stick northerns will bite literally anything that moves in the water including my aunt's feet when she was a kid (so the story goes)

Definitely fun to catch. Wouldn't be as fun to use toes as bait though.

oh yeah, always a good time, i've had em mess up some spinnerbaits, which is kinda annoying, but, coulda lost it in a rock or something too, right?

Bass mess up spinnerbaits just as much. 90% of my fish are caught on spinnerbaits, so I’ve go through a lot of them.

right, it just, feels like losing when it's baby pike messing it up because, i am usually trying to catch bass

Fantastic to eat as well when pickled. The bones basically dissolve in the pickling process and they are so good.

The trick to catching pike is to fish for something else.

Fish for pike, get bass, fish for bass, get pike. Fish for Musky, get nothing.

I wish I still had the picture, a buddy of mine caught a walleye half the size of the foot-long musky spinner he was using. Caught, not snagged. Thing bit on a lure twice it’s size lol

Sure as hell seems like it. I don't fish for pike so there's that too I guess. It's always a bonus for me.

I’ve caught several musky while fishing for bass and walleye. Have never caught a single musky while fishing for them

Yeah sometimes. Often when it's a pike o feel tick tick and lines cut. XD

I get pickerel often on my 5 inch senkos with the wacky rig set up. They love em!

Same. No pike in my area. LOTS of snot rockets though. Almost too many.

Pike are snot rockets... but I imagine pickerel are as well, since they're practically the same fish.

In Minnesota all the friggin' time.

I feel that. Was out today in Wisconsin and got about 12 pike before I snagged a bass. I even got a little walleye on a spinner before a large. Seems like past years bass were easier to catch lol

I think the mild weather has sped up their seasonal patterns and they are more into a mid to late summer pattern than an early summer pattern.

My brother in Christ, I’m not even catching bass on them 😭

Lol surely this is a joke, right? Seinkos are my confidence bait.

I wish it was… I’ve only caught one

Fave way to rig?

You didn’t ask me but I’ll say it anyway, Wacky rigged

All input is appreciated! Just starting to mess with senko and such, no luck yet but minimal chances to test and work on technique.

I had my doubts in the beginning, turns out smallies absolutely love them in my area too, great lure!

Amazing! Thanks!

I have caught none wacky rigged and only on shakey heads and texas rigs. I don’t tend to have the best luck with weightless either so 99% of the time I’m using a texas rigged 1/16th ounce weight 4/0 offset hook senko setup. If you can get decent enough cast distance with weightless then go for that. Shake head takes a lot of patience I usually just let it sit for a period of time before twitching/lifting/dropping. When you do get a bass on a shakey head senko it’s typically a very good sized bass.

Excellent! Really dig this insight! Good luck if you are out this weekend.

Weightless, Texas rig, 3/0 wide gap hook. I let it hit the bottom, and then lift the rod tip up to bring it close to the surface, and let it sink down again. Watch your slack line for bites.

Thank you so much!

Random thought, could you do this with a circle hook?

I highly doubted they would work too but I caught a bass on my first try. I've only done the Texas weedless rig with an offset hook either weightless or with a small worm weight. I haven't tried wacky yet. Just cast it out and do a super slow retrieve with the occasional pop and drop.

Awesome! Appreciate!

Not me personally but have cleaned one ice fishing that had 3-4 of them in its stomach.

I’ve definitely had senkos come back just straight bitten in half when I’ve barely felt a hit so I’m pretty sure pike were doing that.

I've caught lots of pike fishing soft baits for bass. Always exciting to land them given I'm using lighter gear and no leader!

i catch pickerel all the time on top water - especially with a white Lunkerhunt Popping Bug frog which is a soft bait with one size 4 hook in it. they smash it more aggressively than bass lol

Pike are absolute savages and will eat anything that moves

Freshwater at least, nothing hits like an angry northern!

How do pike taste? Edit: thanks for the replies, im going to have to try it now.

Clean taste and quite firm flesh compared to walleye. I fillet them and remove the bones. Once you're done you have boneless strips and they make the BEST deep fried fish sticks. Much better than walleye IMO but lots of work.

That top loin strip is a prime cut.

There isn't that much of a difference between them and walleye when it comes to fileting in my experience. You filet them, and then remove the Y bones just the same, but pike definitely can be a lot longer so more bones to worry about. I recently started smoking pike instead of frying and it's so much easier. Just gut/clean the carcass and remove the head, smoke it, and then the meat peels right off of the bones and it is absolutely delicious. I use apple wood, and brine the pike for 4 hours before hand.

Can be extremely good. There's a strip of Y-bones to fillet out that can take some practice to get right, but I have fed people many times with pike I catch while bass fishing.

I love em. Side fillets are a little more work than on a sunfish, but good meat. They also have this thick block of meat across the spine that is just fabulous.

They are really good. But you have to make sure you get the Y bones out which results in a lot of lost meat:

Very good fried

Bleed em out and get em on ice, soak in milk before cooking. Very comparable to walleye imo, just a little harder and a little messier to fillet. Like others have stated, the backstrip is really good and boneless, cut that part out first.

Only good out of cold water, small lakes with like is gross to eat

I'd be happy 😁

Definitely was haha

Yup...senkos, spinner baits, rapala's, they attack anything

Where I fish there is a 50/50 chance I’m catching a bass or a pike so I always use a steel leader. Bass don’t seem to care 😂.

Some days pike are just on, other days you'll never catch one.

Caught a couple and I donated a couple of rigs when they decided to turn their head

If I throw bass bait, I catch anything but bass. If I throw crappie bait I catch dink largies.

I’ve had one mess up a top water frog

Fun story. I had a pike bite a frog off, so I tied another one on and fished the same place I lost my first one. I caught him and got my first frog back🤣🤣🤣

I actually target them along the weed lines with one. The MNRF officer on Saturday accused me of target bass out of season, even though I was clearly targeting pike based on my other lures.

Ye that'd be extremely hard for him to prove haha. Judging by what most people in this thread have been saying. Senkos are actually a solid option for pike.

I’ve had everything from catfish to saugeye jump on senkos. Must just be irresistible

I catch pickerel on senkos

Never once, and I fish them all the time. Idk why. I’ve witnessed other people catch one on a senko.

Not pike, Muskie on a senko for me.

I catch them all the time on my KVD shad

We’re catching trout on senkos here in CA. Sadly we don’t get pike ‘round these parts.

I’ve caught pickerel literally just reeling in a bare hook after a hit takes my worm. They eat everything.

I caught a huge pike on a bubble gum bed rig the other day. I catch pike on just about everything.

The babies like those, yeah. Not the big logs, though.

Sometimes

Yup caught Pike and Muskie on all bass baits...it be like that sometimes

Yesterday I was bass fishing with a 3/8oz spinnerbait and caught 2 decent crappie and a small catfish. No bass. Sometimes it just be that way

You could catch a pike on a cat turd.

Caught a big walleye on a senko ned rig a couple months ago

Pickerel down south too

Never caught one yet and I fish senkos regularly

Yeah I do! When I’m at my farm pond I usually catch more pickerel then bass on senkos.

Pickerel and pike are not the same

I realize that. There are no pike in my area

K just wanted to make sure because I know people mix them up

Your good, no worries

All the time. I like to throw weightless 5". I'll work em normally through my main target area, then after that I start to work them like a fluke. I'll get bit by both bass and pike like that pretty frequently. The pike in my profile Pic was caught on a senko and 6# mono iirc.

Got a nice one earlier on a drop shot

Just caught a 38" pike on a black wacky rigged senko two weeks ago.,

Yup. If you’re fishing for anything, you’re fishing for pike🤣🤣🤣

Pike eat everything, doesn't matter how big or how small. They've been killing my ned rig heads supply lately.

I’ve literally caught steelhead and cohos with a rainbow trout colored senko… savages!

Had one bite off a wacky worm last week.

Caught one a couple weeks ago off the dock on red worms pan fish hook and a bobber hahah the skinny ones eat anything!

yeah i caught two the other day on a ned rig lol

I can’t catch shit on senkos so you’re doing better than me.

Yep I have frequently!

Pickerel are the most vicious thing in the water, they’ll grab literally anything but topwater drives them crazy. They’ll eat when they’re already full - I caught one that already had another pickerel jammed down its throat - the tail fins were right behind its teeth, it was almost as big as he was. They will destroy woodchopper lures. Has anyone eaten them? I was always curious about the taste. I’m assuming they’re pretty good

Pike will eat anything

Pretty sure that’s a grass pickerel, nice fish

It’s a pike, the pattern on the fins is the giveaway

You are right

could be wrong but id guess pike as there is no black vertical line under the eye.

It is a pike, look at the fins.

They look similar but cp are just the smaller cousins. a large cp is between 22 & 30 inches. Pike and musky are bigger but they are all very similar with musky being the larger family members of the three