Rolf in full pike equipment.

Because some of our early season pike fishing happens during ice off, where legal, I have “warmed” to the use of 4 or 5 mm thick waders. Breathable waders are also a good choice, as you can layer clothing inside them and adjust to just about any water temperature.

Our experience has taught us that stocking foot waders are a better buy than boot foots for the simple fact that the wader usually outlasts the boots and therefore purchasing your favorite make and style of wading boots as required is more practical.

An absolute necessity is a good vest. Because I have a tendency to bathe my boxed flies whether wading or tubing, a shorty vest is preferred. Also look for vests with big pockets to accommodate your larger fly boxes and other paraphernalia.

One of the most important pieces of equipment you can ever invest in is your pike fly rod. Rolf built a beautiful 9.5 ft.(2.9 m.) 9 wt. 4 piece IMX graphite rod for me (he favors a 10 wt.) The stiff action of the Loomis rod helps give me the force needed to cast the larger pike flies. An 8 wt. would be my preferred minimum rod weight. My rod has a fighting butt which has proven very valuable when brawling with the big ones and by choosing appropriate guides and an anodized reel seat it can double as my saltwater travel rod. My preference is for an uplocking reel seat to diminish the chances of the locking ring loosening with extended use. A quality rod properly cared for should last you a lifetime and remember, quality is rarely cheap.

My Orvis disc drag reel compliments my rod, providing me with a well balanced system allowing hours of casting comfort. My preference of disc over click drag is mostly due to the size and strength of the quarry, and with that in mind, an exposed rim enables you to palm the reel in hopes of slowing “Elmer” when he is running.

Your fly line should be chosen to match the rest of your outfit and the market now offers several good options. For example when choosing your floating line you can opt for a weight forward floating (WFF) or one of the new specialty pike lines. These lines are described as rocket tapers and they are especially designed to help cast your heavier flies. When choosing your sink tip and full sinking lines it helps to be aware of the depth of familiar water. Because we prefer wading and most of our favorite spots are around the 1 m. to 2 m. depth we usually go with a slower sinking line.
You may keep in mind that a large capacity of Dacron backing is not required for your pike reel as most pike are unlikely to run into the backing.

When you’re planning on belly boating your tube and fins need only be added to your already collected equipment.

Well, you look great all geared up, but now what? Have you noticed your vest is still awfully light? You see, most fly fisherman love gadgets and I think I can help you decide on some of the more useful ones to carry along. An important consideration is what to use to hasten the release of a landed fish. Carrying a hook remover and gag will help you achieve this. A quick release cuts down on injury to you, the fish and the fly with hopes that if you get the fly away from the pike’s teeth it should last longer. A really good way to make a “fish friendly” gag is to glue wooden or plastic beads to the prongs (photo) as this helps prevent the gag from poking through the fish’s jaws. By securing the gag to your vest you may prevent dropping a restless fish into the water with a fully gagged mouth.

The leaders you require can be made at home by using 1 meter lengths of 12 - 40 lb. test mono attached to the same length of wire. Stash a few of these in a vest pocket.
A stream thermometer can be invaluable. Our area’s fishing starts at about the 50F (10C) mark with it really kicking into high gear around 60F (16C) with 70F (22C) indicating a marked decrease in action.

Oh yeah, leave your trout net at home as most pike will dwarf it and the largest fish can be landed and released without one.

Now right up there in your list of top ten “need ums” are your streamers. With careful selection, the fly you choose may determine whether you have a bad or good day’s fishing. There are some innovative and well tied flies available on the market now but there are some very important details to consider when choosing streamers. Your flies should mimic forage fish that inhabit the area you plan on fishing, so your pattern should not only have similar colorings to these fish but flash and markings as well. Another consideration is the water clarity itself. Early spring patterns in white, chartreuse or yellow have proven very productive for us, and at dusk you may have some exceptionally good luck with black patterns. I have to make special mention about floating deer hair patterns. Fishing with these is not for the weak of heart, as the action is sudden and startling and never half way.

Watch for the patterns that are made of synthetic materials as they will prove to be much sturdier than those tied with natural materials and should undoubtedly last 2 - 3 dozen strikes as opposed to 3 or 4 good hits for cheaply made streamers.

Using a steel leader while fishing may help prevent “bite - offs.” Although we have found they only occur occasionally, why take a chance in losing a good fish? There are two ways to use this leader, by either attaching it to your fly or by purchasing flies with the leader tied into them. When fishing with the second method don’t assume your fly is ineffectual because of a bent leader, we have found that it encourages an erratic behavior in the streamer which is very attractive to pike.

Whether you choose to purchase a fly with or without a weed guard is up to you. We have fished with both styles and each has their own advantages.
When fishing any of your patterns your retrieval should be varied occasionally to mimic an injured fish, or should copy swimming patterns of the forage fish.

In the research you do on the area you plan to fish you should consider what important features make up the lake. Are there wadeable areas with lots of reeds? Is there good weed growth throughout the shallows, as pike love to hide in these areas. Also note any areas where there may be drop offs allowing the pike to cruise the shallows with the security of deeper water close by. The Alberta Fishing Guide provides a good resource medium when you are exploring, without putting kilometers on your vehicle. Remember that early season pike fishing usually occurs in the shallower water where it is warmer. They go into deeper water as the season progresses and temperatures rise, until about mid - August or September when the nights start getting cooler and they return to the shallows. Remember, too, that as the day progresses and the pike feel more secure due to the coming of nightfall they tend to go shallower looking for bedtime snacks.

I trust the information given has helped some of you who have been wondering what is involved in this sport. Better yet I hope it has whetted some appetites in anticipation of some incredible easily accessed fly-fishing.

Gear - A Woman's Perspective | Some Fly Recipes | Random Tips
Some Fly Recipes

Following is some detail regarding some of our favorite pike fly patterns.
The first fly is the Moss Zebra. Shirley Ann designed this pattern to imitate the common yellow perch, a common forage fish in this area.

MOSS ZEBRA
HOOK: Mustad 34007 size 4/0
THREAD: Danville Plus A, black (olive can also be used if you prefer a closer match)
WEED GUARD: 40 lb. test monofilament
BODY: piece of aluminum foil, colored yellow with waterproof marker, overwrapped with 40 to 60 lb. test clear monofilament
THROAT: red calf tail
WING: 4” Fluorescent Day Glo Yellow FisHair, 4” Moss Green FisHair, stripes added with waterproof black marker
HEAD: thread, cement, black and white lacquers for eyes

This fly not only looks like a perch, but it seems that any fly with a lot of yellow is favored by pike. I believe that any color of pike fly will take fish, as long as it’s yellow. This isn’t entirely accurate, but there’s no doubt that yellow seems to have an edge with these toothy critters.

FATHEAD MINNOW
HOOK: Mustad 34007 size 4/0
THREAD: Danville Plus A, to match deer hair
WEED GUARD: 40 lb. test monofilament
TAIL: 4” red FisHair, or yellow, or black
HEAD: red deer hair, or yellow, or black, trimmed to shape

Rolf designed this pattern in the earliest days of the business. It evolved through the principle of developing a pattern that catches more fish than fishermen. After all, the pike decide what they like no matter how much a pattern may be favored by the angler. In its inception, the Fathead had two colors of FisHair in the tail, along with some flash, and the deer hair head was beautifully sculpted around a pair of stem eyes. As nice as they were, this pattern could take a while to tie. The first component to disappear was the bi-color tail. One color to match the head seemed enough. Did the pike have a preference for two colors? Not that we noticed. And since this pattern spent a good portion of its time on the surface, where the Alberta sun glinted off the little wavelets created by the head, it didn’t seem that the flash played a significant part in this pattern’s success. To speed up the tying process even more, it seemed that the eyes could be forgotten. At the angle that a pike would see this pattern, it seemed unlikely that the eyes were even noticed. Gone! So now we had a fathead with one color of FisHair for the tail, no flash, and a sculpted hair head without eyes. Attach these materials to the hook with some thread, and you are left with a very effective pike pattern.
This fly isn’t really a diver, and it doesn’t necessarily float well after several casts, so it’s a burbler. Pike must like burblers. To the best of our knowledge, a red Fathead Minnow took the largest pike of any of the patterns we tie commercially. A 54” northern pike in the Northwest Territories of Canada fell to our Fathead. We never heard the weight of this fish, but must assume that it was well over 40 pounds-a big pike.
Black fatheads also seem to be quite successful, but the red one is our favorite.

CISCO
HOOK: Mustad 34007 size 4/0
THREAD: Danville Plus A, black
WEED GUARD: 40 lb. test monofilament
BODY: piece of aluminum foil, shiny side out, overwrapped with 40 to 60 lb. test monofilament
THROAT: red calf tail
WING: 4” Polar Bear white FisHair, 4” Mouse Grey FisHair, 4” Natural Black FisHair, silver Krystal Flash
HEAD: thread, cement, black and white lacquers for eyes

This pattern was developed as a special request from a sporting goods shop in Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The shop owner called us requesting an imitation of what is commonly known in the area as “lake herring”. It turns out that the fish referred to were ciscoes. A little research and we developed a few different samples that were sent off for approval. The pattern above was chosen as the best imitation. Again, lots of FisHair in the fly for durability and extra large eyes to give the pike a target. This is a good generic baitfish pattern that seems to consistently receive attention from the fish. It’s not flashy or unnaturally colored, but it does seem to have that drab, tasty forage fish look about it. Although neither of us landed the fish ourselves, we were present at a northern Alberta fly-in lake when a Cisco took a pike that was about 4 centimeters longer than the current Alberta record. The weight was not a record; as it was early June the spawning period was just complete.

CUNICULUS (Latin for rabbit)
HOOK: Mustad 34007 size 4/0
THREAD: Danville Plus A, white and olive
WEED GUARD: 40 lb. test monofilament
TAIL & BODY: strip of white and olive rabbit fur, straight cut, white strip is tied in at rear of hook shank then palmered forward; olive strip is tied in at rear of hook shank, and then pulled forward through body
HEAD: thread, cement

Another pattern created by Shirley Ann. Some of the waters close to home are fished heavily by the “fill the freezer with fillets” crowd. There aren’t huge numbers of pike remaining in some of these waters, and the residual fish must obviously be a little more difficult to fool into taking an artificial lure. Something lively and appealing is required to consistently stimulate action in these waters. This pattern is really just a Bunny fly with two tails, but what a difference the second tail makes! Standing a rod length from Shirley Ann, fishing the same waters, with her using a Cuniculus and me some other streamer, I am often out fished 3 to 1. Unlike the majority of our patterns, this one has no eyes, partly due to the small head and partly because this streamer doesn’t seem to need any to be attractive to the fish.

FisHair is incorporated into many of our pike flies. This material is a favorite of ours, and we purchase several kilograms at a time. The length, color, and condition are always consistent, unlike natural hairs, and the material is extremely durable. Some of our FisHair based patterns are several years old and are still used regularly. If we’re feeling energetic, we give the painted eyes a touchup when needed, and they’re ready for action.

As FisHair can be quite slippery to work with when thread heads are being wrapped, we always put some head cement on the FisHair. The tackiness of the cement helps to reduce the thread sliding towards the eye. A pair of scissors that have lost their fine edge would be ideal as a FisHair-only pair. This synthetic hair can be cut quite well without having a razor sharp pair of scissors, and that way an expensive sharp pair can be reserved for less dulling materials.

All of our patterns are tied on the same size of hook. Smaller hooks did not seem to have the same success rate in hooking fish, and larger hooks seemed necessary. We do get requests for patterns on 2/0 hooks, this size seems to be a common second choice. The Mustad 34007 hooks are stainless steel and would not deteriorate for some time in the water. For that reason, we use and recommend wire leaders at all times to prevent a fish cutting a monofilament leader and escaping with a hook in the jaw.

Although we do produce more elaborate pike streamers than the ones detailed here, we like to tie streamers that catch pike, and several pike per streamer, not just one or two. These four patterns are not difficult to produce, are effective and durable, and have proven themselves over many years of fishing. These aren’t just tied for the market; these are also personal favorites of ours.
Our business focuses on pike fly sales, although we stock bulk materials out of necessity such as: hooks, FisHair, deer hair and other materials commonly used in the construction of pike streamers. Interested people should contact us.

Gear - A Woman's Perspective | Some Fly Recipes | Random Tips
Random Pike Fly Fishing Tips

1. At least 20 years ago I was watching a fairly technical fishing program about northern pike. The host stated that at times when the sun was low in the sky, such as evenings, pike would face away from the light. As pike obviously do not have eyelids, they would face away from the sun as it approached the horizon. I almost dismissed this piece of lore, until several years later I saw a rerun of the show. As I kept a detailed fishing diary in my first years of fly fishing, it was checked to see where and when I had my greatest success landing pike on the fly. No surprise that my greatest success was in the evening, which is still my favorite time for pike, but I also found I was always facing into the sunset. So it would seem that the fish could have been tail to the light. Of course, the fish could have been facing any direction and still seen the fly as it was retrieved past them, but if I think that facing the sun while fly fishing for pike increases my odds of success, I’ll face the sun. (This one still sounds a little goofy to me--like the old one about pike losing their teeth in the winter, but I’ve included it anyway.)

2. In my earliest years of pike fly fishing, I just used a two meter piece of 40 lb. test monofilament as a leader. It was possible to land several dozen fish without the pike’s teeth shearing the mono, yet other days two or three consecutive fish would disappear with the fly, leaving what appeared to be a razor cut at the end of the monofilament. For the last several years, I have been a firm believer in using some type of wire leader tied directly to the fly to prevent bite-offs. Some brands of wire can be knotted as easily as monofilament and do not hamper the fly’s action. Pike flies are often made of synthetic materials, and are usually built around large hooks, which do not rust away or drop off like a small trout fly. For that reason, I try to make it nearly impossible for a pike to swim away from me with a large fly interfering with their day-to-day lives.

3. This one should be fairly obvious, and fishing laws in Alberta dictate this step, but it’s one I like to emphasize whenever I’m talking about pike fly fishing to newcomers. Debarb those hooks. Not only does it make releasing pike easier (also very important with the size limits in Alberta), but the less time the fly spends scraping across those hundreds of teeth the longer it will last. And it’s important to remember that those huge flies seem to set their own flight paths on the breezier days. A 4/0 hook is as large as a curved nail, which can be decidedly unpleasant when anchored in ANY part of the anatomy. That would be a good time to reflect on a person’s wisdom in debarbing the hook prior to use.

4. I like to use weed guards on most of my pike streamers, except for the Clouser style flies which ride point up. I think that the guards work when the weeds are fairly large, but when the water is filled with algae and other clingy aquatic growth, the guards are fighting a losing battle. I prefer to think of them as anti-fouling devices, as they help keep the long tails of patterns such as Bunny Bugs from wrapping around the curve of the hook during use. The term “weed guard” is shorter than “anti-fouling device” and everyone understands to what you are referring.

5. I’m often asked what is a good rod to use for pike fly fishing. I think that an 8 weight is the lightest rod one should use. There probably is not a heaviest rod, as this would be up to the individual angler to decide how much of a stick they are willing to wave around all day. The weight is not due to the fish, as most pike caught by fly anglers are probably well under 5 pounds. A 20” Bow River trout could outfight a heavier pike, but many large trout are landed on some pretty light gear. The heavy rod for pike is for tossing the big streamers, because launching a wet pike streamer with a light rod would be like hitting a fastball with a broomstick-it just isn’t up to the job.

6. When pike are not in a particularly aggressive mood, they can strike a streamer without being hooked. When that happens, my first response is not to speed the retrieve to imitate a panicked baitfish, but to stop the retrieve and let the fly settle as if it were injured or stunned. It’s not unusual for pike to consume fish nearly as large as themselves, which would make it impossible for them to swallow the prey at the initial strike. They must first immobilize the prey with a violent attack, and then reposition it for a head first swallow. I think that stopping the retrieve at the strike has resulted in many more hookups than changing the speed of the retrieve.

7. Pike seem to have a blind spot directly in front of their snouts. I remembered this, to my chagrin, when I had an opportunity to land a 30 lb. pike a few years ago. (I know that it was 30 lbs. as the next person to toss a fly at it landed the fish.) What seemed to be a log came out of some drowned timber in about 3 feet of water. It followed directly behind my yellow Deceiver for what seemed to be a full minute without any serious attempt to engulf the pattern. In my understandable excitement, it never occurred to me to move the fly to the side, not only to make it seem as if it was attempting to escape the pursuit, but to ensure the pike had a full side view of the Deceiver. The fish must have become bored, and swam towards another boat. A Cisco was tossed near the giant fish, and it immediately struck and was landed. I still believe that if I had moved that fly into plain view, that fish would have been mine.

8. Pike have a tendency to clamp their jaws shut when anything is in their mouths. This can make hook removal a real chore unless the fly is exposed on the outer edge of their jaws. A jaw spreader, plus long forceps, is essential. It provides that often important third hand to pry open, and keep open, the formidable jaws of the northern pike. Jaw spreaders, as they come from the store, can be quite harsh on pike. It’s not unusual for the ends of the wire to puncture the top jaw of the fish, so I like to glue plastic beads on the rough wire ends. The spreaders work as well, and less damage is done to the fish. Another tip is to anchor the spreaders to your vest. The jaw strength of a large fish can occasionally pop the spreaders loose, and unless tied to your vest, another set of spreaders can head to the bottom of a lake.

9. Depending on the type of wire leader you use, kinks may appear in the wire after several strikes. Until the kinks appear to have actually weakened the wire, I don’t snip the curled portion of the leader. The twisted wire gives the fly a very erratic action that can’t help but make it look like an unhealthy minnow begging to be eaten.