Flies for Monster Pike

For many Fly Fishermen fishing for something that they have never fished for can be a rather daunting and downright stressful task. Every fall and winter I get asked what flies I should tie and what flies I should buy. When guests arrive, they are often amazed at what we are using for BIG Pike. So, I thought I would put it in this article to help ease the wonder.

Every off-season I get asked if mice can be fished for Pike?!?! My response is always with a gusto “NO”! It’s not that I don’t want guests to catch fish. It’s not that I don’t want guests to use their fly of choice and it’s not that I don’t want them to achieve their goal. It is however that I don’t want to injure Pike more than necessary. What I mean is that Pike have large mouths, especially the big pike we fish for, and mouse pattern will end up in the throat of a pike, deep in the throat, and often then will be hooked in places that do more damage than not to them. So, my response to this is always no, but you can fish baby beavers or even large rats. Pike are aggressive enough that they will attempt to eat whatever they think they can get into their mouths and as long as it looks alive it’s considered dinner.

In our part of the world, late spring and early summer seem to be the best for really hot Pike action. It’s the time of the year that Pike put on the feed bag and are REALLY aggressive. The river is usually high from spring runoff and the backwater sloughs are full. It’s usually these backwater sloughs that warm faster than the rest of the river system and Pike really like warmer water in comparison to the main river channel that could be as much as 10 degrees colder. It’s in these backwaters that we mainly target aggressive feeding Pike. In many cases, it’s not uncommon to hook 40-60 Pike a day. It also seems that almost every day we land fish that still have half-consumed fish in their throats and are still feeding. To be honest I have seen every salmon species in the throat of a Pike.

Since the Pike are so aggressive this time of the year, we like to fish BIG flies. When I say BIG, I mean up to 12” and maybe a little more. My go-to is a pattern I tie that is tied like a LARGE Dahlberg Diver BUT with big heavy eyes. This fly is fished typically in the top 1-2’ of the water column. Often, we like to make a cast that slaps the fly hard on the water’s surface. It’s like ringing the dinner bell. Pike typically are not shy and will come to water disturbance rather than run from. Once it hits the water, we strip it with good hard strips to make that fly move erratically. The heavy eyes keep the fly bouncing up and down and the deer hair pushes water enough to make the tail move. This action seems to draw fish from below in up to 6’ of water.

If we have bright sunny days, the wind is calm the upper water surface will warm, and these are the days we love to fish poppers or topwater for big toothy critters. The Poppers we fish can be 12” or even a little more. Do we miss fish because they are so big? You bet! However, we also don’t hook as many smaller fish. We are looking for quality and not quantity. I have seen Pike grab a fly a dozen times before getting hooked and that does happen often, I have seen the fly disappear in the mouth of a giant with one grab. For me the visual excitement of fishing topwater is what gets me going however the conditions must be just right. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. Two years ago, the stars aligned, and we fished topwater almost every day last year we were lucky enough to only get maybe a week of good topwater fishing in. When it happens it’s the best!

So, when asked about what flies to bring my response is usually the same and it can be summed up into one word… BIG! I say big with an emphasis on BIG because most flies tied out there commercially are not tied big enough. I like to see fly ties on BIG 3/0 hooks and in the 10-12” range.

Yes, they can be harder to cast but we use lines designed for larger flies. Double Hauling is a must when throwing such large flies. Floating or subsurface the action can be HOT and as I write this; I’m getting pumped just thinking about the aggressive takes of such large fish on such large flies. So, if you are a fly tier tie BIG and when you are coming to the lodge be prepared for lots of BIG Pike! I know I am!