Wabaskang Lake is a good northern pike lake. With the stained waters, bright-colored lures tend to work better here as anglers report good catches from spring through fall. With the stained waters, you can catch pike a lot shallower here than on nearby Cedar Lake and Perrault Lake. If you come here to target pike, you can catch good numbers of them with some big fish too.
Catch Lots of Pike
Anglers do report catching a lot of northern pike on Wabaskang Lake if they target them. It is not uncommon to hear of anglers catching 30, 40 or even 50 pike in a day if they fish hard for them. There are some good-sized pike in the lake, but you are going to find a lot of smaller pike in the 18 to 24″ range.
Fish the Bays
There are plenty of bays here that will hold pike from spring through fall. The better pike will be found shallower around the weeds in spring and fall, while most of smaller pike will stay in the shallows all summer long too. The deeper weed edges will be the better spots to target better quality pike in the summer, but a good amount of pike will go out to deeper water and be found in open water, around the islands or rocky humps.
Fish the Deeper Shorelines
There are miles of shorelines that offer very good fishing for a variety of different fish. Smallmouth bass, walleye and perch can be found along the shorelines and northern pike will be there too. The deeper shorelines give pike access to deep water while being able to move up into shallower water to find an easy meal when hungry. These deeper shorelines are great spots to target better quality pike from summer through fall.
Fish the Offshore Structure
Islands
There are a good amount of islands on the southern end of the lake, however, if you go north, there are some islands worth fishing up there too. Anglers usually report better success around the deeper shorelines around the islands in the summer and fall. When the wind blows, you will usually have better fishing on the wind blown shorelines of these islands.
Rock Humps
The rock humps are popular spots to fish for walleye and smallmouth bass, but the northern pike will be out there as well in the summer and fall. You may have to hit several of these spots to find some of the better schools of fish, but when you do, you can usually catch walleye, bass, perch and some quality-sized pike too.
Fish the Rocks
The weeds will usually hold a lot more pike than the rocks, but you can still find a lot of pike around the rocks on Wabaskang Lake. The rocky shorelines and offshore structure will hold pike throughout the fishing season, so don’t be surprised if you are catching a lot of pike while fishing the rocks.
Fish the Weeds
Pike love weeds and it is no different on Wabaskang Lake. With all of the great rocky areas to fish for pike, you can easily catch plenty of pike without targeting the weeds. However, you are usually going to catch a lot more pike by targeting the weeds. As the weed lines grow, target the deeper weed edges throughout the summer and fall and you’ll not only catch good numbers of pike, but you’ll have a better chance to catch bigger pike too.
Best Baits for Northern Pike
Northern pike are known for eating just about everything they can get the mouths on and there is definitely some truth to that. For the most part, if it swims, pike may eat it. There are some baits that definitely will catch more pike than others though. Spinners, crankbaits, spoons, swimbaits and soft plastics are some of the best lures for targeting pike. Live baits such as minnows and perch are great baits too.
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Best Rigs for Northern Pike
There are many different rigs you can use for northern pike, however, since pike are so aggressive, you really don’t need to use as many of them as you would if you were trying to get good at largemouth bass fishing. For most situations, you can keep it real simple with a jighead and a minnow or soft plastic bait. To learn about some of the rigs that you can use, take a look at our best rigs for northern pike page.
Best Techniques for Northern Pike
Anglers catch pike with many different techniques. Casting, trolling and drifting are most popular ways to target pike, but there are some other methods that also work well too.
To learn more, take a look at our best techniques for northern pike page.
Learn More About Northern Pike
Our northern pike fishing section has tons of tips on the best lures, live baits, where to catch them and how to catch them.
Visit our northern pike fishing website to learn more.
