By Shane Dayton
There are many pieces of equipment that can be considered important when fishing for northern pike, and this goes well beyond the conventional things such as rods, reels, and lures. While these three are important, and will be touched upon, professional anglers (or even just experienced anglers) know that there's a lot more needed than that when talking about pike fishing gear.
But starting with the basics, a strong fishing rod is a definite worthy investment. You don't want anything that is a light action, as these will not be strong enough to take a major fight with a big sized pike. Even a six to eight pound northern pike can be enough to break a light action rod, and that isn't even all that large a fish by the standards of that species. Look for medium action at the lightest, or heavy action if you're really hunting the trophies.
The choice of lures is very important, and is an issue with pike that couldn't be covered completely in twenty articles. However, most experienced anglers do agree on a few main points. For one, choose an action lure. You do not want small or tiny bait that doesn't move. Pike are ambush predators and so they love crank baits, magnum rapalas, big surface spinners or spoons, rattles, blinkers, and whatever else you can toss in that gets their attention and annoys the heck out of them at the same time.
Moving on to reels, take an open faced over a closed face. They jam less, the line tangles less, and the design is better for seeing how well your line is holding up and for dealing with tangles even in mid fight with a big pike.
Another piece of equipment you might not think about is the fishing net. This might sound weird at first mention, but you need a strong fishing net made from reliable materials, and one that is large enough to net and hold a giant pike. A small walleye net isn't going to do it for a 40 pound northern pike.
You will definitely want to have needle nose pliers and big thick gloves. Especially for practicing catch and
release. The gills around a pike's head can be extremely sharp, and you do not want your fingers getting sliced by those things. At best you're looking at stitches. At worst, some of that water and muck gets in and it's infection time. You don't want to put your hands in their mouths, either, which is where the pliers come in. Having a combination of gloves and pliers (and if you use crank baits with three sets of treble hooks you know how important this should be anyway) is the best way to protect your hands, save the lure, and in catch and release situations, save the fish.
That's just a brief rundown of some of the different types of pike fishing gear that are necessary to anglers who want to be both successful, and safe, in all their northern pike fishing endeavors.
This is all just touching the tip of the iceberg, as well. Believe me, there's plenty for you to learn about pike fishing and a lot of great information out there if you want it to help make you a better angler. And if you loved the information in this article and want to learn more about the best pike fishing gear, then make sure to visit this online blog and detailed guide offering a wide array of the best pike fishing tips that you can find around the web.
Thanks for reading, and good look chasing those trophies!
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