Keep in mind, when a pike looks big under the surface, it is because off perspective distortion. That fish that look huge hanging in the weeds is going to shrink quite a bit as soon as you get it out of the water and throw it across your arm. Weight is the key to gauging a fishs potential, age, and overall health. Knowing what girth equals pounds prior to casting will help set reasonable expectations on your outing.
The infographic breaks pike into clear categories, ranging from hammer class fish to world-class fish. Being able to classify pike you see will allow you to manage reasonable expectations on your outing. Just because you caught a twenty-four inch pike doesn’t mean much if it’s a juvenile pike that just hit the legal limit where you are fishing such as in Wisconsin or Minnesota. More than likely, it will be three pounds. When targeting trophies you want to start looking for those that has passed the thirty inch mark. At this point they starts becoming exponentially heavier then growing linearly.
How to Catch Big Pike
The condition factor drives that exponential growth The condition factor is a mathematical way to determine an individual fishs thickness in relation to its length. As the chart illustrates, formula is pretty simple; just plug in length and girth. If your fish has a higher condition factor, it is a heavy trophy for the wall or prime meat. If it have a lower condition factor, then it may simply be thinner or perhaps even stressed and younger.
Feel for the condition factor as you’re handling the fish. A healthy, thick pike will feel solid and dense, which is why many times it will weigh much more than a stringy fish that’s the exact same length. That thickness is what makes a ten-pound fish different from a fifteen-pound fish at thirty-six inches.
One other factor that significant affects size variation is gender. Almost all record pike are hens. Why? Because females is substantially bigger than males. And according to data, females can grows to a length of fifty-nine-inches and live up to thirty-years-old. While males won’t typically exceed thirty-six inches and ten pounds. These differences result in what biologists call “dimorphism”. This make catching the big boys take some time.
There’s more to it than that though. It takes them decades to slowly grow into monsters. In nutrient-rich fisheries, like European lakes… Especially those in the Netherlands and Germany, this allows pike to reach up to fifty pounds. Lothar Louis’ world record stands at fifty-five pounds. That’s how thick these fish can get when they’re fed all day long.
While pike from warmer water may be slightly fatter, those from North America are more likely found in clear, cold water and therefore will be on the lean side but provide some good fights none-the-less. According to the growth chart it would of take roughly 10 years for a female to get up to forty-inches long and almost twenty years before reaching that half century mark. Because they live so long, conserving them is paramount. States such as Ontario and Michigan have slot limits in place which protect these growing fish so they can spawn a time or two before being taken out of the equation. That’s the key for future trophies; don’t follow the rules and you won’t catch one.
Should you hook one of these bruisers, make sure your tackle is up to the task. They’ve got more than seven hundred backwards facing teeth designed to shred like shrapnel. Monofilament isn’t going to last long on a hook if it connects with a thirty-pounder. You need heavy braid and an eighty-pound titanium or wire leader to avoid getting bit off. As you move into higher classes, the visual guide suggest upgrading to bigger swimbaits and glide baits. While the little ones may get bites on small stuff, the bigguns lurking out on the deeper weed line don’t often commit to the little lures.
Your strategy is also seasonal. In the spring, fish transition to shallow water and prefer slow jerkbaits and shallow spinnerbaits for their spawn. In the summer, they moves into deeper water. You can catch them on big swimbaits and topwater frogs in the dense weed patches. Come fall, they are thinking bigger again. It is time for glide baits and big spoons to mimic bigger meals before the freeze comes. Knowing this allow you to focus on the correct size class during the right time of year.
Catching big pike isn’t really about luck; it is more about recognizing a fishs life history. They are old fish that made it to a certain level of thicknes, they survived long enough. Use a heavy leader, treat them with care on the release, and know that sometimes catching those last few inches of girth can be the difference between a good day and a legend.