Looking for giant northern pike? Try fishing the shadowy spots in the lake

We always begin the open water season stalking big northern pike and this year was no exception. And we enjoyed an absolutely marvellous first day of fishing, landing a score of knee-knocking northerns including the gargantuan beauty below—the girthiest pike we’ve ever seen.

But the day didn’t start out quite the way we expected. In fact, truth be told, we were set on our heels when our all-time favourite spring pike location didn’t produce a bump. It got us to thinking back to last spring, and the immediate years prior, when we caught and released several big pike in the mid- to high 40-inch range. What had changed?

For certain, the ice retreated earlier this year, and the water was significantly warmer, as we basked under sunny, summer-like conditions. And that’s when it dawned on us. It was a gorgeous blue bird-type day, and we hadn’t gotten on the water until mid-morning, so we speculated that the pike had feed gluttonously at first light… and then retreated to the dark nether shadowlands. In fact, this is a pike point emphasized by good friend and renowned esocid scientist, Dr. John Casselman.

“You will catch three to four times more pike on cloudy days than you will on bright, sunny days,” I remembered John telling me. “From angling studies conducted during the open-water period, we know that pike feed more actively on cloudy, overcast days than on bright, sunny days. On days when light intensity is high, they feed more actively during evening and to a lesser extent morning twilight, and when light intensity is low.”

C’mon, it couldn’t be that easy, could it? 

Well, as much as we were surprised by the slow morning start we were shocked by the fast afternoon finish when we started following the shadow line around the lake. Understand what I’m saying?  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but when we concentrated our fishing on the prime structures and cover along shady shorelines, the action was spectacular.  Ditto, when we fished the structures and cover—emerging cabbage weed beds in particular—along the shadowy side exclusively. We waltzed several gorgeous northerns into the net.

Here’s the video we shot highlighting the glide baits we were fishing, but pay attention also to the full-blown, sunglass, sunscreen-type of day we were fishing, while pulling pike out from the shadows.