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Early Season Pike/Muskie Fishing Essentials:
Most of the Pike have already spawned and will be cruising the shallow weed flats looking for Perch, Suckers, Minnows and an occasional Bluegill, the larger fish tend to stay nearer the deeper edges where they feel more secure and have a quicker escape route to deep water, but they still are hungry and will take a fly well at this time of the year. Early Season sight fly fishing for Pike, is sometimes an exercise in frustration, and sometimes the most fantastic fishing you have ever done. Most of the fish in the Northwoods you will encounter will be less than 42 inches in length and weigh about 5 to 15 pounds - the fish are pretty skinny in the spring! They can be voracious feeders, if the conditions are right, you will have many shots at feeding fish. Typically you will spot 10 to 20 fish in a day with good shots at 5 to 10, your ability to accurately cast is critical in getting more chances at casting to fish that have not been spooked! You will also be blind casting to likely looking holding water. Cloudy, windier days are best for catching fish, but it is difficult to see them in these darker conditions - a great pair of Polarized Sunglasses will help immensely! You will have to blind cast more, but your hooking percentage will go up - the fish can't see you as well either! Pike of like sizes tend to travel in schools, once you find a few in a certain area or water type, you can target similar areas throughout the body of water you are on and you will probably have a banner day!
To even the odds, I recommend a couple of 9' 9wt. fast action Fly Rods rigged with Floating and Clear Intermediate Sink Tip lines. I usually use 20 # test single strand Titanium wire tippet attached to a 30# test leader butt of about 4 to 7 feet in length (depending on the depth of the water and type of line).
A good quality Disc Drag Reel (preferably Large Arbor), is a must, the lighter the better - I use Ross Evolution 3.5 Reels. Backing capacities are not critical, as these fish rarely get into the backing - I have never had one do it and don't know of anyone who has. Fifty to One Hundred yards of 20# test Backing will be more than adequate.
Keep your offerings small. Don't start chucking big flies right off the bat, use flies that will run deeper and have a smaller profile - the fish are still pretty cold and they can digest smaller foods faster, giving them more energy in a shorter amount of time. I usually start with subdued colors until the water temps get into the upper 50's and low 60'd then I slowly bring on the brighter stuff. Minnow imitations work best early on, then Perch and finally Bluegills, but the Gills really won't get going until water temps get into the 60's - we have a long way to go before that happens!
I should mention rods - get the lightest weight fastest action you can afford - but be careful not to get a "Saltwater" rod that is all butt and not meaty enough in the middle and tip sections. You need to generate lots of line speed at shorter distances (25 to 35 feet). I have St. Croix Legend Elite Saltwater Series rods which are very good, and I have the Muskie Master which is unsurpassed for casting extra large flies long distances with little effort. If you are on a tight budget, I think the best rod for around $150.00 is the Echo Ion 9' 9wt. - it's a 4 pc. rod with good speed and comes with a tube and sock. "Salmon" action rods are really too soft - they are made to protect lighter tippets and not made to cast extra large flies long distances - we don't have any lighter tippets to protect - 20# wire and 30# mono don't really need any "shock absorbing" softer tip or mid sections to protect them from breaking! Most 8wt. rods don't have enough backbone to "stick" a Muskie hard enough, we're trying to hook and fight them, not kill them in the process.
Patterns: I start my season with a Big Green, Bill's Deceiver, a Bunny Bug, and a Bucktail Bunny, near June I'll start using an Edgewater Diver and other flies in the 6 to 7 inch range. Many times the fish choose the slow rhythmic movement of the Bunny Bugs over the silhouette of the minnow patterns, especially if they are a bit deeper and less agressive because of colder water. Keep your flash to a minimum and slow your retrieve way down, almost just bumping or jigging the fly across the weeds. Keep your flies no more than 5 or 6 inches long, for best results use a 3/0 or 4/0 hook for most of the Pike/Muskies in our area. A 9 wt. rod is best.
Water clarity in the spring is fantastic, longer leaders and longer casts will get you into more and larger fish - be sneaky! I usually use a Cortland 444SL Ghost Tip line with a 15' clear Intermediate sinking front section, this gets my fly down where the fish will be. My leader system consists of a length of 30 pound test hard mono, looped at both ends, to this I add a single strand Titanium Tippet section that I build with a length of 30# test shock mono attached to the wire with an Albright Knot. At the terminal end I tie on the fly with a four loop Clinch Knot (note, don't pull the tag end tight, allow for a loop to remain at the hook eye for more fly movement). This type of system allows me to change leader lengths and replace tippets quickly and easily without messing around trying to reconstruct everything in the boat - I usually tie up several tippet sections in advance and put them into my tackle bag for use whenever I need them.
Leader Design: I make my own leaders, I use 20 or 30 pound test Maxima Ultragreen or some other brand of low-vis stiff mono for the butt section which may be between 2 and 7 feet long (depending on the water depth and clarity) the shallower the water the longer the leader Butt, put a small loop at both ends - one to attach to the fly line and the other to attach the tippet section. I make up tippet sections with about 15 inches of the same mono as the Butt Section and about 16 inches of 20 or 30 pound test single strand Titanium wire - I attach the wire to the mono with an Albright Knot. Put a small loop in the mono of the Tippet section to attach it to the Butt section, tie on the fly following the instructions on the back of the package of Titanium Wire (use a Clinch Knot). Don't pull the knot tight - leave some room for the fly to move freely - the knot will not pull tight, no matter how big the fish is and leave about a 1/4" tag end at the fly to make sure the wire can't untie itself.
This is by far the best leader system I have come up with to date, the wire is so small in diameter the fish don't see it, and it lasts way longer than anything else out there, also because it is single strand, it doesn't give off near as much reflection under water making it even more invisible to the fish. The wire isn't cheap, but it is definitely the best stuff out there, it's no more expensive than Tyger Wire and it will outlast it by tenfold! Sometimes in the spring, if the water is very clear and I'm fishing over a sandy bottom, I will skip the tippet section and tie the wire into the butt section making the leader & wire about 8 to 10 feet long. I do this to minimize the shadow from the leader and to keep the leader as streamlined as possible, but I only do this for extra clear water where I'm fishing very shallow.
Leader length depends on water depth and time of year. In the early spring I use a longer length because of water clarity - I lengthen the mono portion to about 5 to 7 feet, giving me a total length of about 6 to 8 feet with the Titanium Tippet section. Conversely, in the late fall when I'm fishing very large flies on full sinking lines and I want to get them very deep (10 to 18 feet), I go to a very short leader only about 1 or 2 feet plus the Titanium Tippet section which is a maximum of about 3 to 4 feet. Under normal fishing conditions throughout most of the season I use a total leader length of about 6 or 7 feet, this allows the fly to turn over well and still provides enough distance between the line and the fly to not spook the fish.
Where they're at: Look to the northeast corner of a body of water to warm up first - this area gets the most sunlight and the shallower water of a weed flat or shoreline when adjacent to deeper water is a great place to begin your hunt - especially if there is an incoming stream or creek in the shallow bay. A word of caution here, if there is a stiff wind blowing into the bay, the water temps will be significantly lower. In this case you are better off finding a bay where the water is calmer and can heat up better. Anyplace where the afternoon sun can warm up the water without much direct wind action will get the most active fish first. In a river, look to the backwaters and sloughs to contain the best fishing early on. The upper reaches of most flowages will also hold these fish since these places are very near or in their spawning areas.
Sometimes in the late spring (late May and early June) Muskies move up onto several sandy beaches in the late afternoons and evenings - I sometimes am able to sneak up on these fish while wading, if you would be interested in giving this a try, bring your wading equipment along. I have caught a couple of 20 to 30 pounders with this technique - it's not easy, but it can be very worthwhile!
