Big river pike hunt with lures: Part 1

I’d heard a few rumours of some big pike being caught from a new section of river, so I decided on a big river pike hunt with lures and deadbaits. I love this pioneering approach, not knowing what I’m going to catch.

You’ve probably heard the phrase Location, Location, Location – well that’s the key to successful pike fishing in winter. I decided to have a mobile approach covering as much of the river as possible.

mobile approach to catching pike — A mobile approach is essential to catching pike in the winter months

I want to explore the river’s features to find where the fish are holding up. I’m looking for weed beds, gravel spots and different depths hoping to pick up a few fish along the way, in my quest for a big one.

I arrived late in the afternoon and fished into dusk. I always check the margins first, as the pike are often close in. So a short underarm cast was enough to set the lure in motion. Once I’d explored the edges, I decided to cast further out as I want to cover as much water as I can.

In winter, I always do at least two passes. Pike are much slower and they may have spotted the lure moving through the swim on the first pass, but didn’t react quick enough to take it. Now I’ve got their attention, I always give them another chance to smash into my lure.

The Westin Shadteez – one of my favourite lures

Cold weather lure fishing

As the weather was pretty cold I needed to find the deeper water. I think the pike were held up in the deepest sections of the river.

It wasn’t long before I was into a pike, always very pleasing on a new stretch of river. Not a huge fish, but it makes me feel confident that there could be bigger ones.

I’ve found early mornings and dusk to be the best times to catch, as the feeding windows in winter can be very short. The key is to find when the pike are feeding and be ready at that time.

I’m using the lure rod with a fairly heavy jig head. This allows me to cast a long way on this big river and find the deeper water.

On my next session I arrived at first light and it was pretty cold with ice in the margins. I decided to use a deadbait rod in the swim, while casting a lure around in a different area. I’ve found deadbaits often pick up the bigger pike.

casting deadbait — I cast my deadbait into the swim hoping for a better fish

Finding the feeding window

After a few hours I realised that I’d got the feeding window wrong, as I was struggling for bites. If they’re not feeding, I’m not going to catch them. I needed to come back for ‘bite time’ at dusk.

I packed up and came back later in the afternoon. It was fairly bright and just one degree above freezing.

I switched from a Fox spikey shad to a more natural looking Westin Shadteez and had a bite within minutes. A few casts later I had a fish almost on the drop and another jack pike was in the net.

The lures were outperforming the deadbait, which is good as it’s my favourite way of catching pike.

changing shad — The change to a natural looking shad made all the difference

I knew I’d got my timing right as I was catching quite a few smaller pike. I had four takes in two hours and nailed every one. It was great fun, but no monsters.

I was having second thoughts about fishing with deadbaits, as I was catching regularly on the lures. I packed up once it got dark and decided to come back another day.

On my next session I decided to target perch in a section of river with a bit more flow. As luck would have it, I caught a much bigger pike on my perch gear, so at least I know they are there.

huge pike — This bigger pike fell to perch fishing tactics, a pleasant surprise
I decided to have a long look in my lure box and realised I probably needed to up my game.

This bigger pike fell to perch fishing tactics, a pleasant surprise
I decided to have a long look in my lure box and realised I probably needed to up my game.

The lures I was using were catching me the smaller pike, but not the big one I was after. I decided I needed help, so I reached out on Instagram and asked some of my followers for suggestions on what lures I should use to tempt the bigger pike.

The power of social media – lot’s of lure suggestions for me to try

These suggestions gave me the idea to film Part 2 of my big river pike hunt. I’ll be using the lures suggested to me to see which ones work best, and hopefully catch that big river pike I’ve been after. Be lucky.

Watch the video here!