Pike Chew Toy
I guess I’m going to have to consider an epoxy coat or a kevlar vest for my top water foam frog patterns. This one lasted about 20 minutes last night, which equated to 3 landed fish and a half dozen attacks. Yes, the top water bite was on. Flipping hysterical fishing.
These guys play rough
As soon as the sun goes down it’s lights out top water action for an hour or so. Dragging foam frogs patterns or just about anything that floats and makes some noise over weed beds or off the lily pads will attract these guys in a hurry. It’s like going through a haunted house on Halloween, you never know which closet the monster is going to pop out of. The speed and ferociousness of the attacks are just amazing. Truly some of the best predatory attacks in the freshwater world.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I have found that by cutting a head from a flip flop shoe & shaping it like a bullet {cut bottom flat}to use on a Dalberg Diver makes a longer lasting Pike fly.I cut a slit in the bottom of the foam & glue it on the hook.You can use hackle feathers & rubber hackle for a tail or a bunny strip.If white foam is used it accepts coloring from a marking pen well.I like to tie flies but want more than a few fish on them.
Good idea! I think I just saw something similar in a tutorial (can’t remember if it was print or digital) with a similar idea. The author was using some kind of punch and a hammer to knock out plugs from the flip flops. That should slow down the pike erosion factor substantially.
I should have known better! I’m fresh of a trip to Lake Wabaskang in Ontario. We were discouraged to use our top water flies for northern at night. Basically, I was told I would be a fool to waste my time with my flies or my fly rod, as better fly fisherman than me have walked away with zero pike. Now, reading this, I know I should have went with my gut. Every evening, right at sunset we saw those northerns coming to the top and making a lot of ruckus. I need to learn, sometimes you don’t trust the old angler…you go your own way.
Well, now you know better. When you go back you can show those old angler’s how to really have some fun with pike as they are obviously clueless. One of the great things about top water pike is that you really don’t have to be one of the “better flyfisherman” you just have to have something on top of the water that gets a pikes attention. That can be a foam frog, a bass popper, floating minnow etc. My experience has been that if it pops or gurgles, displaces some water on the surface, has a silhouette of something it eats (which is everything) and has something wiggling it will catch a pike- anywhere.
Hopefully you’ve got a pike hole near home that you can still get some top water fishing on before the seasons over. It’s hopelessly addicting.