Suface lures?

[Christopheraaron]

Hoping to try for some early season pike, do you think that surface lures would work or is it too early?

[Pigeontroller]

Early season Pike(water temps below 45) won't chase anything moving much faster than real slow...

[BillM]

Suspending husky jerks in this cold water. Pause 3-4 seconds if you have to.

[Christopheraaron]

I'm going to go to a spot in one of the bodies of water in st catherines, water temp is about 40 what do you think I should use? Plastics? Tubes? Jigs? (sorry, posted this before I realized Bill's post still is there anything else I should use?)

Edited March 14, 2012 by Richmond Hill fisher

[EC1]

60 degrees give or take will be when you should start with the topwaters.

Now you got me itching to throw them.

[Freshtrax]

The little guys were pounding the J-11 firetigre today down here in the Ottawa valley

[uglyfish]

Any suspending jerkbait worked slow will get fish. And soft jerkbaits can be just as, and in some cases even more productive.

[Live2fish85]

Suspending Jerkbaits all the way. I would think the water is.warmer then that right now. All the places I have fished are warmer then that, they are also alot bigger.

[mike rousseau]

I know a guy that does very well jigging reaper tail jigs for early pike...

 

Really really slow...

[Christopheraaron]

Suspending Jerkbaits all the way. I would think the water is.warmer then that right now. All the places I have fished are warmer then that, they are also alot bigger.

 

I did post this at the beginning of the month...

[FishHeadRic]

Like stated earlier the right lures to use would be suspending minnows like the Huskie Jerks, X-Rapps or Yozuri Crystal minnows worked slow. If you are working shallower water areas floating minnows, Spinners (Mepps #5), or even bigger flat spoons like the Toronto wobler or a 5 of diamonds will do.

 

 

FHR

[Dabluz]

When I want to fish slow and I don't want to use a steel leader, I just use a 5/0 worm hook and rig it up weedless with a 6 inch white curly tail plastic worm. You have to make slits on the bottom and top of the plastic worm so that the hook point will expose itself easier. Casts great with a good baitcaster and if the pike bites it off, I lost maybe a dollar's worth of equipment. I use 18 to 30 lb test braid. I may use larger braid (50 or 60 lb) in the future but for now, the 30 lb test braid seems to work fine.

 

The bright coloured curly tail is easy for me to see in the shallow water and when it disappears, it's because it's hidden in a pike's mouth...lol.

 

Yes....large suspending minnow baits like Husky Jerks or Smithwick Rogues work great but they are expensive so I use a knotable titanium leader. The single strand 25 lb test titanium leader is 0.010 inches in diameter which is the same size as good quality mono.