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Most of the Northern Pike are found in Canadian and Great Lakes of North American continent. Generally, you will find small to medium size pike in the back of bays where there is lush, thick weeds, lily pads and wild rice. These pikes feed on small minnows, bugs, frogs, insects and other smaller zoo-planktons. As you come out to the edge of the weeds towards deeper waters, the pike will get bigger and meatier, because the pike have all the food of the bay and also have the opportunity of eating small fishes swimming by the outside of the weeds.
Big pike generally do not eat small minnows, frogs and bugs. Their main food is Walleyes. The big pike will usually hang out where they can ambush and devour Walleyes. The prime ambush area is points leading into shallower bays. Big pikes are guerilla leaders on their own. They will also hang around rocky points, shoals, islands and other places where there are plenty of Walleyes. The most obvious place to get a big trophy pike is at the mouth of a stream or river gullies between islands. The big pike just sits there quietly, waiting for Walleyes to swim past them.
Northern Pikes are known to be very easy to deal with; it will hit just about any lure. The most popular lures for Pike are the "red & silver" and the yellow "five-of-diamonds" Daredevils. Pike are also known to hit jigs, Rapalas and Thunder sticks. Some of the biggest pike have been caught with small jigs. It makes a perfect sense because the big pike will patrol the outer parameter of the schools of Walleyes.
Pike loves to play with your bait. A big pike has the habit of hitting the lure and bait many times before falling to the bait. So you need to be very patient till you catch that elusive Pike. If you get a big pike on and then lose him in the process, just wait a little while and he will hit again for sure. They are so voracious, that they forget quickly and start to feed again.
Most anglers try to use Dare devils and one very effective way to maximize the attraction of a Daredevil or other spoons is to hard slap them. What you attempt to do is cast towards your target zone but cast up very high so that your lure falls into the area you intend to fish. Jerk your line towards you when the lure is just above 2 to 3 feet above the surface. This makes the lure slap on the surface. If you are doing it perfect, you can hear the Daredevil slap. The sound of spoon will trigger a feeding response. With clear water, the red and silver color lure works best. With muddy or iron-rich, clogged water, a yellow Five-of-Diamonds Daredevil seems to work better. In muddy or iron-rich water, rattle baits are far better as the pike can locate your lure purely by sound.
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