Pike

One more thing that burns under my nails: If you compare like a pounder (which is a very big bait) to a 2Pounder. Or a 12 inch Savage Gear Trout to a 16 inch. Whats the difference in the fishes reaction. Do you get more bites or bigger bites. More Followers. Just curious. Never even fished a pounder before. Biggest bait I ever threw was an xxxl Tail with 320g.

You can only purchase their big bait rod "The Strong Mind" but no baits for it.

I bought the blank and had a rod builder make it to my specs. I have a Downsizer Blank with a 40 cm rear handle and a Lipstick Blank with a 45 cm rear Handle. Thoose two rods I use 99% of the time as I dont fish anything heavier than the deps 250.

Almost any rod builder can do a handle extension, its not that difficult. The heaviest rod I have is a Musky Innovations Hall of Fame Super Magnum 4-16 oz, the rear handle was 45 cm with a split grip. Had it extended to 52 cm and a full grip. Now it loads up better for baits over 250g and its less exhausting. The 2 custom Legend Tournament rods I have and use the most are also build with longer rear handles than the factory versions as I dont have to do a figure 8 like the musky guys and also do not change hands on the cast as I cast right and reel left. Its never in the way.

Ohhh yeah thats what I call a big deep lake. 143000 acres and 450 feet average depth. Good luck man, thats a challenge but there is definetily a lot of trophy potential. I can imagine throwing some big stuff on such kind of water where a 40 pounder is always possible. If you already got the Tackle Industries XXXH I think there is not much you can do. Probably the best rod out there and not too expensive. What I do with all my muskie rods is to extend the rear handle for easier casting big baits. For really big baits a 50 or even 55 cm real handle will load up the rod better and you will cast a little bit further. Some people in the musky forums are talking about surf rods. Never had one in my hand so I cant so anything, but if a rod is made for casting long distances its a surf rod.

Would help to know which lake he is fishing. When I think of a Swiss lake I am thinking of a clear, deep alpine lake. The same kind of lake I grew up and learned how to fish. But maybe I am wrong. This kind of lakes the pike season starts in May and thats where your best chances are to catch a big one from shore. Pike will spawn in march/april depending on the weather and stay close to shore until our whitefish (roach, rudd, perch etc.) do their spawning. This can vary from year to year but until the end of may its done most of the time. After that the big girls will move into open water to hunt big prey like ciscos. They are not structure related at all because thoose lakes are very deep (several 100 feet). Now when you are stuck on shore your best chance is to search for a spot where there is a steep drop off and try to cast as far as possibble as this will enable you to present your bait the longest in open water. But most of the time even if you have a bait which casts very good you cant reach the pike as they like to hang out somewhere in the middle of the lake. If you now use a bait which is not very castable you reduce your chances even further. The open water fishing will go on from June to September sometimes even October and after that your chances from shore get a lot better. Preyfish will school up and move closer to shore. But still your chances will improve dramaticly if your are able to use a boat. In November and Dezember ciscos and artic char will spawn and thats another chance to catch a big girl as they do it closer to shore on rocks. So all together you maybe have 2 good month if your are stuck on shore. The rest of the year is very hard. I would save all my money and try to get a boat and your catches will improve a lot and if that is not possibble I would not kill myself throwing the monsterous 20 oz bait which cast like crap. But maybe I am wrong and he is fishing a completely different kind of water?

The same thing I experienced. A lot of small pike on big lures, sometimes it seems the bigger the lure the smaller the pike. In my opinion these fish are not really hungry, they are curious or they wanna defend their area. For me personally its all about feeding windows. A big pike (for me everything above 110 cm) has a very short feeding window most of the time. If you are able to present a bait in front of that window you have a good chance, if you are not able and miss the window you can present the biggest bait there is and not have a bite. If I see correctly you live in Switzerland. I know that on most lakes boat fishing is allowed so I would try to get a boat or a different lake where boatfishing is allowed. This will open a lot more doors than killing yourself with 2 Pounders from shore. Just my 2 cents.

For me it makes no sense to cast such baits from shore. They are all very poor casting baits. The longer you can stay in open water the better your chances are to catch a monster pike. The size of the bait does not matter that much in my opinion. You can get away with much smaller baits and still have a good shot at a big pike. Dont ruin your body for no reason.

I don`t really care. I just love to fish, thats all. I love fishing with live bait, dead bait, flyfishing, carp fishing, Perch fishing, using all the different lures on the market. For me its all about the fun factor. Many times I go fishing I even dont know the species I am going to fish until I hit the water. I just do what excites me the most.

I use 80 pound fluoro for years, never had a failure. 65 pound braid tied with an fg knot directly to the 3 ft fluoro leader. Than either a stay lock or a saltwater duo lock snap crimped on. I like a longer leader because I think I get more bites and if the leader is damaged I just cut it of and make a new crimp so I can use it for month. Works for me.

Ok. I hoped that the swb blank is more powerfull than the bb. Had the chance to fish the bb blank for a few days really loved it but for me it performed best in the 2-5 maybe 6 oz range. This helps me a lot if I should get the swb blank or not because I have no chance to handle one here in Austria. Searching for something a bit heavier. Maybe I should try a St. Croix Lipstick blank.

No need for Rocket oil if you use it for big baits. Ask the musky guys they grease their spool bearings if they use baits that are heavier than 8 oz. What do you think of the BB 809 blank compared to the swb 808 blank. Does it perform better with big baits?

Mine felt a bit rough the first 2 or 3 times I went fishing but it got smoother and smoother every time. No worries you will be happy with it, great reel. I love how solid it feels in your hand, very similar to the high priced round reels.

I fish the 301 with 65 pound braid, no need for the 400. If you fish it with 30 pound mono I would get the 400.

I learnd that medium sized baits (2-7oz) catch more and bigger fish for me. I learnd that it makes no fun for me anymore to fish those giant baits which require ultra heavy gear. I learnd that less but high end baits that I have confidence in are better. I learnd that multi species fishing is a lot more fun than doing the same over and over again.