 oz. will cover most situations. 3 and 4 inch curly tails in white and yellow work well. The local dollar store has plactic coated craft wire. I use that as a leader. The dark gold works well. Just thread it through the jig eye and wrap the tag end around the wire about 6 times . Use a lighter to fuse the palstic together. Trim with a finger nail clipper. Cut about 16 inches of wire and then repeat using a small swivel. Easy and simple. I make up a dozen of these rigs and let my daughter (9 years old) fire them all over the place. She catches a lot of pike. Cheap too, if she loooses the rig. Sometimes we get a bonus walleye and bass are not unexpected.

 

I bought 100 packs of twister tails years ago, and still have lots left. Same with jigs, I used to by them by the 25 or 100 pack. I figure it cost me less than 25 cents per lure.

 

I am sure that ther eare lots of better lures out there but I can't afford to loose half a dozen $10 lures every outing with my kids (almost every day in the summer). We still catch a pile of pike.

 

My 2 cents.

 

muddler

[JoshS]

For $25 I'd get: One HJ 14 in baby bass, one xrap in XR12 in silver or perch, and one decent spinnerbait.

[highdrifter]

Forget soft baits... Hard baits is where it's at!

 

For the money, you can't beat a HJ13 in a firetiger or clown pattern... Get a couple in this size and test em to see which one has the best roll and walk-the-dog action. Throw the one with the widest walk and the best roll, and you're good to go!

 

If both baits are crap, return them and repeat the process...

 

OH if they would only bring back the balsa for the HJs..

[highdrifter]

OH and with your change be sure to get some 12in thin wire leaders in the 30lb range... I'm a big proponent of Fluro but I buy bulk and tie my own.. A 10in strand of 80lb seagar, one ball bearing swivel and one snap swivel is definetly not worth 10 bucks IMO. It's freaking highway robery!!

 

Good luck!

[Governator]

For $25 I'd get: One HJ 14 in baby bass, one xrap in XR12 in silver or perch, and one decent spinnerbait.

 

 

Agreed! HJ14 & XR12 + white spinnerbait

[diggyj]

A couple of you guys must shop at a secret Rapala outlet becasue there are no HJ's in size 11 or 13.

 

Dirk

[highdrifter]

A couple of you guys must shop at a secret Rapala outlet becasue there are no HJ's in size 11 or 13.

 

Dirk

 

OOHH the master has spoken. Please forgive our typos admirable one.

 

that should have been and HJ14.

[Mykester]

Hehe, you guys are acting like I have ZERO fishing experience. I have a high quality pair of plyers and a large amount of steel leaders, but I just grew up around live bait and have made the switch to lures last year. Does anyone know a good brand of spinner baits? Those usually seem successful in past reports that I have read.

[Syn]

Hehe, you guys are acting like I have ZERO fishing experience. I have a high quality pair of plyers and a large amount of steel leaders, but I just grew up around live bait and have made the switch to lures last year. Does anyone know a good brand of spinner baits? Those usually seem successful in past reports that I have read.

 

 

Pike love booyah spinner baits in yellow chartreuse white with two willow blades but the wire is a bit thin for pike , so they do break on me after a few pike ( I was fishing and catching slabs of small mouth at the time). Another great option is the northam spinnerbaits http://www.northamfishing.com/index_files/Page4551.htm.

 

edit: just noticed booyah also makes a bigger pike spinnerbait http://www.lurenet.com/productdetail.aspx?id=bypk12712

 

My suggestion is to look for thicker wire spinnerbaits thicker than .035. .045 is ok but .051 is much more durable but the trade off is loss of flexiblity in the wire so you can't do a good job at pulsing the bait to add action but you could go to bigger blades to make the wire flex more when you pulse.

 

You probably already know what I'm going to say but I'll write it just in case you don't.

Willow blades better when you want to show flash especially on bright sunny days and you are fishing clear water.

Colorado blades give lots of thump underwater are harder to retrieve and turn slower. Better in murky water if you think the pike will have a hard time seeing it but may locate it better using its lateral line.

 

R bend vs loop. I like r bends better for pulsing but looped end is more durable. I just put a piece of plastic tubing over the r bend to keep the snap in place. Proper pike spinners are mostly looped end for good reason.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Syn

[highdrifter]

Hehe, you guys are acting like I have ZERO fishing experience. I have a high quality pair of plyers and a large amount of steel leaders, but I just grew up around live bait and have made the switch to lures last year. Does anyone know a good brand of spinner baits? Those usually seem successful in past reports that I have read.

 

You requested our input, and we delivered. Well... Some of us anyway..

[Mykester]

You requested our input, and we delivered. Well... Some of us anyway..

 

I'm not mad, I'm happy

 

Thanks everyone for your input, I'll look out for HJ, x-raps, and I'll look at the different spinnerbaits syn suggested. I already have a fair number of cranks and jerkbaits.

[MSBruno]

Hehe, you guys are acting like I have ZERO fishing experience. I have a high quality pair of plyers and a large amount of steel leaders, but I just grew up around live bait and have made the switch to lures last year. Does anyone know a good brand of spinner baits? Those usually seem successful in past reports that I have read.

 

I love Strike King's KVD series Spinner baits. The trailer hook has landed me many fish. Red hooks, nice contructions, bleeding series ........ and their on sale at the BPS classic for like $5.75/each

[Rizzo]

its a pike for pete's sake...it doesn't matter what you throw. Get some dollar store pliers, some 12 inch leaders and any of the lures mentioned above, they all work on the not-so-fussy pike. Buy a $3 white spinnerbait and the pike will destroy that thing. Buy a 99 cent spoon and they will destroy it...heck, tie some trebles to the shaft of a hockey stick and they'll hit it.

[highdrifter]

its a pike for pete's sake...it doesn't matter what you throw. Get some dollar store pliers, some 12 inch leaders and any of the lures mentioned above, they all work on the not-so-fussy pike. Buy a $3 white spinnerbait and the pike will destroy that thing. Buy a 99 cent spoon and they will destroy it...heck, tie some trebles to the shaft of a hockey stick and they'll hit it.

 

You must slay a lot of snot rockets where you are eh?!

[MuskyGreenHorn]

Bass spinnerbaits sure catch pike, but they also get raped. Check out Northam Tackle in barrie, they makes some nice spinnerbaits. Bigger 1oz models are great for pike and teh skirts are tied on with wire, and the wire used to make the baits its heavier as well. Or northand tackle, they make some nice pike/musky spinnerbaits. The mor eyou look into musky spinnerbaits teh more you will find good pike baits. I have a grim reaper spinnerbait that has caught me plenty of nice pike. Even small ones will still hammer oversized spinnerbaits.

 

And you can throw hardbaits all you want at post spawn pike and go home fishless. When they are still up really shallow right after they spawn, softbaits worked really slow, will catch you way more pike than anything else. thats a good time to catch yourself a pike and not a snot rocket.

[MSBruno]

M&G also make some killer, heavy duty spinner baits. I just wish more stores sold them.

[CLofchik]

 

Cordell Redfin, $5

Way looser wobble than a Rapala, and they'll last longer than one fish.

 

For bonus points inject 4cc's of water, instant suspending budget bait.

Killer off the pierheads for spring trout as well.

[Rizzo]

You must slay a lot of snot rockets where you are eh?!

 

I just find pike to be a very easy fish to catch (up to 10 pounds I mean). Bigger are a far more elusive creature at least in southern ontario. Other than through the ice, because they are very accomodating, I only target pike once or twice a year, the main time being at the Lakair Tournament. Out of the 4 times I've fished the Lakair tourney I've finished 1st, 2nd twice and third once. Guess the pike just seem to like me.

Edited March 11, 2010 by Rizzo