A Saskatchewan pike guide’s 5 essential gear tips for battling big northerns

I am pike-obsessed. As a fishing guide in northern Saskatchewan, I get to spend thousands of hours each summer hunting trophy pike in prime waters, swapping stories with other guides and listening to big fish tales. It’s the perfect situation for pushing gear to its absolute limit and figuring out what actually puts big northerns in the net—and what doesn’t. The following five tips share a simple underlying principle: Keep your line in the water for as long as possible.

#1  BRING THE BIG GUNS
Pike will follow their prey for hundreds of feet before striking, so make longer casts. This will maximize your time in the opportunity window, letting your lure pass more structure and giving the fish more chances to follow it. To cast farther, use an extra-long rod, which will also take pressure off your shoulder. Muskie anglers have taken this to heart with rods as long as 10 feet, though you don’t have to match those extremes. A comfortable, medium-heavy or heavy spinning or baitcasting rod, between eight and nine feet in length, is ideal for long days of casting.