New Fishing Outfit

[PickerelHunter]

After writing the title I realized it sounded like a post about clothing lol...anyways...

 

I'm heading up to northern ontario for a couple weeks and fishing a bunch of lakes for monster pike and aggressive walleye. I have two 6'6 medium action spinning outfits, one with 15lb powerpro and the other with 25 lbs powerpro. I think I'm set for the pickerel (or should I go with a mono reel???), but I think I need something heavier to launch the big pike baits we have. One of the guys recommended a medium heavy rod with a baitcaster reel for ease of casting and hauling them in.

 

What would you guys recommend for a rod/reel/line to cast bigger lures and catch these larger fish?

 

Thanks

Pete

Edited August 19, 2010 by PickerelHunter

[Brettiop]

I would likely go with a MH baitcaster like stated...something 7'6 give or take, with some backbone for some bigger fish u might run into.

 

You could do the same with a spinning outfit if thats what your more comfortable with...But the BC set up would likely be good for launching big baits out there.

 

Good luck with your trip!

[Brettiop]

Oh yea, ide likely get 30-50lb braid for my pike rod....thats what i use and it does the job...

Dont forget some steel leaders! nothing worse then a monster pike inhaling your whole bait and shreading the braid like its not even there.

[PickerelHunter]

Thanks for the help! Would you suggest a fluoro leader or the wire leader you mentioned? I've used fluoro for all my fishing, but haven't fished big pike so don't know if it would hold up.

[uglyfish]

7'-7'6" medium/heavy casting rod. good quality casting reel, 6.3:1 ratio, hight line capacity and a good drag. 50lb braid

[Gregoire]

It depends on your price point. I have a cheap musky outfit, an Abu Garcia C3 4601 on a Rapala magnum musky rod. I like this set up for casting, but find it lacks the power for reeling in big trolling lures, anyting over 1-1-1/2 ounces. I would consider this fine for pike though (but I wish I would have gone with the bigger shimano cardiff, or waited a month and paid a little more for the shimano calcutta that was on sale last time I was at LeBaron's). I much prefer my shimano compre and Abu Garcia revo toro set-up. This is about 3 times the cost though. So to answer your question: If you don't want to buy something on the cheap (probably under 200$) I would go with a cheaper musky rod like the Rapala magnum and an Abu C3, but if you want to spend some money (350+) go with a compre and toro combo.

Just as an aside; I am an Abu man. I own 6 abu reels. I you would prefer a shimano cardiff compares to the Abu c3 or c4, and the curado 300 compares to the toro or you could go with a shimano calcutta. On the rod side st. croix premier is at a similar price price point. I have only used the the compre and magnum rods and abu reels, and in my experience they work well.

I also fish with a guy who used to use spinning reels (size 400) on a compre musky rod, so instead of buying a new combo you could consider buying a good musky spinning rod, like a compre and re-spooling one of your spinning reels with 40 pound line, depending on their size, and using that. It would save you 100$+ on buying a baitcaster.

Whatever you do let us know what you choose, and post a report, I love monster pike.

[OhioFisherman]

Just my view, an Abu 4600 series reel is fine for bass, walleye. A situation where most of the fish you are going to be catching are under 10 pounds. Same could be said of the Curado 100 series reels, just smaller reels and although they can handle an occasional bigger fish if your intended targets are bigger fish? equip yourself accordingly? Monster pike? a Shimano 300 series reel or similar, a flipping stick intended for 3/8 to 2 ounce lures would be as light as I would go.