Slash Gear
For all but the largest slashbaits, I use spinning gear. With low-stretch braided line, medium-power spinning rods deliver all the muscle you need to cast far, work the bait aggressively, and set hooks at a distance. Don’t overpower these baits. Thick, dense braids, the kind most muskie and pike fishermen use, are counterproductive. Thick lines rob casting distance, and the graceful ballet of a properly designed, properly tuned, properly presented slashbait is impossible to achieve with line that won’t slip easily through the water. In the United States and on most border waters I use 14-pound Berkley FireLine, tied directly to a Terminator titanium leader. Farther north and around thick cover, I may use 20-pound test, and with the new magnum X-Rap, 30-pound is fine.
A fast, medium-power 7- to 71⁄2-foot spinning rod is right for most slashbait-pike tactics. Long casts cover water quickly. Sensitivity can be important, making this a game for premium graphite blanks. In post-frontal conditions, big pike can take motionless slashbaits in a very lazy manner. Braided lines and fine graphite sticks transmit a barely perceptible tic where monofilaments and cheap rods won’t. For larger slashbaits, your rod needs backbone right into the middle of the stick, but without moderate action in the tip section, the rod won’t load enough to throw suspending baits long distances. Clip on a suspending bait and hold it out there, horizontally. If the rod tip bends down slightly from the weight of the lure, you’re in the ballpark. When using bass-sized suspending baits, like #10 or #12 Husky Jerks, in early spring, a medium-light 7-footer coupled with 10-pound braid works best.
Slash Time
When the weather turns dark and windy, pike often rise from scattered locales across deeper flats. Suspended pike join in, following micro environments of plankton and bait that the wind pushes shoreward. These two groups concentrate to some degree on the outer rim of reefs and rocky points, where the shallows stretch farthest from shore and where the wind is cracking directly in. Deep, heavy bodies maintain stability in the crashing surf, while their prey gets tossed about, losing equilibrium.
Lure should mimic prey. In wind and waves, nothing fills the bill better than a slashbait, which can be buffeted by wave action, yet stay down in the tumult on the pause, mimicking the seasick wobble of a lost baitfish. Spoons and deep divers snag more often in the shallow rocks. Suspending baits stay above bottom more and stop dead without rising or sinking, forcing followers to decide: Use the teeth or chicken out.
In big lakes and reservoirs across the North, pike spread out into various summer patterns after postspawn. Patterns we call the Big Three are almost universal. Some pike remain in shallow weeds all summer. Some cruise open water as loosely associated wolf packs, hounding huge schools of baitfish. And some hunt near bottom across mid-depth flats in the 40- to 60-foot range. Each pattern suggests different presentations. A consistent wind, blowing from the same point on the compass for several days, can draw pike from all of these patterns into one area, at which point slashbaits outshine every other option.
Early during prespawn and throughout postspawn, suspending baits become essential tools. Generally, that’s when a long pause triggers best. Presented on the right gear, slashbaits appeal to pike (and muskies) in all summer patterns. More efficient methods can be employed for pike in weeds, however, and downriggers or three-way rigs are required to present slashbaits deep. When baitfish ride high, suspended pike become suckers for slashbaits, which continue to produce results right through fall and into early winter, too.
