EQUIPMENT

Rods and Reels

You have a choice of spinning, spincast, trolling, fly-fishing, and baitcasting rigs when setting out to bag a pike. Fly fishing has its own unique advantages and the equipment for the technique will be discussed in a separate brochure. Of the remaining choices, baitcasting gear, the usual choice for fishing spoons and bucktails, is suitable for presenting bigger and heavier lures and baits to the fish. Spinning rigs are the usual choice of anglers who use live bait. Flippin' tackle is often used with jigs.

With spinning, spincast, and baitcasting rods and reels, you'd do well to stick to medium- to heavy-weight equipment since most of the time you'll be looking for big fish in heavy cover. An example of a good baitcasting outfit is a four-and-a-half to five-foot baitcasting rod, a level reel which is large enough to accommodate about 50 yards of at least 15-pound-test line, a light wire leader, and medium to large shallow-running baits. The new baitcasting reels, with their magnetic control on the line spool, have practically eliminated the backlash, overrun, and bird's nest problem encountered in pike fishing in the days before spinning reels took over the market.

Trolling rods of the type normally reserved for lake trout have only recently been used specifically for pike in a new method of specialist pike angling. But whatever equipment you choose, you'll want a rod with some spine in it, both to throw heavy lures and to set hooks.

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