Spring Into Summer Transition Pike

While pike can be, one here, one there, nearly anywhere during the transition from spring to summer, they tend to use the best extensions of shallow weeds or brush, in conjunction with a drop to deep water, where schools of baitfish are found.

Thus fishing for transition pike is much like summer walleye fishing, where you hop from point to point, checking the possibilities and the presence of fish. But where you focus on the drop-off or at a productive depth level for walleyes, usually relating to the point, pike typically relate to weeds or flooded brush at the inside turn or cup at the base of the point, where a sloping bottom with cover abuts the sharper drop-off at the beginning of the point. Saddle areas of flooded cover between points and islands can be especially good for big fish, too.

This example shows several potentially excellent spots near each other. In actuality, they would most likely occur at widely separated intervals, often a mile or more apart. Simply run down the shore at full throttle, slow down and drop the trolling motor when you spot a candidate, and move in close enough to probe the cover. Catch a few, and then proceed to the next spot. Visual. Active. Exciting.

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