What’s your favorite weedless lure for catching pike and smallies?

I like those Booya buzz baits, or a spinner bait with willow blades for tossing in heavy cover. Those baits just glide over the pads and weeds. The bass and pike slam these. Really fun to see if you can bring a pike out of the weeds to get one of these.

Then there is the Texas rigged plastic worm with a bullet weight that is very effective. Not much gets that thing hung up.

I have tried the wacky worm rigged with a weedless hook to limited success. It has a piece of monofilament instead of wire for the hook guard. I say limited because I need to spend more time with it to master it.

I love to use a Johnson silver minnow in the cabbage, Drives them wild.

While a Chatterbait is not really considered a true weedless lure its vibrating blade and single upright hook does a decent job of getting through weeds. Plus the vibration really helps fish find it. I like drifting through weeds and using a lift / drop. THUMP. Plus it catches everything........I even caught a Lake Trout with it while trolling it (I was basically to lazy to put something else on while moving from spot to spot). If I had only one lure to take into canoe country this would be it.

ZMAN ShadZ on a Zulu rig....

quote jrcrrr: "
I love to use a Johnson silver minnow in the cabbage, Drives them wild."

I've also had great success with this classic lure.

QueticoMike: "ZMAN ShadZ on a Zulu rig...."

+1

Soooooooo versatile.

So many excellent options. One thing to mention, is fishing conditions. On windy days, a zman/Senko would be difficult to manage....but a large spinnerbait would be easier to cast or feel. Conversely, a slack wind or protected area would be more conducive to jig, Senko. Don’t be staid in your technique. Also, we would leave. All like to have the “perfect” rod with us for a given technique, but not possible. Plan your r rod/ reel selections to cover a variety of lure options. Not going to go into rods....ya can’t take the whole rodbox. Before going, go to an area lake and test versatility of your rods.

Thanks everyone for the lurer info. I’ve never used a Zulu rig it sounds interesting and promising.

I also notice no one list the trusty frog popper. Any thoughts?

Excellent lure...... under the right conditions. Versatile??? Hmmmmm......Everybody wants to play topwater bingo——but the lure better have bonafide versatility before I give it space in a cramped tackle box. Instead, maybe a floating/shallow diving minnow(Rapala?), Dahlberg Diver. A man who is handy with a floating frog is always welcome in my canoe....but a man who is handy with a floating Rapala minnow will feed the Camp every day.

CanoeViking:


I also notice no one list the trusty frog popper. Any thoughts?"

Yo, yo, yo...............ditch the Frog Popper and get a Top Toad. Totally awesome totally weedless but with excellent hooking characteristics which is unusual for this type of lure. Throw it out and crank it in. Open water or through pretty much anything they will eat it. Do a search and you can read all about it. Top Toad kills it!!

Master Tangler - Top toad is what I had in mind. They do well down here. Do you have a favorite color?

Bassnet - Floating minnows are a good lurer too! I suppose better in canoe without all the slime algae like I have in my local lake in the summer time.

CanoeViking: "Master Tangler - Top toad is what I had in mind. They do well down here. Do you have a favorite color?
"

Not really....I only used them on one trip but I was blown away at how much more effective they were than the other frog imitations I had brought. They were lights out. I was belly laughing as bass were blowing up on the thing.

I am somebody who used to fish a lot..........now I'm just somebody who likes to talk a lot about fishing LOL. Thats what happens when you run your own business. You think "oh it will be great, I will be able to take off when I want". And it worked that way for a while.......and then I got "successful" and "popular" and now it seems all I do is work. I am NOT complaining BTW. Its just reality. Bottom line, I love the Top Toads but don't have enough experience with them to give an honest helpful opinion.

CanoeViking: "Thanks everyone for the lurer info. I’ve never used a Zulu rig it sounds interesting and promising.


I also notice no one list the trusty frog popper. Any thoughts?"

If you want to read my article on Zulu fishing, send me an email at - queticomike@yahoo.com - request the Zulu article. If you want more info on Zulu fishing do a search on Zulu rigging on this site.

Savage Voyageur: "I like those Booya buzz baits, or a spinner bait with willow blades for tossing in heavy cover. Those baits just glide over the pads and weeds. The bass and pike slam these. Really fun to see if you can bring a pike out of the weeds to get one of these.

Then there is the Texas rigged plastic worm with a bullet weight that is very effective. Not much gets that thing hung up.

I have tried the wacky worm rigged with a weedless hook to limited success. It has a piece of monofilament instead of wire for the hook guard. I say limited because I need to spend more time with it to master it. "

+1 on the spinnerbait . white with tandem blades also caught my share of pike on texas rigged worms.

QueticoMike I just emailed you.

Thanks again for the tips and advice. I’ve done well with smallies and so so on pike. I know they are often in weed beds in late summer but, after a couple poor “weedless” lurers I didn’t want to buy more until I had some tried advice.

Thanks again folks.

CanoeViking: "Thanks again for the tips and advice. I’ve done well with smallies and so so on pike. I know they are often in weed beds in late summer but, after a couple poor “weedless” lurers I didn’t want to buy more until I had some tried advice.


Thanks again folks.
"

It has been my experience in late summer that only smallish pike inhabit the weed flats. Deep weeds are another story especially if adjacent to deep water. But truth be told I have most of my better pike action in 25ft of water on rocky bottom in late summer. Lots of 33" to 36" pike inhabit this depth and I catch them regularly while trolling for walleye. Decent fish and put up a good tussle on 8lb test. Oddly enough I catch bigger pike, even in late summer, around 15ft but usually over rock and usually in the evening. Points particularly are good. Rock is usually not associated with pike but later in the summer they seem to prefer it. A patch of deep weeds is certainly an exception.

carmike: "

QueticoMike: "ZMAN ShadZ on a Zulu rig...."

+1


Soooooooo versatile. "

Same here.

I'd have to say my best success has been a spinner but rubber skirt removed and some sort of plastic shad or Minnow on the hook instead. I keep trying to find something better but always seem to come back to this... and +1 for the fact that It hardly ever gets weeds.

Grizzlyman: "I'd have to say my best success has been a spinner but rubber skirt removed and some sort of plastic shad or Minnow on the hook instead. I keep trying to find something better but always seem to come back to this... and +1 for the fact that It hardly ever gets weeds. "

Thanks Grizzlyman for the tip. I’ll have to give that a try.

MT - I know rocks with big pike go together. But the lake next to my house we have lots of weeds and seems all sizes of pike are in it. But good info to know in canoe country. Thanks again for sharing all the extra info.

CanoeViking: "MT - I know rocks with big pike go together. But the lake next to my house we have lots of weeds and seems all sizes of pike are in it. But good info to know in canoe country. Thanks again for sharing all the extra info. "

if you do any trolling (as grizzlyman stated a minnow on a spinnerbait is a deadly set up for pike over weeds)

shock: "

CanoeViking: "MT - I know rocks with big pike go together. But the lake next to my house we have lots of weeds and seems all sizes of pike are in it. But good info to know in canoe country. Thanks again for sharing all the extra info. "

if you do any trolling (as grizzlyman stated a minnow on a spinnerbait is a deadly set up for pike over weeds) "

Yes sir, thats a bang-em set up. The Lindy boys first turned me onto that rig.

mastertangler: "

shock: "

CanoeViking: "MT - I know rocks with big pike go together. But the lake next to my house we have lots of weeds and seems all sizes of pike are in it. But good info to know in canoe country. Thanks again for sharing all the extra info. "

if you do any trolling (as grizzlyman stated a minnow on a spinnerbait is a deadly set up for pike over weeds) "

Yes sir, thats a bang-em set up. The Lindy boys first turned me onto that rig."

as in the linder boys ? when specifically targeting pike i do prefer white. but all colors produce. but muskies and big bass love this set up too. 1oz minimum for muskies ;) (pic)

Here's a couple of recent pike I caught using the Zulu rig.........

QueticoMike: "Here's a couple of recent pike I caught using the Zulu rig.........


"

Wow! Those are some awesome pike! That would be a dream come true to catch one that size.

Shock-thanks for the picture of your set up. Pictures say a thousand words.

I 've tried them all and I am veering away from heavy baitcasting gear for the BWCA...we pack a pvc tube with several 2 piece 7 foot spinning rods, but at least one is a fairly heavy action with braid that I toss the Big Lures with...or troll for Lakers...you can certainly Texas rig frogs or worms, etc but...and this is advice even in open water...get a bunch of Kalins weedless jig heads and different color Strike King Rage Tail Grubs and experiment...you may want to use some tieable fly fishing wire if the pike are biting you off...I use the exact same setup around Traverse City Michigan for smallmouth and believe me it works...let it sink to the bottom and just SLOWLY reel it in...if you feel weeds just give a snap...and then Hold On...

Jared i want to add , in the pic above i'm tied direct with #50 power pro braid but i prefer the spinnerbaits with the twist eye to be able to run a steel/titanium leader with a coastal style snap. pic of 1 of my bigger spinnerbaits 1 1/2oz. with the twist and she's got some pull with those 2 big willow blade. a person would want a rod rated up to at least 3oz. especially tipped with a nice sucker minnow. great pike/musky set-up

Has anyone used a Northland Jawbreaker weedless spoon? They look very promising for retrieving or trolling over weeds.

thegildedgopher: "Has anyone used a Northland Jawbreaker weedless spoon? They look very promising for retrieving or trolling over weeds.


"

we have , and have had good sucess with them , both on local lakes and in the BW.