What are your preferred methods?

 

I went after pike recently on a big deep oligo lake, in a reportedly very good pike spot, year-round. See pic here: http://oi59.tinypic.com/26410dv.jpgThere were humps, drop-offs, points, a stream inlet, and 100+ ft water nearby. I speed trolled big plugs/cranks 25-30 ft down- just above the thermocline- in 40-60 fow but did not do well. In about 6 hrs caught some smallies and even a LMB but no pike.

Today it was a SK Rage Blade with Lake Fork Boot Tail Live Magic Shad ~

 

Admittedly these fish are still relatively shallow as this lake has several underground mid-lake springs - just need to know where they are.

 

A-Jay

 

Today it was a SK Rage Blade with Lake Fork Boot Tail Live Magic Shad ~

 

Admittedly these fish are still relatively shallow as this lake has several underground mid-lake springs - just need to know where they are.

 

A-Jay

 

22 July 2015 Our special day2.jpg

I hear that's the key. How do you find these springs? I don't have sonar/FF.

Nice pike there. That's what I'm looking for.

 

I hear that's the key. How do you find these springs? I don't have sonar/FF.

Nice pike there. That's what I'm looking for.

 

 

Thanks ~ 

 

Locating springs is a challenging proposition. Here's how I found some ~ 

 

 This particular lake is relatively shallow, with the deepest "holes" around 20 feet. The lake has a ton of vegetation, Lilly pads, Milfoil, Coontail & Cabbage weed. -  When first learning the lake, once the water temps went up I started fishing the deeper areas and that worked OK.   But as my prospecting continued I started getting some better pike in spots that were not necessarily the deepest and were almost void of weeds.  The light went on when handling the fish boat side - they felt unusually cold - especially for July & August (which is the only time this lake is open to fishing) -  I don't really know if the weeds don't grow as well in the cooler water or what, but it was a reoccuring theme.

 

That was 8 years ago and these spots have proven themselves year after year to hold some of the biggest & healthiest pike the lake.  

 

Hope this helps

 

A-Jay

 

That is a pig of a pike!   **mouth waters**

We're those cold springs, A-jay?

We're those cold springs, A-jay?

 

Don't really have a way of knowing the exact temps J but the fish routinely feel quite a bit cooler than the surface temp which generally bounce around 70.  And the waters not that deep so it's not like I pulling them up from way down there.

 

A-Jay

Big crankbaits or large creek chubs. This is in a crystal clear river, average depth of about 4 feet.

Finally caught a Northern this week, by accident. Just an axe handle but was nice knowing they do still exist in the summer. Trolling a Rapala DT16 pumpkinseed pattern.

Generally I look for weed beds or rock piles around the 10' range near deeper water. Cast to shallow.