Commodore64

Last week it was 12-18 feet of water, over weedbeds at Rusho Bay, Maple Island, and took a few out of Eel Bay near the potholes south of Big Gull Island.

We ended the week with over 60 pike taken. Almost all of them were taken on red and white daredevil spoon knockoffs (the cheap ones at TI Bait). I switched out the trebles for 4/0 Owner single hooks. This made it easier to jerk the weeds off. I used the trolling motor to keep the drift at about 0.5 MPH or less. Cast behind the drift, let the spoon down on a long count. I wanted to have to jerk it out of the weeds. With a hard jerk, and letting the rod tip quickly down the weeds generally came off the hook, and then it was a matter of retrieving the spoons just above the weeds. Pike definitely seemed to be oriented facing up stream, so casting downwind produced more strikes. I have some bad low light pics from one particularly successful evening. We boated over 20 that night and kept 5 nice ones for the frying pan. The southeast corner of Maple Island and Rusho Bay were on fire.

We'll be heading up on June 18, staying at Bill and Jack's over at Fisher's Landing. Looking forward to jigging some spoons for some pike! This year I'll get some pics, I hope.

I might give this a try this year. We'll be up at Fisher's Landing the week of June 18th.

We're heading up there June 18th. Last year we did well in Rusho Bay, in weeds along the drop-off. Plain old casting spoons, jerk 'em hard when they hit the weeds and the pike will hit them.

I'm a member here too, and I am having issues with my 788CI, just as noted over at OGF. Worked fine for a few days, now it will barely mark the bottom. I won't want to play this swap game...at all. What a PITA.

I will try to find that spot today. Yesterday I managed 3 pike on a Daredevil Spoon in Rusho Bay, fishing along the drop-off. One of the pike slammed the spoon as it was falling, just like someone mentioned. So far I've gotten 4 this trip.

Thanks old man, we'll be heading up next week. Can't wait.

This was a good read for me too, thanks for the info. We'll be up there next week, I was planning on leaving my trolling gear (line-counters, inline boards, worm harnesses) home. Maybe I shouldn't. I was looking forward to fishing with a good old spinning rod, though.

We'll be up in that area as well, last week in June (next week!). We'll be at Cal's Cottages. We always do pretty well on smallies, but I would like to get into some pike this year. One evening at dusk, 3 years ago we pulled 3 pike between Maple and Long Rock Island, there's a big trench there. I caught a pike up near the 3 little islands east of Rusho Bay, and I also nabbed 2 drifting the channel between Maple and Picton. I've heard eel bay can be great too, but thus far we've not had luck there. I followed out some folks (they invited me) 3 years ago to Eel Bay, I watched them nab several pike, but I had nothing to show. They used bucktail jugs tipped with a rubber worm. They caught over 80 pike the same week we were there. For the past 2 years though, I have caught no pike. I'm primarily a walleye fisherman on Lake Erie, I've tried trolling a bit in the area but nothing to show for it. This year we have a terrova on the front of our boat, so I'm hoping that I can work points, weed edges and dropoffs much more efficiently. I hope this year is the year I figure them out. They are great eating.

OK, Carleton Island is a 13-14 mile run from where we will be. Our boat will be docked at Cal's. So this is quite a run. I could see making the run once or twice, but that's a haul. So I'm looking around in the vicinity of: 1. Round, N. Colburne, Little ROund 2. Bluff Island 3. Pine Island 4. Calumet Island 5. Eagle Wing Group 6. Aunt Jane's Bay 7. Flynn bay 8. Eel Bay 9. Picton isalnd, Bluff Island 10. Picnic Point/Canoe Point There's got to be pike around here, doesn't there? This looks very promising. Just a bit far. Thanks. I think I get the idea, to search for weeds and drop-offs with spoons and cranks.

I know this is an old thread, but we'll be coming up there for the last week in June. This time we are staying at Cal's Cottages, which is closer to Clayton Area. We've fished the past 4 years in the Fisher's Landing Area. This year we have Terrova electric motor, so I'll be able to spot lock us, or work points and weed edges much more efficiently. One of the stipulations with dropping $1,500 on a trolling motor though, is that I had to guarantee my wife that she'd catch a pike. I'd like her to catch lots . So, I'm starting to gear up and do some research now. Really looking forward to the end of the month.

Wow nice fish, reel escape. Thanks for all the help everybody. We ended the week with no Pike. On the upside, after picking up a Rapala Countdown (firetiger) to help me work the weeds for Pike (thanks Grady95), I began to HAMMER the smallies. So that was nice. My parents will be up again in august, for another week of fishing. My wife and I reserved a cottage at Cal's in Clayton, for the last week in June 2010, so I'll be back to try for Pike again, next year. If any of you are planning walleye trips to Lake Erie, let me know, and I can certainly help you out there. Also, here's link to another forum, like this one, that is full of helpful folks http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=11, but is Lake Erie centric.

Gene, Thank you for the detailed post. I'm a pretty avid weekend walleye fisherman on Lake Erie so what you described makes sense and is quite familiar to me. I left 90% of my walleyegear at home, including my trolling rods and spoons and cranks. I ran up to TI baitstore and bought a couple spoons and cranks. I'm going to give it a shot here this afternoon. I will report back...I'll be using my spinning gear.

Grady, one of the reasons we want to get some pike is for eating. 2 years ago we landed a few and cooked them up, the owner of Bill and Jack's cabins showed us how to fillet them. They were delicious! We do our part to keep TI bait store in the black, heh...I think I'm near $300 in the hole this year. No luck on pike (or bass, for that matter) today, the wind is howling still...maybe I'll be able to troll the bay out in front of Chalk's Marina tonight.