Ice-fishing for pike: 5 must-know strategies for catching wintertime giants

#1  WATCH THE WEATHER

I always carefully check the weather forecast before deciding which pike lake I’m going to target on any given day, but the reason why may surprise you. It’s not to determine whether I’ll be going fishing—that’s a given—but rather which lake is likely to produce the best action given the forecasted conditions.

Why is the weather so important? When it comes to triggering fish to feed, Casselman explains, nothing is more significant than the amount of light streaming through the ice and snow into the water below. The more light there is, he says, the more it stimulates a fish’s endocrine system, prodding it to eat.

To prove this point, Casselman used a dimmer switch to regulate the light in the lab where he kept captive pike. When he brightened the lights to between 300 and 700 lux—matching the level of light under the ice on a sunny January day—the fish immediately swam up from the bottom of the tank and became active. Conversely, he put the pike to sleep when he turned the lights down. Apparently, the decision to rest, prowl and feed is beyond their control, dictated almost entirely by the amount of light.

If the sun is shining brightly, pick a lake with the potential of catching trophy pike

So, if the sun will be shining brightly, I always pick a lake where the potential is high to catch the trophy of a lifetime. On the days I caught those giant fish with Stange and Izumi, for example, it was so bright we needed sunglasses to cut the glare. I’ll also choose a bright day to explore a new lake I’ve never fished before. This is especially the case if the lake has dark or stained water, which would otherwise make it tough to ice a big pike on a cloudy day.

When it’s overcast and the light level is less than ideal, on the other hand, I’ll target clear bodies of water. I figure the clear water, especially if there’s minimal ice and snow on the surface, will enhance any light making its way through. On such days, I’ll also sometimes fish for fun on shallow, weedy lakes with a high density of medium-sized pike that can’t escape to deepwater refuges. It’s all about optimizing the conditions and stacking the odds in your favour.