20 lb+ Wabamun Pike Hunt

[67Elmo]

I'm thinking of targeting big pike, 15-20 lb and up at Wabamun in October. My plan is to slowly jig 6-10 inch smelt along the dropoffs, say Fallis Point for example. This area is around 4-6 ft. deep on the flats, then drops off quickly to well over 20 ft. deep. I'm not sure where and how deep the big pike will be in October, but I know from my days in Manitoba, October is the best month to get the really big ones. Hopefully I can pattern the big ones and have a lot of fun and success next month.

Has anyone targeted big pike in Wabamun in the late fall? I'd rather fish all day with a chance for a 20 lb fish vrs. catching 20 or more two footers. Any suggestions from folks that have tried for the big ones?

[LacLaBicheNS]

You generally have to wait until the lake turns over. Which means the surface temp is colder than the bottom of the lake. The water bascially turns over because the warm water will raise and cool water sink. When this happens I find the big girls come up from the deep and catching them is easier. The tend to head for weeds around water 6-15 feet deep. This is just my opinion though.

Also, around this time of year lake cisco spawn and the big pike love feeding on them this time of year. The cisco I have generally found spawn on east shores near weeds.

I generally find if everything linges up (lake turn over, cisco spawn in) and you get a good weed bed in 5-15 feet of water you get big girls. Oh and if you can find a BIG point or a BIG island, try to find the same conditions (lake turn over, weeds in 6-15, cisco spanw, east side of point or island) and you'll do better than the shore or so I have found.

This is my theory and I do pretty good. But again it's fishing, so nothign is set in stone.

[mooseknuckle]

Ive fished the alot of wab in October. I'm sure you'll have some succes with your technique!! Oct 1st last year me and BIL went out and had one of our best days I don't recall catching anything under 8-9lbs. We didn't hit the 20 mark that one still eludes me, however we caught approx 15-20 each and many were in the 15-18lb range!! We stuck to our same ol techniques.... Big spoons, cranks, and large rubber fish (storm I believe). Caught in an average of 8 FOW.

Good luck out there, I'm waiting on a steering cable for my boat? Or I'll be trying to mooch a ride with you! Lol.

[pickrel pat]

I would love to see a bonified 20 lber pulled from wab...... seen lots up to 20........ never over. good luck!

[thorne]

you definately have the right idea and location, being Fallis. There is a reef directly west of fallis, its small and kidey shaped and finding it can be a bit of a chore unless you have it marked on gps. Lots of pressure on fallis, not so much on the reef. In between there is a channel of deep water the big girls lie in until the move around the reef or move up and down the drop off at Fallis. For the bigger pike I find just dropping a good size herring over on a quick strike rig on either drop off in around 10'ish and waiting will get some good lunkers hooked. I have foubnd a few pretty sweet locations with ledges on those drop offs wich seem to be just at dinner trable depth and produce alot of great fish...however look a a decent bathametric map find the kidney reef and drop it in on the northern side right in the bottom of the "U", sit back and wait. Give it a good hour or so then work your way through the deep channel back towards Fallis until you are fishing that drop off, ya its a long patience game, and most guys get boared and start chucking hardware, and thats fine, but dead fishing a nice juicy herring ghas produced biggest pike on the line in my experience....I usuallly invest in a few nice Cuban cigars, someone who can carry a conversation, and set in for a day of relaxiation. If you want quanity, sure pitch gear, and you just may hook into a 20+ but all of mine have come from just sitting and waiting in those areas. I am definately going to be out there over the next week doing just that, and i know of a few 20-27lb pike have been taken from there, all on sitting bait. I am sure some must be pulled out on hardware as well, i just don't know anyone personally who has done it. I personall have not broken 18 on hardware. There is a group of us who pretty constantly patrol wabamun, and get some pretty nice pike, we are just looking for that +30lber, and I am convinced playing the waiting game is going to do it......eventually.....with some luck.....man thats alot of cigars.....

[EZM]

The reef, I think if we are on the same page, Thorne mentions is easy to find if you have the navionics chips.

Feels like you are in the middle of the lake about 1 km from the north shore and about 2km from Fallis (roughly). Water goes from 26'-30' around it up to a underwater ridge that is only 20feet wide but runs about 300ft long and comes up to 11'-12'. I have never seen anyone out there while we were out there. This is a great spot.

Fallis definitely gets alot of pressure but also produces big fish regularly, but, like mentioned, nothing over 20lbs from what I've seen this year.

Right now - if you are specifically after BIG pigs - while the water is temp still "moving" - Troll BIG (7"-12") deep diving cranks (ones that are rate 15'-20' running depth). Go only as fast as you need to (to give lure the vibration and wobble). It's been my experience the pigs don't like chasing lures moving to quickly.

After water turns go back to a 7'-10' deep running diver. Still in the big size cranks of 7"-12". As you squeeze into the shallows the crank will bump bottom, or bump through the weeds, BANG ..... game on !!! We have caught some really nice snot monsters in there.

For us, at least, it's been a little deeper during this wierd annual transition period where we have had success. In a week or two, it will be back to targeting 8'-15' FOW just off structure or weed beds.

Having said all this clever stuff, and provided pointers, last Friday, we probably landed 20 fish but none were of any size....... so ...... take what i say with a grain of salt..... lol.

I'm not often a bait fisherman, when targeting pike, but I can see that working well. Some of our biggest pike came when the boat was in nuetral, or making a turn and on the drift and as soon as you begin to move ..... Bang ..... game on... so having a bait on your line would certainly make sense for drift or still fishing.

I was thinking of using a herring rig - esentially a big single hook with a 6" wire lead down to a big trebble. Hooking a 12" herring or smelt or something and bouncing it along to see what happens. My big problem is, the big girl needs to grab, nibble and turn the bait (requiring some patience) before the hook set and I'd hate to wait too long and have a ugly and deep hook in a trophy. To have a big pig die due to a deeply hooked bait bothers me a little. Cranks and lure reduce the chances of an ugly and deep hook (at least in my experience).

I was also contemplating using one of those giant squid halibut lures (and shaving down some of the lead with a dremel), or one of them saltwater giant grubs 10" on a 2oz jig head with a stinger, but it would require some movement and not be as enticing (I think).

Sounds like a few pretty good ideas on this thread ......

[ZeeFishing]

lots of very good info here. every time my friends and I go to wab I always get the biggest pike out of the group, and I think its mostly because I wait and wait and wait and I dont move the bait. I use a single hook (make sure its sharp) with the biggest smelt I can find and set it about 6” from bottom and wait a long time. Locations and depths as mentioned in above posts and ive also had luck with herring. In my experience I get the big ones (18 lbs was my biggest) on sitting bait and wait method. good luck

[Safety D]

I have and its been pretty dead for big hogs then.

[RapStaff]

Got a 10 and a 12 last saturday ripping cranks over weed beds.............. Hooked and lost one way over 20 this summer on a big crank, get at least one over 10 pounds every time this year so far, all on big cranks.

[fish99]

after turn over, troll 12 -14 feet of water with large crank baits, on the outside edge of the weed bed. hang on for tackle busting pike. large gear large pike, this time of year.

[Warmbreeze]

Do you need a boat to get to the spots that hold the big girls? My boat is kept up north and was wondering if there is any good spots from shore where you can land big girls? To go after school on weeknights. Id rather catch 1 big one then 20 small ones.
I will go explore but any areas would be cool.

[67Elmo]

There is a lot of great information so far on this thread, thanks! I have done a ton of fishing in the past, but took up golf big time the last 10 years. But now my son seems bitten by the fishing bug, and the bug was easy enough for me to catch again. Since he is a lousy golfer and doesn't like the game much, fishing gets the "father/son" thing going better than golf. Now I need more time to focus on both golf AND fishing Working for a living gets in the way.....

Here's a true story re big pike when I was a kid in Manitoba....A fellow I met always had the biggest pike by far when he went fishing. I remember looking on his stringer in amazement at a 18 lb pike and a smaller 12 lb. pike. Everyone else using minnows and pickeral rigs or tossing spoons had zero to one fish, and the biggest was 2 lbs. Plus all he ever did was fish off the shore, no boat! He said his method was best in spring and fall, but didn't work as well in mid summer. He said he almost always caught fish, and the smallest were 5 lb pike, the largest around 20 lbs. All he did was hang a big smelt head down under a cheap red and white plastic bobber about 4 ft. He said since the pike took the bait head first, he put the smelt head down, not head up. Then he just cast the rig out from shore in around 8 ft. or so of water and sat down and waited. The wind would very slowly push the big red bobber around and move the bait very slowly. He never caught a ton of fish, but all the ones he caught were big. He said he almost always caught at least one, often 2 or 4 fish in a day, and they were always BIG.

I only mention this as my new goal of "hunting 20 lb + Wabamun pike" seems on solid ground from my past fishing experience in terms of using large dead bait, not hardware. Use a big herring, or some other big oily fish from a supermarket, hang it off the side of the boat a foot or so off the bottom, and be patient. I remember reading an article of big pike fishing in England. There they "leger" a large dead bait. This is basically tossing a big dead bait fish out, letting it sit right on the bottom, and when a big pike comes, setting the hook and catching it.

The theory is big pike are more like catfish than a predatory smaller pike. After all, if you are a 35 lb pike, why expend energy and chase fish around to eat them? Why not just scoop up a dead 6 lb whitefish that sunk to the bottom and spend the rest of the day lazing around...Now obviously a big pike will still be caught on big lures, but it seems to me you will catch many more on dead large bait. At least this is my thinking....

Anyways, I'll be out tomorrow off Fallis in the late afternoon early evening, and if I have any luck with the big boys (girls I guess to be more accurate) I'll post some photos. I'll only have about 3 hours of fishing time, but I'll try the big herring at several different depths and see what happens....

Thanks again for all the great responses!

[67Elmo]

Well, for those interested this afternoon/evening I spent 3 hours fishing off Fallis for the first time with 10" herring for bait. My buddy and I launched at Seba Beach (horrible shallow launch - we just barely were able to float the 14 ft. Naden but only with a lot of effort). We spent a 3 hours x 2 anglers fishing in 10-25 ft. of water with our bait basically suspended a foot off the bottom.

Bottom line is we only caught 3 pike in total, ranging from 18" to 30" on the huge (for me) bait. I was amazed the first fish on a 10 inch herring was only a 18" long pike! We did lose 3 more that seemed to strangely "come off" the hooks half way to the boat. I'm guessing from the feel these 3 were bigger, perhaps 8 or so lbs. I don't know why they came off...perhaps our #5 hooks on the herring were too large?

It was fun, and I loved the pike pulling out line until we "guessed" it was time to set the hook. No 20 lb pike this outing, but it was fun to start the hunt and the system. It seemed we had no bites in the 20 ft. and deeper water, and the fish we caught seemed to be in around 14 ft. depth.

I'll certainly be trying the "big bait method" a few more times before freeze up, and I'll report any results.

[last minute]

Where are the pics lol.

Hey make sure to throw us dead beats some pics. Especially when u land that lunker. Any thoughts on switching to length measurements. Its much easier on the fish.

[67Elmo]

I'll measure all the fish of course and be as gentle as possible when I release them. With using barbless hooks plus my new and as of yet unused "big pike cradle net" I think they will all go back into the water with no damage whatsoever. I do have a decent Nikon camera but didn't want to show "only" a 30" pike. The ones I'm gunning for will be fat and over 40" in length (he said hopefully). I'm guessing when the lake turns over, starting in a week or so perhaps, the big ones will be out cruising...If I get what I'm hunting for the photos will certainly be attached...

[buckbrushoutdoors]

Originally Posted by pickrel pat

I would love to see a bonified 20 lber pulled from wab...... seen lots up to 20........ never over. good luck!

Here yea go!

[mooseknuckle]

Originally Posted by buckbrushoutdoors

Here yea go!

That will do!! Great wab pike.

Awesome. How long is that one.

[FishingFrenzy]

Originally Posted by buckbrushoutdoors

Here yea go!

Hell yeah! Thats a good'er!!

[buckbrushoutdoors]

Me and a buddy caught 5 or 6 that big that day on a fly rod

[Walleye101]

Nice photo chop Moosenuckle! Is your left arm really that big too?

[Walleye101]

Sorry I should have said buckbrushoutdoors. LOL

[seahawkfisher]

if you don't need a touque, its not cold enough...
pretty small window of solid fishing now that the plant is gone

[EZM]

Originally Posted by 67Elmo

Well, for those interested this afternoon/evening I spent 3 hours fishing off Fallis for the first time with 10" herring for bait. My buddy and I launched at Seba Beach (horrible shallow launch - we just barely were able to float the 14 ft. Naden but only with a lot of effort). We spent a 3 hours x 2 anglers fishing in 10-25 ft. of water with our bait basically suspended a foot off the bottom.

Bottom line is we only caught 3 pike in total, ranging from 18" to 30" on the huge (for me) bait. I was amazed the first fish on a 10 inch herring was only a 18" long pike! We did lose 3 more that seemed to strangely "come off" the hooks half way to the boat. I'm guessing from the feel these 3 were bigger, perhaps 8 or so lbs. I don't know why they came off...perhaps our #5 hooks on the herring were too large?

It was fun, and I loved the pike pulling out line until we "guessed" it was time to set the hook. No 20 lb pike this outing, but it was fun to start the hunt and the system. It seemed we had no bites in the 20 ft. and deeper water, and the fish we caught seemed to be in around 14 ft. depth.

I'll certainly be trying the "big bait method" a few more times before freeze up, and I'll report any results.

Let him take line until he stops and turns the bait. Pike will grab it, shake and swim with it and sometimes hold it still in thier mouths and "wait" (for whatever reason) before they briefly let go and grab the head and try and choke down the bait.

It could have been that you dragged the pike up sand he had not, in fact, been hooked at all. those dumb buggers sometimes just wont let go !!!!

The trick is waiting long enough for him to begin to turn and eat the bait but not too long so you are hooking him too deep.

This is the primary reason I don't often use bait.

feel free to PM me for a pretty good set up using a halibut rig, slip ring and circle hook. Seems to work well and prevents a really deep hook.

[EDMfishing]

went 2 weekends ago, biggest of the day was 11lber, had one that was probly 20+ hit my friends spoon boatside, and instantly snapped his 30lb braid, right at the start of the day, he had his drag to tight ... but we had a great day, lots of em in the 5-8lb range 1 9lber and the 1 11lb.. and a couple small guys but majority were atleast 5lbs so it was a awsome day, fishing the weedbeds, in about 4-10ft of water

[EZM]

I will be there in the morning (saturday). I'm hoping it's picked up a bit.

[bloopbloob]

Wabbin right now! Come on sunrise!!!

[YeeHaw]

I was there today. Got on the water while it was still dark, fished till 10:30, and only had a few bights. Maby it was just not my day, water was cloudy and 54 degrees. I need to redeem myself, I know.

[Alberta Bigbore]

Originally Posted by buckbrushoutdoors

Here yea go!

Thats a nice solid looking fish, Nice