Rainy Lake northern pike begin spring movements long before the ice goes out. People fish them with dead baits (suckers or ciscoes) through the ice in late February and March. Most fisherman target mouths of bays that the pike will spawn in during late April and early May.
May and June fishing for pike will give you the best opportunity to hook up with the elusive 40” plus pike that every fisherman dreams about. Casting for pike is the single most effective technique during this time period. Let me explain why. Most of the pikes movements occur in or in very close proximity to the spring spawning areas. They set up on sunken shallow water reefs, points, deep water in the bay basin (5-6 ft. deep), shallow mud flats, dead pencil reed beds, and old cabbage weed patches and wild rice flats.
Morning fishing is usually different than the afternoon bite. Pike like to cruise in the morning actively feeding on whatever prey is available. The pikes prey accumulates on these structures during the night and remain into the early morning hours. I like to start on the entrance shorelines to the bays. Take a good look at the structures on both sides of the entrances with your polarized sunglasses. Often the best spots are secondary spots not always the most prominent. Pike love points and neck downs this time of the day. There is a common misconception that you use big baits for pike. They like smaller baits. Leave the musky baits home!
I usually start with a somewhat neutral bait ( baits with a tighter wobble) like a Shad Rap and cast it close to the bank and pull it down and pause using this technique all the way back to the boat. Swimbaits like the Impulse Paddle Minnow work very well also. I cast them and reel slow to medium speed with a methodical lift of the rod tip and then a fall, all while reeling in. When I see follows and not bites I switch to inline spinners like the #3 Vibrax or Mepps spinners.
When I enter the bay I like to cast 3/4 oz. Johnson Silver Minnows gold in color tipped with a two or three-inch white grub tail. Once again reel them about medium speed just enough to keep them a foot off the bottom. Pike like to lie in these four to five-foot basins waiting for the sun to warm the shallow water. I fish these basins from the middle working my way towards the edges.
In the afternoon I target the shallow bays. Northern Pike will slide up into 1-3 feet of water. One of my all time favorite baits is single buzz bait. I like black with either red or silver buzzers. ¼ and 3/8 oz. Northland Buzzard Buzzers in either #38 Blackbird or #3 Bullhead are top colors. If you have not casted these before practice away from the bays first.A buzzer must be casted and retrieved in this manner: Cast it and as the buzzer starts it’s downward fall to the water start reeling when the bait is several inches above the water. The whole retrieve should be above water, don’t let it below the surface. Learn to retrieve the bait only fast enough to keep the buzzer on top on the water and you will here a methodical clacking of the buzzer blade.Pike cannot resist this presentation; learn to do it right before you target the pike. Buzzers’ work great in dead pencil reeds, muddy flats and sometimes even in the bay basins. The strikes can happen anywhere in the retrieve, the strikes are usually violent and startling!
