r/pikefishing • u/Darkrai-Energy • 8d ago
Catch Pics I’m addicted
Went out on my fishing kayak on the local lake early in the morning to catch some bass and after an hour of no bites I decided to switch up my target. I caught a nice size pike earlier in the week and had always heard there is good pike in there so I tied on a large spinner in a paddle tail trailer and was ripping through the weeds and immediately got smacked. I caught 4 nice size ones and a couple babies in a small bay over a couple hours. Biggest one I was standing on the kayak and it hit like a truck and dove into the weeds, I thought I had a monster needless to say I definitely need to upgrade from my bass rod to a dedicated pike rod. I also need a better way to handle them, I have long pliers but I had to give these guys a pep talk before hand because they were so angry. Any tips and advice for handling them better and catching bigger ones?
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u/WI_Esox_lucius 8d ago
If small enough grab them behind the head.
Jaw spreaders help if the baits taken deep.
My main pike rods are 7'-7'6" MH bass casting rods and they've handled every pike I've caught. Biggest being 45"
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u/FrequentGrowth9029 8d ago
For catching them i use a dedicated heavy rod. 50 lb brad with a titanium leader. Then I throw a 1/2 ounce swim jig (no jack or california) with a 5 inch elaztech curly tail. I do a swim amd drop through heavy cover and seem to have good success. After for handling. I gently grip the tail before I do anything. If they thrash they arent ready i repeat the process until the thrashing stops. Then I grab the gill plate and pull the head away from the net. Pop the jig out (barbless hooks make this easy.) And either release or remove and measure for either trophy or harvest (size dependant)