Though it can be a more challenging form of ice fishing, Tom Gruenwald has fun enticing suspended pike.

It’s not that ice fishing doesn’t already present enough challenges. Biting cold makes even ordinary tasks infinitely more difficult. But, some of these challenges also present select opportunities.

Such can be the case when it comes to a winter favorite—pike. As during open water, consistent winter patterns usually revolve around shallow to mid-depth vegetated flats and deep weed lines surrounding main-lake bars, humps and points, simply because these areas provide desirable cover and nearly always draw ample and diverse varieties of forage.

Yet unlike summer, winter water temperatures are cold and relatively uniform. Assuming oxygen content is suitable and sufficient forage is available, hungry pike may feel comfortable holding virtually anywhere in many systems.

Where?

Suspended! Not necessarily over deep, open water basins either, but often just outside deep weed lines where pike will position, ready to ambush baitfish wandering beyond that line of protective cover.

Explore the middle of a deep basin searching for suspended pike, and you might be successful—but you may also spend hours looking, only to locate a single fish, then find it inactive. The reason is because that fish is probably not there to feed; rather, this deep, open area likely offers agreeable oxygen concentrations, pH or other parameters attractive to that lonely, lethargic pike.

The vast majority of actively feeding winter pike relate to classic vegetated flats, bays, points and bars, with the best chances for big fish typically found along the deepest edges of cuts, pockets and turns lining these breaks. Accordingly, the greatest opportunity for finding and catching suspended pike is within open water regions immediately adjoining such features.

Another opportunity for catching suspended winter pike presents itself in situations where there has been a die-off of shad or other baitfish. In such instances, dying or dead minnows may float upward and collect beneath the ice pack, creating easy pickings for hungry, scavenging pike.

Suspended pike can also be found in systems where high-protein, soft-finned forage like smelt, ciscoes or whitefish are present. Here, pike may simply hang near schools of suspended forage, where they periodically prey on injured, vulnerable or wandering individuals as opportunities avail.

However, this is not necessarily a common phenomenon. Pike in these situations are usually scattered and feed only sporadically, so this typically does not constitute a consistently viable pattern.

Making it work

Suspended pike are easiest to locate when targeting smaller bodies of water. Simply setting a tip-up or two over deep basins and suspending presentations high will allow any hovering or cruising pike to discover the easy prey.

Mid-sized lakes are not much different; the most common behavioral difference I have noted is when suspended pike are present, they will often hold just a few feet above bottom. This pattern appears most notably on spring-fed lakes featuring large numbers of stunted panfish, where portions of those populations migrate into deeper water.

Pike may simply relate to these comfortable deeper zones and help themselves to the accompanying buffet, expending minimal energy while capitalizing on a readily available and easily attainable food sources, with minimal competition. Just keep in mind these fish may also be scattered and feed only sporadically.

With this suspended pike phenomenon being a bit of a hit-and-miss effort, one way to efficiently tap such patterns is to simply set some tip-ups along classic deep weed lines, then, while waiting for a flag, taking time to explore adjoining deeper basins with an underwater camera or live scanning sonar. If the pike are there, you will know soon enough—and you may be pleasantly surprised by the size of the fish you mark! Just note their position and re-set a few lines accordingly to see if they will respond.

While fishing for other species, monitor your underwater camera or live scanning sonar for large, high marks that might represent suspended pike. You won’t always find them, but by being aware—along with having a tip-up or two rigged and ready to present a dead or cut bait—can get results. Perhaps keep a jigging combo fitted with a large tube, swimbait or heavy-bodied rattle spoon handy and prepped; whenever you happen across a hefty, suspended target likely to be a pike, you’ll be prepared to respond quickly and capitalize on the situation. It’s a strategy that can pay off with some very memorable bonus catches.

Tip-up rigging and presentations

When rigging tip-ups, start with 40- or 50-pound braided Dacron for backing, then, using a ball bearing barrel swivel as a connection, add a thin wire—or, in exceptionally clear water, heavy fluorocarbon—leader, culminating with a premium, chemically sharpened size 2 through 1/0 treble or circle hook slipped through the dorsal of a the largest, liveliest golden shiner or sucker you can find.

Better yet, try one of my favorite sets: Large, oily dead baits such as a smelt or mackerel presented on a light-wire quick-strike rig. When targeting trophy pike using such tactics, I also follow the bigger is better philosophy: A 10- to 12-inch or even larger bait may be difficult to present properly beneath a standard tip-up. But by using premium models such as a Polar or Polar Pop-Up Magnetic and properly utilizing the versatility of the heavy trip setting options and adjustments, you’ll find even the largest, monstrous sized baits can be effectively presented.

Jigging

While dead baits hung beneath a high-quality tip-up are often the most effective way to ice suspended pike, jigging offers a fun alternative.

Longer, 36- to 54-inch moderate-action, medium-heavy fiberglass rods featuring oversized guides to minimize freeze-up, comfortable handles with fixed reel seats securing a nicely balanced spinning or baitcast reel are ideal for jigging presentations. Spool them with 12- to 20-pound braided and a light-wire or heavy fluorocarbon leader extending to an oversized tube, swimbait, spoon, jigging minnow, rattle bait or vertical wobbler.

As when fishing tip-ups—depending on the conditions and your situation—adding a strip of cut bait to your presentation may also prove helpful; secondarily, it allows the opportunity to set up yet another highly productive means of catching suspended pike: Dead sticking.

Want to try a different kind of fishing this year? You’ll find ideas in every issue of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.