My 7 yr old wants to catch some Northern Pike, I live in southern Indiana, none near here. I have been to the Chetek Chain, but it was several years ago, is it still really good fishing? Or is there another lake you would recommend? Not looking for trophy fish, just numbers. Bass fisherman, so I know very little about fishing pike. Any help would be appreciated.
Come up and fish just about any lake here in MN for bass, you'll catch pike - the bass guys here catch them all the time. Moving lures seem best, red-eye shads, spinner baits, chatters, etc. Work a weedline and they'll be there.
If the Chetek Chain was "really good fishing" than you're in for a treat if you venture elsewhere in Minnesota. Every lake here has pike, most with an overabundance of hammer handles but others like Red or Mille Lacs have a lower abundance but a legit chance at a trophy sized fish.
For baits they like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, big swimbaits, spoons, etc. Find weeds and you'll find pike. The bigger ones are typically near deep/cooler water as the season progresses. If you see schools of sunfish getting spooked out of the water that's a good sign bass and/or pike are cruising the buffet line.
Good luck and please keep several small ones for the pan.
North Dakota is hard to beat for like fishing. Just as many as MN but twice the size average.
Anyways in my experience you can catch bass fishing towards the shoreline, and if you cast to the deal submerged weeds towards reaper water you can slay pike, moving baits like spinnerbait are king
Mercury 250 proxs 2B115089
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html
If you narrow down an area you'd like to visit, you can search this site for more info on specific lakes. In reality though, you'd be hard pressed to find many lakes in the northern 2/3 of the state that isn't (plagued) with an overabundance of small pike. Most bass fisherman don't regard them as trophy's as other people may. With a small kid you should have no problems getting them either bait/bobber fishing or even trolling weedlines with a spoon or shad rap or something like that. Also, download our regulations...page through the special lake regs and look for those with size slots for pike. Some lakes are managed for bigger fish, and some have a lot of low to mid teen fish.
If you really want to catch big ones..ND and SD are the places to go. Some of their lakes have tons of pike, and big ones...20+lbers... in fair abundance.
Spinnerbait or squarebill crankbait and running it over weeds is all you'll need to do. Shouldn't be much of a challenge.
Agree with what everyone else said - they're everywhere. Get something big, loud, and flashy in some obnoxious colors and reel it fast. You'll catch plenty. Also, chatterbaits are like pike crack, and somehow it seems they can tell how much you paid for it; they seem to especially like the expensive ones.
If you want size, there's also some good advice above. The bit about trading off abundance for size is almost always true as well, so keep that in mind.
2011 Skeeter ZX225
225 Yamaha HPDI Series 2
Minn Kota Ultrex 112 52"
Console: HDS 16 Carbon
Bow: HDS 12 Carbon, Solix 12 G2, Mega 360, Garmin 106 SV, LVS 34
you have to love MN You can each of these fish in the same area with the same bait and pretty much the same approach.IMG_2716.JPGIMG_2665.jpg
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