Seeking phantom pike
When northerns in your favourite lake go missing in action, here's where to find them during summer's sizzle and fall's drizzle.

Location, location, location. A cliche, for sure, but one that sums up a simple fact. Whether you're shopping for a home or trying to find fish, location is the most important element of the equation. This is especially true when you're looking for a large predator like pike.

In spring and late fall, big pike are easier for most anglers to find and catch in the shallows, due to relatively cool water temperatures. Big pike simply don't like warm water and will vacate areas starting to push into the mid-60F range. As soon as a summer haymaker pushes them out of shoreline areas, catching large pike becomes a different ball game.

They still feed heavily all summer, but only where they can find adequate food(big, filling forage), cover(although they will suspend and feed on pelagic baitfish), and comfortable water temperatures. Here are four key spots to seek summer pike.

Main-lake points
While perhaps the simplest structures to eyeball on a lake, just finding a point doesn't guarantee success. Only certain points consistently hold big pike, and the more complex the structure, the better. The ultimate point will be adjacent to deep water, preferably to depths of 30 feet or more. Not all pike lakes have 30 feet of water, but the deeper the summer sanctuary, the better. The perfect point will have an underwater shelf sticking well out into the basin. It doesn't have to be huge, but must be large enough to attract pike prey like bass, walleye, suckers, perch, cisco, smelt, and minnows.

If there's a weedbed associated with it, so much the better. Again, it doesn't have to be big, but if you see deep cabbage or other types of large-leafed aquatic vegetation, it should be productive. Throw in a few stumps or flooded timber, and you have the recipe for a summer hot spot.

One of my favourite pike points has all of these features, but still doesn't always hold fish that will bite. On calm days, I've seen large pike holding in the weeds off this point, but have been unable to get them to hit. Follow a bait? Yes. The key to activate pike on this point seems to be waves caused by a strong prevailing wind. A south or southwest wind stirs up the lake and triggers the fish. If the wind is steady and the weather has been stable for a few days, I'm confident that a big pike will hit. Mixing in an approaching thunderstorm is nearly a guarantee of a trophy northern. I've hooked pike in the 44- to 46-inch range on this point under prime conditions and lost several monsters.

Most classic pike techniques are good on a point, but the nod goes to traditional 4- to 5-inch spoons. Active pike tune into their throb and flash.

Other good choices are minnowbaits such as the Rapala Husky Jerk. Fished with a sharp downward snap of the rod tip, a jerkbait really does a job on pike.

If the fish are off the bite, throw a 4-inch white shad or grub on a 12-ounce jig head. Let the lure free-fall, then slowly swim it back to the boat. Strikes on soft-plastic lures can be remarkably light, so set the hook whenever you feel something odd. 

Saddles
I'm not much of a cowboy, but I've seen my share of "horses" over saddles. A couple of those pike were probably big enough to ride.

A saddle is anything that connects two pieces of structure underwater. Examples of good pike saddles include a chunk of submerged land between two islands, a rocky finger between a point, and a reef or a sandbar between two giant boulders. Pike love saddles, and if the right elements are in place, they will spend a good deal of the open-water season hanging around them.

Last summer, while fishing for smallmouth bass on Rainy Lake in northwestern Ontario, I stumbled upon a saddle connecting a large rocky island with a rocky, reed-covered reef. The reef had caught my eye, but it was the saddle that held the fish. It was about five feet below the surface and dropped off into deep water on either side. The wind was blowing strongly over the saddle and bass were going nuts on it.

Two fat bass had already cracked my slashbait and were landed before a bigger fish stopped it. This was no bass, as it stayed deep and dogged. Since the water was into the high 70s F, I kind of ruled out a pike and thought it might be a giant walleye. Yet, when the big fish finally appeared, it was a pike that topped 40 inches. Since the surface water was like soup, I cranked the fish in as hard as possible with the light gear and grabbed hold of it. Warm water stresses big pike, and this one looked like it had eaten a 4-pound bass. I twisted the lure's treble free and released the lunker back to the depths.

After collecting my thoughts and wiping off slime, I considered the pike potential of the spot. The water on either side of the saddle was pushing 30 feet deep and the main basin of the lake was not far away. The cold water that big pike needed was not far from this structure. My guess was that the pike would swim out of its comfort zone in prime conditions, pick off a bass or a walleye, then dash back into the cool zone. Trolling with deep-diving crankbaits in the general area of the saddle would likely have paid off with more pike.

Keep one thing in mind about saddles, especially as the water cools again in fall. There will be one or two key "spots on the spot" where big pike live. A couple of boulders or a patch of cabbage might hold most of the fish.

Sometimes, a little current break seems to attract them. On Lake Nipigon, I've caught monster pike while fishing for brook trout over current-swept rock saddles. The pike sit on top of a saddle and wait for trout, suckers, or whitefish to be carried by the slight current. A prevailing wind on any large lake will set up these current breaks.

When fishing a saddle, I rely mostly on in-line bucktail spinners. They also are among the best lures for hooking and holding big pike. Use a 1- to 112-ounce spinner. There's no need to use giant muskie baits for pike. In most cases, you're better off downsizing.

Match the spinner blade and dressing colours with the forage. In warmer dark-water lakes where perch, rock bass, and sunfish are the predominant forage, a firetiger blade and yellow or orange dressing is tough to beat. If cisco, whitefish, and suckers are the main pike food, a silver blade and black dressing are magic.  

Narrows
A narrows is a natural fish funnel. Good narrows are often found between islands, but they can also be the narrowing of a lake or the beginning of an inlet or outflow. Good narrows are more difficult to pinpoint than other pike structures. A decent amount of deep water helps hold fish, as do weeds, flooded timber, large boulders, or other breaks in the narrows. Even docks or boathouses can hold big pike in narrows.

Last summer, I spent several days in mid-July fishing for pike in a huge Canadian Shield lake. The key structure for pike was a large narrows leading to the outflow of a river. The huge lake system narrowed down and the current picked up. Walleye were stacked on small humps as much as 20 feet down, and this is where the pike hung out, too. We caught most of them by trolling crankbaits, but we had several visit us while we were walleye fishing. One of the better fish of the trip grabbed a light walleye jig and proceeded to keep me busy for about 10 minutes. The sheer amount of walleye in this narrows pretty much guaranteed the presence of big pike.

Since narrows are so often associated with current, they're a magnet for whitefish and cisco in fall. When these soft-rayed fish spawn, usually during the full moon of October in my northern area, I'd rate just about any narrows that holds them as a top choice for a monster northern. No serious pike angler should miss this bite.

Trolling narrows with deep-diving plugs is the most consistent way to get pike there. Use large long-bodied baits, like the Jake, that will grind bottom and flash a lot of shiny flank. If there are pockets of weeds in a narrows, throw a 6-inch jerkbait, such as the Suick or Reef Hawg, to check them. Make a lot of commotion with the lure. Pike in narrows are usually on the hunt and looking for big mouthfuls. In fall, trolling a 5-inch silver spoon, like the Toronto Wobbler or Williams Whitefish, is also a great way to catch pike keyed in on silver-sided baitfish.

Deep weedbeds
The most consistent producer of summer pike might be deep weedbeds not always visible to the naked eye. At times, you will pick out the very tops of deep weeds sticking out of the water well offshore, and sometimes you will bump into them while trolling. However, the best way to find deep weeds is with your fish finder, and this takes a little patience and know-how.

The most important thing when looking for deep weeds with an LCR unit is to turn off the fish ID. Then, you will start to see long filaments coming off the bottom on the screen. The images may look broken up or like a semi-solid wall. If you're having trouble marking weeds, slightly increase the gain on your machine. Experiment in known weedbeds so you learn to recognize them on your screen. Once you've got this trick down, you can go searching for pike beds.

Deep weeds are often associated with beaches and often there will be weeds in the deep water off the main drop-off at the mouth of a sandy bay. Deep weedbeds are also common off rivermouths. Look for the first deep water and keep your eyes peeled.

Once you've found a weedbed, drive around to get a feel for its outline. If you have a GPS, mark the edges or use floating buoys as visual clues.

Pike are rarely found uniformly across a weedbed. They will tuck into a sharp corner or hang on the deepest edge. The type of weed is not super important, but if you see large-leafed cabbage on your lure, you're in a productive pike area. As a general rule, the larger the leaf, the better its pike potential.

Weedbeds can be tricky, but casting an in-line or safety-pin spinner along the edges and over the top of them is a good start. If you can't raise a fish by casting, troll diving crankbaits along the weed edge. If this fails, lob a weedless spoon into the weeds and let it slither out.

Consistently catching big pike in summer is among the most challenging tasks facing Ontario anglers. Yet, with a little hard work and ingenuity, it can be done. These tips will help you find big northerns during the upcoming dog days of summer and again as the water cools in fall.