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FANTASTIC
Fishing Tips:
FROm
HImSELF!
NORTHERN PIKE ON SPINNER BAITS
(continued)
water 125 feet behind us. Dave did the same with a red-bladed, white-bodied
Weedcutter . Both baits traversed beneath water 125 and 150 feet behind us.
Estimated speed was 6 to 8 miles an hour.
Dave indicated he thought the speed was excessive
and that ‘NO Pike’ in Frazer Lake would be capable of
catching up with a lure trolled this fast.
No sooner had the words escaped Dave’s mouth,
his rod tip slammed down hard and line began to peel
away as the reel screamed protest. There was no need to
set the hook, there never is when speed trolling; boat
speed had done that.
With the motor stopped, Dave fought the first
decent fish to boat. Upon lifting it over the gunnel the
pike weighed-in slightly over 10 pounds. After a picture
was taken, the pike was released.
“That’s more like it, Gapen. You said this lake had
good sized pike in it. But, I can’t believe it took trolling
a spinner bait to entice one,” my fishing buddy commented
as he readied to cast back behind the boat for
another go at trolling up northern pike.
During the next three hours on Frazer Lake, David
and I boated and released 34 pike ranging in weight
from 4.5 to 18.5 pounds. All were taken via the fast
trolling presentation. Whenever we attempted to cast,
to check out our theory, the same ‘follow to boat’ reaction
came from the Frazer Lake pike.
I’d first used speed trolling while guiding the water
near my parents’ fishing resort on the Nipigon River
“Beat this one, Ol’ Man!”
Caught on your favorite
yellow Weedcutter
watershed. Then it was a devil spoon used as the fast troll bait. Today, it had been
a modern bass bait called the spinner bait. Today’s bait had cut the water with
greater ease and less resistance than the old reliable devil spoon. There was another
factor which impressed Dave and I. The spinner bait could be trolled faster and
seemed to hold beneath surface better. At one point, we trolled the 10 horse motor
at 3/4 throttle, reaching a speed of near ten miles an hour. Even so, the pike were
able to smash the bait with ease.
Today, speed trolling has become a proven technique used by many hardcore
pike fisherman. Most of these use a spinner bait as their key lure. The reason for
this lure being the best, is that crankbaits and spoons fail to hold beneath surface at
high speeds.
When applying the speed trolling technique for northern pike, it seems to
work best at a point along the shoreline where water depth drops off from 5 feet of
depth. A reason for this is that northern pike are found to stage off shoreline, during
summer days, in the six to eight foot water depth mark.
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F i s h G a p e n ’ s
The Flicker
“HOW-TO” WORK IT
Gapen’s FLICKER is used in a similar fashion
to a lead head jig. Action given the lure is to lift
Wind Direction
and lower the lure in irate movements with a
‘twitch’ and ‘roll’ in between lifting and lowering.
Because the lure is made of a light tinput
material, an environmentally safe metal, and has
a slight bend to its body, the Flicker has a natural
side to side motion when lifted and lowered.
By reviewing the diagram on the right, we’ll
take the angler through ‘How-To’ use the Flicker
in deeper waters.
‘a’ and ‘C’ represent the lure as it is dropped
towards the bottom. Once this has been obtained
the angler should lift the Flicker off the bottom -
twitch it a couple of times - then retrieve a turn or
two on your reel handle. After the flick or twitch,
allow the lure to settle once again, but not quite
all the way to the bottom (leave a foot or two). At
this point, flick the lure once again and lift
upwards. Depending on where the targeted fish
are in the water column, this same action is
repeated all the way to the surface.
If such action does not produce a strike the
entire process is repeated once again at the point
marked ‘B’. Points ‘B’ and ‘D’ represent the
retrieved track of the Flicker as it is brought
back to the surface. This erratic action of the
Flicker represents the movement of an escaping
baitfish or a wounded minnow.
To increase the attractiveness of a Flicker the
angler may elect to tip one of the treble hooks
barbs with the head (only the head) of the areas
most used minnow. This maneuver will add a
desired scent to the bait.
When working trout and bluegill add a maggot
a B C D
to a 1/32 oz. size. For crappie and perch add a minnow head to a 1/16 oz. size, For
smallmouth bass add a tiny piece of crawler to a 1/8 oz. size. And, for walleye, striper,
lake trout and largemouth bass, add a minnow head to a 1/4 oz. and 1 oz. size. The
Flicker can also be just as fatal on northern pike.
Surprisingly, this is an extremely effective lure on all salmons, brown trout and lake
trout in the 1/4 oz. and 1 oz. size. It can be casted, allowed to sink, lifted and retrieved,
then allowed to settle once again. Such a retrieve represents a wounded baitfish
attempting to revive itself in the water column.
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F i s h G a p e n ’ s