Summer Pike

Careful if you are pike fishing. Caught a few the other day that had heads that were normal, but bodies that were very skinny. One was really thin. Gonna give it a break until the weather cools. At least where I was fishing, the fish were stressed. Even breathing hard when on shore until I got the hook out. But they did hit topwaters, which was shocking considering the water temp.

I would also try the deepest weed lines,but also try for suspended pike out from the weeds.For some reason when I have musky fished, I have run into pike in 20ft of water.I do not know how deep these fish where holding but they came up for a shallow running bait.I would think they were feeding on suspended panfish.

whats the definition of small? In august we caught several 30"+ pike in less than 5 fow. Biggest being 36". I never really understood why they were there when the water was so warm. The lake I fish is a eutrophic lake and unless im mistaken these lakes have low oxygen levels. My guess is the pike were shallow in the weeds for the oxygen. When fishing out deeper are the pike going to suspend up any distance from the bottom or will they be hugged tight. Im guessing it really depeneds where that cool oxygen rich layer settles?

The biggest pike will be in the coolest water that has enough oxygen. Small pike will be in the shallow weeds.