The reefs provide some excellent fishing for northern pike throughout the year. The peak time for fishing the reefs are the summer and fall. Once water temperatures warm in the summer, northern pike will seek out cooler water temperatures. The reefs near deeper water will hold lots of bait fish and a variety of game fish. With the cooler water temperatures and the variety of bait, the reefs will hold good numbers of northern pike with big fish too.
Get a Good Map with GPS Coordinates
For many of these offshore reefs, you’re going to want to spend less time finding them and more time fishing them. Get a good gps unit and some good mapping software so you can find these spots quickly.
Fish the Drop-Offs
Jigging or using a drop shot rig is a great way to fish the reefs. It is how most anglers end up catching a quality pike while walleye fishing. When the walleye and other fish are on the reefs, the pike will be mixed in too. Try a jig and minnow or drop shot and minnow and you’ll catch plenty of pike. Soft plastics also work well fished this way. The drop-offs that break down from 15 to 35 feet of water usually are good places to start. In murky water, you may not have to go as deep, however, in clear water, you could very easily be down to 30 or 35 feet of water.
Target Suspended Pike
Pike will often suspend just off of these reefs. For example, the reef may top out at 4 feet below the surface and then at the bottom of the drop-off, it may be 20 feet deep or more. Depending on the time of year, you may end up finding a bunch of pike suspended 15 feet down just off the reef over 25 feet depths. If you can get a bait down there at the right depths, you can catch some of these pike.
The reefs can be tough to fish for some anglers because the better fishing will almost always come in the deeper water off these reefs in the summer and fall. Most pike anglers don’t like fishing real deep, but if you can learn how to jig, live bait and troll these deep water structures, you can catch some of the biggest pike that swim in the lake. The deep water around the reefs are big fish spots.
