I have not been to the bwca this time of the year before. Going in next Sunday the 21st. Wondering how the northern fishing will be
. Any help is appreciated. Rick

Prime time for pike! Fish warm shallow bays and don't be afraid to go big with your lure choices. And be nice to the big boys, it's very easy to injure large pike.

Yep, you should do great, doc. Mgraber made a great point about being gentle. Big pike are a treasure, but beware the friggin', flippin' hammerhandles of destruction!

I have heard from many folks on this forum that the larger Pike can be injured quite easily. I'm curious, how do we know this. Have people observed large Pike floating or dying after being handled? Is there actual research on this issue? Just wondering.

The bigger pike are hard to handle, and beat themselves up jumping around in a boat or canoe.
If you can keep them under control when removing your hook and return them to the water quickly, they should be fine.
Far too many CPR advocates spend way too much time on the "P," and are too slow on the release.

You make a good point there TGO will see you this Saturday hopefully late afternoon and then again early Sunday morning for some leeches.

quote The Great Outdoors: "The bigger pike are hard to handle, and beat themselves up jumping around in a boat or canoe.
If you can keep them under control when removing your hook and return them to the water quickly, they should be fine.
Far too many CPR advocates spend way too much time on the "P," and are too slow on the release."

Agree 100%.
I hate watching TV fishing shows where they take it seems like 100 pictures before release than they put him or her in the water and push the fish downward and call it a good release.

Northern pike is a great fish which many people ignore in recent years.
Also as water warms they stress out much easier because their temperature is the same as the water and thus their metabolism picks up.

Seems like the hammer handles will about survive anything. But the big northerns seem to stress more. I always figure a lot has to do with having to fight and play them so much longer.

quote The Great Outdoors: "The bigger pike are hard to handle, and beat themselves up jumping around in a boat or canoe.
If you can keep them under control when removing your hook and return them to the water quickly, they should be fine.
Far too many CPR advocates spend way too much time on the "P," and are too slow on the release."

Yep, they want the perfect photo or they shoot multiple photos. One and done!

Big pike fishing should be good next week. Fish in the back of the shallow bays, also fish moving water. The bigger ones I caught recently on the soft plastic jerk bait ( aka Zulu\ShadZ\RaZor ) and the bullfrog Lucky 13. Big spinner baits and spoons are also good options this time of the year.

Thanks to you all. Always get great information from our fishing buddies.

What is your EP and target area? I'm going in for a week solo that day too.

Three Rivers, we are going into crab Lake heading Southwest and then after a day or so up over to Cummings.

Float softly and carry a big stick bait.

last weekend we caught some pike , but not many or bigger one's , but it's just a matter of time , they should be turning on soon, as some stated , bays/bottleneck bays will have the warmer water temps and the big girls should be in these areas and moving water in the spring has the whole food chain going so that is also a great place to target.

Came out of Seagull yesterday (a day earlier than planned due to the rough weather). We fished mostly Ogish and the surrounding smaller lakes (Eddy, Jenny, Spice). We caught all the 2-3 lb. pike we wanted, both intentionally with spinners and spoons and incidentally while jigging leeches. But we couldn't find a single pike bigger than that size range. The small ones were fun to catch and were great eating, but the bigger ones were either not interested in our offerings or were in different water than what we were fishing (shallow bays and creek mouths).

quote dele: "Came out of Seagull yesterday (a day earlier than planned due to the rough weather). We fished mostly Ogish and the surrounding smaller lakes (Eddy, Jenny, Spice). We caught all the 2-3 lb. pike we wanted, both intentionally with spinners and spoons and incidentally while jigging leeches. But we couldn't find a single pike bigger than that size range. The small ones were fun to catch and were great eating, but the bigger ones were either not interested in our offerings or were in different water than what we were fishing (shallow bays and creek mouths)."

About 2.5 pound northern pike is just right for eating.Get over five pounds and they just don't taste as good.

Just came out of Quetico on the 20th caught several pike and a couple over 30 inches. The picture is a snapshot of gopro i had going so i could get fish back in water fast. This pike was 38 inches caught as i was going in at prairie portage on the 14th. Pike are very aggressive right now and shallow, some hit top water baits. good luck on the pike hunt.

quote rdmarr: "
Just came out of Quetico on the 20th caught several pike and a couple over 30 inches. The picture is a snapshot of gopro i had going so i could get fish back in water fast. This pike was 38 inches caught as i was going in at prairie portage on the 14th. Pike are very aggressive right now and shallow, some hit top water baits. good luck on the pike hunt."

Looks like a beauty, I'm heading up in Mid June and can't wait!

Beauty is right! Thanks for getting that big girl back in the water lickedy-split.

About 2.5 pound northern pike is just right for eating.Get over five pounds and they just don't taste as good.
"

Oh yes, they tasted fantastic. But once we had enough for the pan, we'd have enjoyed catching and releasing some bigger ones. We just couldn't find them. We fished back bays and creek mouths and trolled points near deeper water, but we didn't encounter a northern over that size.

I guess it's a decent fishing trip, though, when you catch a walleye bigger than your biggest northern: the 27 inch walleye I pulled out of (and then put right back into) Ogish more than made up for the small size of the northerns!

quote rdmarr: "
Just came out of Quetico on the 20th caught several pike and a couple over 30 inches. The picture is a snapshot of gopro i had going so i could get fish back in water fast. This pike was 38 inches caught as i was going in at prairie portage on the 14th. Pike are very aggressive right now and shallow, some hit top water baits. good luck on the pike hunt."

Nice fish! Sounds like you caught it on the American side. Did you catch any smallmouth?

quote QueticoMike: "

quote rdmarr: "
Just came out of Quetico on the 20th caught several pike and a couple over 30 inches. The picture is a snapshot of gopro i had going so i could get fish back in water fast. This pike was 38 inches caught as i was going in at prairie portage on the 14th. Pike are very aggressive right now and shallow, some hit top water baits. good luck on the pike hunt."

Nice fish! Sounds like you caught it on the American side. Did you catch any smallmouth?"

He'd only catch those things if he brought a bunch of rat traps with him!! :)

quote QueticoMike: "

quote rdmarr: "
Just came out of Quetico on the 20th caught several pike and a couple over 30 inches. The picture is a snapshot of gopro i had going so i could get fish back in water fast. This pike was 38 inches caught as i was going in at prairie portage on the 14th. Pike are very aggressive right now and shallow, some hit top water baits. good luck on the pike hunt."

Nice fish! Sounds like you caught it on the American side. Did you catch any smallmouth?"

it was on the Canadian side right in front of the smaller spillway, I tossed a shallow perch color crank bait to troll as we were headed to base camp on Sunday lake in search for big lakers. we also caught several Smallies same area all 17-19 inch. then caught a 33inch pike on burke.

Carl lake, good pike fishing 365 days a year. The only negative is the 2 mile portage.

About 2.5 pound northern pike is just right for eating.Get over five pounds and they just don't taste as good.

I would totally disagree with this statement I live in North Dakota and we have a abundance of large pike. on a good day of late ice its very possible to catch many fish over 12lbs and up to and over 20lbs I keep the 10 to 12 for eating and return all other fish to the water.

I do agree that in the BWCA cleaning a large fish would be a waste unless you can eat it all.

Yup I like bigger pike for eating. Nice thick meaty backstraps and big thick filets. Plus bigger pike are easier to clean IMO as the bones are a bit thicker and not so easily cut through.

Pike are very underrated as table fare. I think most folk just don't want to deal with the bones and the slime. I clean ALL red meat off any piece of my fish. Excellent eating with good firm texture! Its so funny.......when I eat Pike they become my favorite north country fish to eat..........and the next shore lunch is walleye and suddenly I switch allegiance and loudly proclaim nothing is tastier than walleye..........but that only lasts until the next pike LOL.