My brother Mike calls it “the angle of the dangle”, which can make all the difference especially right now if you’re chasing early spring northern pike. I’m going to cover some important things to consider when targeting these toothy predators.

In the last post I covered where to find the target species, so now let’s cover some of the retrieves that can get you bit. 

First off, you should obviously stack the odds in your favor by targeting both the best water temperatures and the high percentage time periods of the day. Look for water temperature in the 38-40º F range. Pike will gravitate to the warmest locations available to them this time of year. Keep in mind though, that they won’t be all the way into their spawning locations. High percentage time windows are usually not early morning this time of year, but instead from around 3pm to just before dark.

Speed is everything right now. The colder the water temperature, the slower your retrieve should be. Here are a few of my personal choices for this time of year. 

The Steady Retrieve

While this seems a little misleading, the steady retrieve does work this time of year. Long slow steady timed strips that keep your fly just off the bottom give a neutral pike lots of time to acquire the fly and get into position to strike. Using lighter fly patterns that have more hang time and push more water teamed with slow sinking line can be super effective. I use Side Glides a lot for this. 

Another variation is to employ a floating line and match your leader length to the depth of water where you are fishing. The floating line acts like a bobber by both holding the fly just above the bottom and giving you a strike indication when it gets eaten. The Original Epoxy is the go to fly for this.

The Knuckle Dragger Retrieve

As the name implies, you strip just fast enough to slowly drag your fly along the bottom. You can vary the length of the strip and pause time to mimic a dying fish that is exhausted but still gives a bursts of energy trying to right itself. By somewhat aggressively hitting the bottom, you are introducing lots of sound and vibrations to get the pike’s attention. Long pauses give the fish plenty of time to stalk in, line up, and suck in the fly. Now, when I say long pauses, it could be from two seconds to as long as several minutes if the water temperature is in the lower range. It is especially nerve wracking when you see a big pike stalking your fly and slowly positioning itself to strike! Make sure to wait until you feel the weight of the fish before you set! I bet I’ve missed more pike by setting the instant I see them open their mouth and pulled the fly away before they closed down on it. Monster Cones and Side Glides get the nod here.

The Erratic Retrieve

This characterized with fairly aggressive sudden changes in speed, direction, and pauses in the retrieve. If you get lucky and can get out after several warm sunny days in a row, this is deadly. You can vary the number of strips from 1 to 3 and the length of them from 6 inches to 24 inches. Point your rod right at the fly and keep your rod tip just above the water surface. A good cadence is 6 inch strip, 6 inch strip, 2 second pause, then 6 inch strip with another 2 second pause, then 12 inch strip, 6 inch strip and a 4-6 second pause. It’s rinse and repeat after that, until your fly gets within a rod length of line away, at which point use your rod to radically change the direction of the fly either left or right roughly 90 degrees. That sudden direction change should trigger a strike from a slightly negative to neutral follower. Think of it as pitching a nice slow baseball dead center over the plate so the batter can knock it out of the park. This works with pretty much any of the fly patterns just make sure to keep changing colors to narrow down what they are preferring that day.

The Roly Poly Retrieve

This one is specifically designed for flies with twister tails. Make a long cast, count down the fly, then tuck the rod handle in your armpit. Again, keep your rod pointed at the fly. Use a hand over hand motion to slowly retrieve your line at a constant speed just fast enough to maintain your selected depth and get that tail slowly waving. Obviously this retrieve is specifically suited to the Reaper patterns. Hook sets are a little awkward, but once you feel a take, strip hard on the line before transitioning to lifting the rod up to get tight and finish setting the hook.

Experimentation and Adaptation

• Remember to experiment with all these different retrieval techniques and adapt to changing conditions on the water you are fishing.
• Don’t overlook the importance of observing fish behavior and adjusting the retrieve according to how the fish are reacting to maximize your success.
• Be ready for the sudden surprise of a big pike coming out of nowhere to smash your fly on every cast. It usually happens right when you least expect it!

Hopefully some of this sinks in, and as you hone in your bag of retrieves, you can start triggering and catching some big pike. As always, make sure to take care and release the giants so you can catch them again and keep those big girls in the systems allowing them to keep eating smaller pike. Conservation of big pike is the key to keeping overall pike numbers down and protecting the diverse fisheries health.

If you have questions about any of these techniques or about fly selection, please feel free to email me or fill out the form on the contact page. Also for any other topics! I might not always know, but I can definitely find out and add them to the blog list. As always, good luck out there!!!

Keep Up With Us

Subscribe to be the first to know about any deals, new products, fishing reports and new additions to the blog!