Northern Pike are another sought after and plentiful species and with the slot size in effect on Eagle Lake, has produced both numbers and size. Pike are known for their bone structure, especially their Y-Bone. We clean all your fish at Cedar Point Lodge and our dock hands are experts at taking these bones out. With these bones out, northern are as good a tasting fish as there is and can be cooked in similar ways as you would a walleye. At a shore lunch, most people can’t tell the difference between a walleye and northern especially if they are deep fried with a breading. Other popular ways of cooking northern are baking, grilling and some people even boil them in chunks and call it “poor man’s Lobster”! Whatever way that they are cooked they are an excellent addition to any fish fry!
Angling for northern, like walleye, can vary in techniques with the time of year. Northern Pike are spring spawning fish and congregate in shallow bays in the spring especially earlier in the season where a creek runs into a bay. Weedy shallow bays produce both numbers and size during this time and spinners that we discussed for walleye fishing also work well for northern. A variety of spoons such as the Five of Diamonds, Dare Devil, Johnson Silver Spoon have all proven to be excellent spring baits as well as Mepps Spinners and shallow trolling baits also work well. Brighter colours and perch coloured baits also work well at this time.
As the water temperature warms up, you can catch the smaller northern year round in the shallow bays as they stay close to their source of food and protection in the dense weed growth. Larger northern tend to move out into points with weed growth and drop offs as well as structure found in deeper parts of the lake. We had guests that have used their underwater cameras, tell us they have viewed schools of northern on one side of a reef and schools of walleye on the other. We have had success in the past with a longer “Lindy Rigs” and larger minnows fishing these deeper reef structures.
Fall fishing for northern can result in some of the largest of this species being caught. We have a number of 40” plus pike caught primarily by musky fisherman that are either trolling or casting. Most of your musky baits will prove to be deadly when angling for these larger pike.
