Best and Worst Pike lures

Let's talk pike lures. What do you do well on? What do you feel is over-rated?

#1 is a tie between Rapala Xrap (olive green, size 13) and Your average spinner bait (double gold willow blades and orange or white in color)

#2 another tie between jitterbug (frog colored and jointed or a Heddon baby torpedo...ive caught fish as big as 40" on both and neither is a big bait

#3 Rapala DT (gold/black) they come in a variety of depths but ive had most luck with the 4-6' and 1' depths....

#4 Inline Spinners, smallish mepps #5 and musky double blade buck tails...all work real well

#5 Live bait...large fatheads, medium suckers....inexpensive compared to muskie suckers and work real well.

Best bait: Muskie buck-tails in the summer and in fall suckers seem to work decent

Worst bait: Banjo minnow or any other television product

I make home-made large beatle spins with a gold blade, 1/8 oz black jighead and either a black or white curley tail. This lure has caught 100's of pike. Bass and eyes will eat them too. Because they aren't a large bait, I don't catch many over 30", but I am an action pike fishrerman. The single hook works great over cabbage, less hooking vegatation, vs a Mepps or stickbait.

My eldest son has caught quite a few pike on a ThinFin 04 color. The youngest son likes to throw a ThunderStick.

I don't think there is a worst lure. Having confidence and being able to identify good pike habitat makes just about any lure work.

My biggest problem is dealing with high pressure.

I have both lost and been a witness to many many Husky Jerks being sawed off by these critters. Seems the color is always gold for some reason as well. Besides that, pretty much anything will catch them. I've even caught them on worm and bobber.

Best bait 5 - 6 inch Crappie. Worst bait, nothing, these fish will hit anything. Anyone know where I can get a 5 inch Flatfish (Lazy Ike).

i would say i have had the most luck throwing frogs, im primarly a bass fisherman, there has been days where i cant even get a bass to bite cuz these toothy critters attack my frog or buzzbait...my fav being the stanly ribbit, so i decedied i would spend some time targeting pike so then i tried using the larger bull ribbit, but did not have as much sucsess as the standard size frogs ..my 2 cents..

Overrated: Just about anything you see the guys on In-fisherman using. They may work up on some famous pike lake up in Canada but generally not in Wisconsin. Underrated: Muskie baits of any kind, just have to know when and where to fish them

Buzz baits top water stick baits are my favorite went out with two friends for q good 9-10 hours last year while camping I couldn't keep track of how many I caught on buzz baits they had stick baits only had a few follows no hits love the rare occasions I pick the rite lure and show up my buddies

ive found great success using a floating fire tiger rapala, never seems to fail me, once my friend andi were fishing in the boat and i was using a rapala he was using just about everything he had in his tackle box and out of the two days we fished i outfished him with 16 pike to 2, but also have found success in spoons

i have caught more pike on spoons than any other lure. i have a few daredevils that look like they've been run over by a tank! they will catch pike in almost any situation.

in shallow slop, a weedless daredevil, or johnson silver minnow are tough to beat. frogs are fun, too, but not as durable.

i also like to run them over the tops of weeds, and along weed edges, but there are times when a spinnerbait will get more action.

for deeper water, i prefer bulldawgs. you can count it down to the desired depth, and work it like a jerk-bait or a glide-bait. they can also be jigged, or even cranked in slowly. i've caught most of my larger pike on bulldawgs.

i can't say what's overrated. i think it's more a matter of what you are confident using. plus, pike will respond to different baits depending on the body of water, time of year, and even time of day.

underrated: a small bluegill on a big hook!

i just go simple best lure period is the spoon

i have had best success on a floating jerk bait, like a floating rapala style bait. i'm usually too cheap to buy rapalas especially with a toothy critter like a pike, but those style baits worked in a slash style retrieve get good hits from pike, especially in the summer. my brother swears by spoons and they work but i've had alot more luck with other methods. another lure i've done good on is a white curtly tail grub swimmed. i was throwing a 3 inch white power grub for bass and was destroying the northerns(the ones that didn't bite me off) so i bought some larger 4 inch grubs and swam then and caught alot of pike. you get alot of bite offs but that is a relatively inexpensive rig.

Shallow Shad Raps, size 7 and 9, are probably my number one go-to baits. I have a size 5 in a shad color that has just been abused silly. I'm really surprised I have not been bit off (don't use leaders much) with the amount of fish caught on that one specific lure.

After that it's Husky Jerks size 10, 12, and 14. Tandem spinner baits, doesn't seem to matter what blades. Bomber Long A's see some action, too. Buzzbaits in shallow or through the reeds. 5" - 6" jumbo swim baits over the tops of deeper weeds. Rattling Raps make the list, too, though I primarily target bass with those it's inevitable that pike end up on the end pretty consistently.

Probably my all time favorite lure to use, though, is a Spook. Perch color is killer and the strikes that it evokes are what makes it fun to fish.

Over-rated, not really sure. Seems like you can catch them on just about anything more often than not. I don't throw spoons much anymore. Just for kicks I will throw the Helicopter lure out there...

I have done really well on the slop master and smaller spinnerbaits. buzzbaits are awesome for northern too. I have done decent on little cleo's, but then again that was in canada

that was a great hit...and it was the 2nd after a turn and chase that got her caught (and the long rod...lol)..ahhhh, good times. I recall getting wet. Glad you still have them somewhere, thanks 35.