5 must-know tricks for landing lunker walleye, brook trout, bass, perch & pike in fall

#2  DEEP-DIVING JERKS FOR GIANT NORTHERN PIKE

Back when the Molson’s Big Fish Contest was a huge deal in Ontario, I released the biggest muskie four years in a row. I also won the northern pike division during several of those same seasons, but I have a confession to make: I wasn’t actually targeting pike when I caught those winning fish. They were simply bonus bystanders caught in the crossfire.

Those big pre-ice northerns taught me an important fish-catching lesson, though: every one of them hit after I’d scaled down my presentation because of the tough weather and water conditions. I used a lighter rod, reel, line and leader combination, and my bait of choice was almost always the biggest bass or smallest muskie jerkbait I owned. And the winning colour combination was always a dark back, silver or white-sided cisco imitation.

Not surprisingly, I’ve since built my late-fall pike program around deep-diving jerkbaits—not the high fliers and fast floaters I favour during spring and summer. I’ve also incorporated several slow-sinking European jerkbaits, such as Sybe Baits’ Striker, Flat Sybride and Sybe Boy (below), and Rapala’s X-Rap Haku. They tend to be much broader-bodied, producing a wider, glide-like, walk-the-dog-style action compared to the sharp, short and tight tremors of North American jerkbaits such as the Down Deep Husky Jerk. Which lure style is better? I rig a rod with each one and let the pike answer that question on a daily basis. I will say this, though: the big gators are not conditioned to those jerkbaits from across the pond, so when they see one, they crush it.

Something else I’ve noticed is that most anglers work their jerkbaits in an up-and-down snapping manner, with the rod tip positioned close to the water. If you do that, be sure to hit the lure on slack line or else you’ll just be pulling it. Also try to impart action by making sharp, quick turns of the reel handle, especially when you’re fishing the European lures. That will also inadvertently cause a small amount of rod tip action—it’s unavoidable and okay—but try to keep most of the rip-rip-rip-pause action coming from the staccato-like turns of the reel handle.

Practise this reel retrieve and you’ll soon be able to throw slack into your line as you recover it, rotating the lure almost 180 degrees like a frightened cisco turning to face a pike head on. And when that happens, the next time you even slightly twitch the lure and make it appear ready to flee, any nearby northern will annihilate it.

BONUS TIP: SINKING ACTION

I’ve ruined many jerkbaits over the years by drilling holes in them and plugging them up with lead, trying to create the ultimate slow-sinking horizontal suspender. These days, though, I’m more likely to hang a bell weight from one of the hook hangers to get the lure down to 12 to 15 feet, or even deeper. I’ll also use a Nishine Lure Works’ Outer Weight (above), which is made specifically for this purpose.