Latin names for species tend to be apt. The brook trout, for instance, is salvelinus fontinalus, which translates roughly as char living in springs. No species designation is more apt, however, than esox lucious, the water wolf.

"Pike definitely school at times," according to Jim Lindner, In-Fisherman field editor. "They roam around in packs and hunt like wolves." Racist wolves. Maybe it's not their fault. Maybe smallmouths are the racists and the pike are laissez faire. But they definitely practice some kind of apartheid. In warm, stable weather, smallmouths wander the shallow tips of reefs and sunken islands while pike keep to the depths. After a cold front, they trade places. Pike put smallmouths on the back of the bus, ship 'em deep, and commandeer prime, shallow foraging areas.

Folks want to fish pike shallow, because it's easy (visible structure) and they've historically had some success doing it. On big main-lake weedbeds, a few gators always patrol the perimeter. But, truth be known, most anglers fail to find good pike consistently. "Because," Jim points out," they're not fishing deep enough. A lot of pike fishermen say they're fishing deep; they're talking 15 to 20 feet. That's not deep to a pike. Just about everywhere we go in North America, big pike spend much of the season below 25 feet."

In-Fisherman Founder Al Lindner has a decided affinity for gators. He's been chasing pike throughout the seasons over many years and has had his share of problems finding them in transition from one calendar period to the next. "Big pike seem to become scarce when the water hits the 60F range in late spring and early summer," Al says. "But it only seems that way. Tullibees (ciscoes) and perch, key forage species for big pike, move deeper just as the water reaches 60F on top, and pike follow them down.

"Once you've identified the right area, cruise around, searching for big schools of bait with sonar. Don't waste time casting blind, because the size of the area required to maintain a lot of big pike is pretty big.

"Wind drives the pattern. A steady wind blowing into the area will set pike up on the windward side of a structure, even when they're deep. All the pike could be on one side of a huge reef one day, and the next day they could be positioned altogether differently. Clouds of bait are key. Find the food. Late last summer fish were down as deep as they could go without leaving the flats or crossing the thermocline. When we finally found bait, we found packs of gators."

"We sight fish them with electronics and vertically jig with big jig-plastic combos," says In-Fisherman field editor Jim Lindner. "It's a visual game. At times, we can actually watch big hooks reacting to the bait on sonar. During stable weather, we position the boat where we can make long casts to 10 or 15 feet of water and work the jig down to 35 feet or so, using 1/2- to 1 1/2-ounce jigs (such as those offered by Bait Rigs Tackle, Jack's Jigs, Owner American, Nichols Lures, and Walker Tackle) with big reeper tails, lizards, Slug-Gos, or grubs. The idea is to balance the line with the weight of the jig and the size of the plastic so the thing casts a mile and drops like a rock.

"You don't want to slow the fall of the bait with a thick mondo plastic body. If it's doing this," (his hand tracing the slow, undulating course of a boring roller coaster) "you're not getting bit. You want a rapid up-down movement, jumping the bait 7 or 8 feet off bottom with each jigging motion. A really erratic action with a fast drop speed is critical."

Cast, let the jig fall vertically, point the rod tip down, and as soon as the jig hits bottom, lift the rod tip sharply 7 or 8 feet. Follow the jig back to bottom with the rod tip, and as it hits bottom, snap it up again. When the jig reaches a point directly below the boat, work it vertically for several snaps--especially when marking big fish.

For this routine, the Lindner boys like 7 1/2-foot flippin' sticks; high-speed casting reels; and tough, abrasion-resistant 20- to 25-pound monofilament like Berkley Big Game. (I prefer superbraids, like Fins Spectra or Power Pro, which are thinner and cut the water a little better, allowing me to cast farther, fish faster, and set hooks harder.) The rod not only has to lift a lot of weight, but also has to sweep the jig high, because pike often position 4 or 5 feet off bottom.

A long, fast-action, medium-heavy- to heavy-power rod is crucial to the technique. If the jig isn't snapping off bottom and getting back down at a rapid pace, the presentation will be too slow to cover much water. With the right tackle, it quickly covers a horizontal band of water up to 120 feet long and a vertical zone from bottom to 8 feet up. Pike on metabolic overdrive in summer don't have to see the jig for a long time. They just have to see it and it's zip, rip, and chew.

"I like magnum Jack's Jigs Reeper Tails, 6- to 8-inch lizards, magnum Lunker City Slug-Gos, 6-inch Berkley Power Grubs, Mann's Jelly Hoos, Nichol's Willie-Bill's Waterdogs--those kinds of plastics," Jim says. "The shape should be long and slender so it slips through the water efficiently without slowing down the jig, while presenting the profile of something in the size range that makes a big gator think lunch.