LATE FALL PIKE - PART 1

Author's note: This blog passes along some details about fishing for northern pike during the fall cold-water timeframe. Watch tomorrow for part two.

By: Ray Hansen

Anglers almost always consider pike a “bonus catch”. They seldom go out looking specifically for these freshwater predators, but big pike show up often enough that the possibility of catching one comes up frequently in conversation between anglers fishing for other species. Well… why not set up gear that appeals to the water-wolves and target them on your late-fall trips? You may be in for a real treat. In this article I’ll pass along some ideas that can help you enjoy some memorable action.

PICK WATERS WITH POTENTIAL

Pike get big when they inhabit waters with a forage base that supports growth. Examples include smelt, chubs, whitefish, suckers, small carp, and perch. Most of the time this means choosing places such as the big bays on Lake Michigan along the Wisconsin coastline, big inland lakes like Geneva or Delevan in the southern part of the state, and the large “chain-of-lakes” connected waterways in a line across the state from Eagle River to the Hayward area. Big rivers and their associated backwaters in the central part of the state are an additional source of action.

I also have a “secret” type of lake that can produce pike in the forty-inch range. These are smaller bodies of water - often 100 to 300 acres - that are loaded with undersized perch. Get in the habit of asking baitshop owners if they know of a lake where fishermen constantly complain of catching mostly “dinky” perch. That is a big clue that the lake has trophy pike potential - an opportunity many local anglers overlook. Many Upper Midwestern states have lakes like this.

Having described these waters, you’ll probably realize that when chasing pike, you will also find other species like muskies, and an occasional big walleye. Well… who is going to complain? My friend Ken Poor once landed (and released – on video) a smallmouth bass that was probably one of the largest taken in Wisconsin that year, while using these tactics.

LOOK FOR STAGING AREAS

Each body of water will have places that pike inhabit late in the year as ice-up draws closer. Examples include the mouths of inflowing rivers, deep weedlines, drop-offs near incoming creeks or rivers, logs on bottom in bays, rock piles in the same areas, the deepest extension of land points out into the lake, and artificially placed fish cribs situated at the base of sharp breaklines. In the smaller lakes I mentioned, the deepest edge of any remaining vegetation is usually best – even when the depth is as shallow as four to eight feet.

End of part one.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

HUNTING WHERE ANCIENTS WALKED

I ran across a story from Middle Eau Claire Lake in north-central Wisconsin in which a vacationer out for a swim in 2005 found fossilized parts (including huge antlers) of an elk that may be radiocarbon dated at ten thousand years old. Archaeologists and scientists are now studying the find, and the Barnes Area Historical Association (Barnes, Wisconsin) is trying to raise money to build a museum to display the elk in. The Daily Press in Ashland, Wisconsin recently printed details about the discovery, and you may be able to access the information through the online version of that newspaper.

The story kindled a spark from my life-long interest in archaeology. I’ve found evidence of Native-American presence in places I hunted, and I suppose the ancients were there for the same reason I was: to chase deer or other wild game.

This is a partial list of things I have observed, both in wild, inaccessible places like the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area in Minnesota and Canada, and simply “out in the woods” when hunting or hiking near places I have lived in throughout the upper Midwest.

Rocks chipped or flaked to form crude tools.
Pictographs (drawings chipped into stone).
Layers of charcoal (indicating a fire) in sandy, washed out riverbanks.
Cairns (rocks balanced to signify a path or other signs).
Very old stacked cedar poles (used seasonally for framework on temporary shelters).
Ancient mines, rock quarries, and rock gathering spots (for tool making).
Cached “pine knots” (used for cooking fires).
Fish funnels in creeks (places where fish were driven through narrows and caught in woven reed or wood nets).
Boulders stacked to line up with certain celestial markers (stars, planets, sunrise).

One of the most interesting finds with the Wisconsin elk was a flaked stone spear point apparently used by the hunter who brought the animal down. The bones also show marks created by butchering it by using stone tools. You might be surprised at how effective an edged tool made of “glassy” stone can be for cutting meat, skinning, and scraping hides.

Archaeologists studying the techniques they felt were used in this case actually had students from the Experimental Archaeology Working Group (UW-Milwaukee) butcher a deer carcass using stone tools so the marks could be compared with those on the elk.

In future blogs, I’ll detail some of the things I have seen. Telling tales of my observations around a campfire after the hunt seems especially appropriate when I know I have walked the same ground as the ancients.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008