Bobber Fishin' for Pike

fleet farm's got this rig it's a big honkin bobber and a leader with a big regular hook for the sucker's mouth and a huge treble for behind the dorsal. pretty sweet lookin 4 bucks, gonna try it as soon as the ice is off. I grew up using suckers off the dock at mauthee lake. caught some huge ones, but we let the suckers swim on their own no bobber. this will be my first try with a bobber. still bobber fish for bass. caught a 21 1/2 inch largemouth on big cedar this summer, musta weighed upwards of five pounds. incredibly fat bass, not during spawn just huge anyway. bobber& crawler!

Hang a 4-8 inch shiner on the bottom with a bobber, and have an ultra light pole (I've used that rig, and an ultra light pole, and I have fought over 20 that way). You can use a different pole, because using an Ultra Light Pole isn't a very bright idea, especially when mine is $89. It's a great rig, and just cast it above a cabbage area, in about 7 feet of water or so (August) and let it sit there for 3 hours or more. You may want to cast it under a tree too, that might work a little better. Good Luck

Yea, just hang a Bluegill or Crappie, shiner....sucker...etc off the back of the boat while you drift weed edges and toss Rapalas and spinners and such for these toothy critters. If anything works best, it's definently live bait.

This works well in spillways, esp. with an eddy current. I enjoy hanging on a small Crappie and watching the bobber go around, around and down she goes. Open the bail and let him have it for a while. Reel up the slack and cross his eyes with the hookset.

I love soaking suckers for pike in the spring/summer. I usually soak at Lake Puckaway, i havent found other lakes that can really produce. I was wondering if you guys could help me out you dont have to tell me exact spots just general areas. I'm looking for spots on either the Chain O' lakes in Waupaca, or around the hartland/hartford area.

Thanks a lot,

Jake

My favorite way is to use a nice juicy roach or sucker under the bobber.

Some of the guys on this thread mentioned growing up catching pike on a bobber. I was raised to catch them on lures from the time I was young. Three years ago I started bobber fishing for pike for the first time, using 5-7 inch gills caught on the lake. It has increased my catch by more than 100%. I actually catch more pike on the bobber than on the lures I'm casting!

Nothing like soaking a 8" sucker under a big Red & white Bobber with a treble hook. When a big Pike gets close to the sucker you can see your bobber swimming off as the sucker tries to get away from the Pike,You give the pike a little time to roll the sucker in it's mouth and BAM!! Set the Hook and the fight is on! Can't wait to get to river next week and give it a try.

Sorry for no comment on bobber fishing, just want to chime in on filleting...I fillet anything 18" and bigger and I get the Y bones out no problem. You just have to do it enough to get good at it and realize when you first start out you're going to screw a few up before you learn the bone structure. Yes, the bigger they are, the easier it is. You can keep the meat that you lose with the Y bones and make a broth out of it for Pike chowder. Yum.

I clean them all that way. The 26.5 I cleaned the other day I had no trouble getting them out. Just gotta know where you are cutting and you need to take your time. Takes maybe an extra 2-3 minutes... Well worth it in my opinion.

Bobber fishing for them is a blast, but tough to do it without a leader of some sorts. Still some of the best fishing stories start with bobber fishing.

Hey Duk Fevr, you mentioned the y bones. I know some people that take the extra time to get them out. They only do 28-30 inchers and up, I have tried the smaller ones and they are way to tough. The bigger fish are nicer to get the y's out, do you clean any smaller fish?

As a young kid, this was may favorite type of fishing. I would spend hours on my parent's dock with a shiner on a bobber catching northerns. After school (in May and in the early Fall) I would often sprint home off the school bus so I could bobber fish pike before dinner.

Now as an adult, I rarely fish this way. Most of the time when I take my kids fishing for northerns, we will cast small spinners or swim baits. I have taken them out a couple of times bobber fishing suspended pike. It's kind of fun seeing that bobber disappear over 40 ft of water (shiner/sucker down 4-6 ft) and watching your kid pull up a nice size northern in the middle of nowhere.

Small bluegill or any panfish, large golden or sucker with a single hook through dorsal under 2.5"-3" boober is killer. Caught up to 30 in a day off my dock this way, haven't done it in years though, will have to give it a go this summer, teach the kids what fun it is. Setting the hook on the second run was key. Second fav is Large Johnson silver spoon with a 6" black Kalins grub tail

they are my favorite fish to eat too. funny how pike fishing and eating is not more popular.

Mine too. Have their own distinct flavor. And if you take the extra 2 minutes to cut the Y bones out. You got no bones to deal with. Ate some of it along with part of a walleye I caught this weekend. Northern was WAYYYYY better.

plop out a big sucker under a float and start casting around it with a big cleo ya either get a pike on the cloe or u lure them into the sucker.. works great got several legals on puckaway doing it this way.