Kolt Ringer has a bunch of tricks up his sleeve to catch more northern pike. Photo by Tim Lesmeister

When Kolt Ringer flips the lid open on his huge tackle box, you see the normal mix of northern pike lures.

There is a corner where the big bucktailed spinnerbaits are hanging, surrounded by a mix of both deep-diving and shallow-diving crankbaits in all the popular color patterns. There are a few spoons mingling with the big wooden and plastic minnow imitators, but one-fourth of the box is laden with big jigs next to packages of big plastic bodies. There are even a number of pre-tied wire leaders sitting on top some 3/4- and 1-ounce egg sinkers. The leaders are sporting 2/0 hooks secured directly to the stranded wire, with a ball-bearing swivel secured to the other end.

"Sometimes you need to think outside of the box when you're chasing pike," said Ringer.

Ringer is an avid pike angler who chases northerns wherever the bite is hot. One day you may find him on a river's backwaters, and the next day he'll have the boat packed up and headed to a large manmade lake. Two days later, the pike will be snapping up his offerings on a small natural lake where he got word the fish were biting. He is a master of the standard techniques that trigger northerns to commit to a lure, but he won't rule out a technique that a pike angler may find unusual.

"I guide all summer long," said Ringer, "and you fish for whatever the client wants to fish for. That might be bass, walleyes or pike. It's not uncommon to be using plastic worms on a weedline for bass, and catching nothing but pike. That tells you something."

What it tells Ringer is maybe northern pike are suckers for a plastic worm, and this is a good option when fishing other lakes, rivers or reservoirs where pike can be found. "Some of my buddies like chasing big bass using the 10-inch plastic worms," Ringer said. "I decided to try them on pike, and they work well."

Ringer rigs the long thick-bodied worms on both the heavier jigheads he carries and also on those pre-rigged leaders. "Pike see spoons and spinnerbaits all day long and they get conditioned to these lures," Ringer said. "They never seem to get conditioned to those plastic worms."

It's a simple presentation, according to Ringer. Just cast out the jig and slowly retrieve it. "There's not much to it," he explained. "Pike will poke their noses out the edge of a weedline, and when they see that worm swim by, they grab it."