Pike Posted March 16, 2018 Report Share Posted March 16, 2018 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. NEbucketmouth19 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigesoxlures Posted March 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 Do not try to influence my 20 year old body with your common sence!!! on a more serious note, i will have to disagree with your statement regarding lure sizes, During the summer i have seen many fish that will happily ignore more modest size lures but will happily follow my big 1 and 2 pound baits, and some of those pike barely even reashed 80cm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Bendhard Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 In my experience bait size is more tied to time of year, water temp, and weather. Really big baits really work the best in the fall with colder temps. Don't get me wrong, I will throw big baits year round and catch pike, but spinners and jerks will work better when it's warm...unless it is stormy weather, then I throw The biggest loudest baits I have. Bad weather really makes the big girls hungry in the river system I fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigesoxlures Posted March 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) Baisicaly agree with what you say regarding fish location, i fish lac leman and its true that the best times to catch a big one from the shore is when the cisco/char/whitefish are spawning. Although I will argue that this is also the best time period to cast mega baits since the pike are chasing big spawning prey fish. For the rest of the year, it is true that big pike dont usually get too close to the shore, only during specific weather or really early in the morning. During that time, i will usually cast smaller stuff, unless if im feeling lucky As for buying a boat, my current situation makes that rather impractical. As for the whole "killing yourself casting" part, I will say that after 3 years of casting these baits, i feel like with the right gear+mouvements, it is possible to fish them witout risking yourself too much, good thing too, because to be honest i really enjoy going big and targeting only the largest specimen. Edited March 17, 2018 by Bigesoxlures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigesoxlures Posted March 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 anyone in europe you could recommend that will do a handle extension? Or do you do that yourself? For surf rods, i was shown something interesting by PM from another member, will take a look at that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigesoxlures Posted March 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Did you customise the LT muskie rods after you bought them or did you have a rod builder build a rod of a LT blank for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEbucketmouth19 Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Do not try to influence my 20 year old body with your common sence!!! on a more serious note, i will have to disagree with your statement regarding lure sizes, During the summer i have seen many fish that will happily ignore more modest size lures but will happily follow my big 1 and 2 pound baits, and some of those pike barely even reashed 80cm I'm sure every glide bait fisherman on this forum knows there's a huuuuuge difference between getting followers and catching fish. There's a reason certain guys in Japan throw 2 foot glide baits...it's to key in on the curiosity factor of the fish and get them to reveal themselves, not to hope that the world record has an insatiable craving for 2 foot baits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigesoxlures Posted March 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 forgot to mention, those follows often become strikes with a figure 8, probleme is, i freak out so much when i see a fish at my feet that i always screw up the strike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike Posted March 20, 2018 Report Share Posted March 20, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigesoxlures Posted March 20, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2018 To sum up my experiance, i will that over my most sucesseful summer, the lure that has caught me the most pike is a 27.5cm rattle shad trout while the lure that has caught me the most 1+ meter pike is a 40cm line thru trout But im not sure if that matters at all since the smaller lure was thrown during the beggining till middle of summer while the bigger one was thrown end of summer till beginning of automne, so fish behavior was probably influenced by that also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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