This big northern fell to a soft plastic lure. Photo by Mitch Kezar/Windigo Images.

It doesn't matter where you live in the Midwest, there's a lake close by where you can catch northern pike. Slimy, toothy and voracious, pike are often found crashing an angler's party. Someone will be floating a bobber with a small minnow on it for crappies when a pike comes along and grabs the bait. The ensuing battle sends all the crappies fleeing and creates some excitement for the panfish angler.

Picture the walleye angler vertically jigging a dropoff when the hook is set and the resulting snag begins to shake its head and run. With 6-pound-test line and a lightweight rod and reel, it's going to be awhile before that fish gets landed, if it ever does. A bigger net would have come in handy. Picture the look on that walleye angler's face when he thinks he is fighting the world-record walleye and a huge pike surfaces.

Bass anglers are always crying the blues about lost crankbaits and twisted spinnerbaits because pike and bass both tend to favor weedy cover, and pike will hit many of the baits used by bass anglers. You'll never convince bass anglers to use a wire leader because they believe the leader adversely affects the action of the lure. It sure drives a bass angler crazy when a big pike runs off with a $15 crankbait. You can hear the screams from one end of the bay to the other. (Continued)

Now, some of us like to target pike. From the time the ice melts until the lakes freeze over again, we're out on the water slinging heavy metal on big-diameter rods fishing all day for just a couple of bites. We might also be pushing that bow-mount electric motor to the edge of its specifications in vegetation so thick on the surface it's hard to believe there are loads of pike hiding around the sparse stalks just a few feet down.

On any given day, you might see the contrast in pike-angling technique. You'll spot the boat anchored up next to a huge weedy flat with two grizzled veterans dangling sucker minnows under baseball-sized bobbers waiting for a big pike to inhale the bait and run.

Just 100 yards down the weedline is an angler on the front of the boat, foot on the control for the electric motor, casting a 1/2-ounce jighead tipped with a scented plastic body. His goal is to find the aggressive fish by staying on the move and using an artificial lure to cover ground. Both strategies are likely to be successful, a testament to the pike's willingness to be anywhere and bite on anything that moves.

Pike ambush their prey, which means cover, in the form of vegetation, is a good place to find them. Wherever there is a big weedy flat, there will be pike.

During the early season, you cannot beat a spinnerbait for pike. When the fish are aggressive, you can use up to a 1-ounce lure with a big willow-leaf or Indiana-style blade. When the pike bite requires some finesse, a 1/2-ounce lure with a Colorado-style blade is the best option.

With a willow-leaf or Indiana blade, you must maintain speed for the lure to produce enough flash to attract pike. The Colorado blade is the slow, precise option. When you quit reeling and drop the tip on a Colorado-bladed spinnerbait, the lure flutters down, creating a helicopter effect and floating the skirted leadhead right into a pocket or along the edge of a weedline.

I've gotten to the point where I always tip the spinnerbait with a scented plastic trailer. This not only gives the lure more length and bulk, you get the benefit of additional attraction in the form of the scent. I've fished side by side with anglers who were not tipping their spinnerbaits and outfished them exponentially. When we switched rods, and they began using the tipped spinnerbait, they outfished me by the same margins.

Crankbaits are deadly for pike, but when combined with a heavy wire leader with big snaps, there is a definite impediment to the lure's action. There is a remedy for this situation. It's called Tyger Leader. Tyger Leader (www.tygerleader.com) is a stainless steel knottable leader that you can tie directly to the lure. A 5-, 10-, even a 15-pound-test is a small enough diameter to allow the crankbait to run true to form.