Sea Fishing for Pike in Spring: Fishing Tips from Guide Jani Ollikainen
After a long, dark winter, it's time to venture out onto open water. Straits and larger sea areas freed from ice are the pike fisherman's first encounters with open water. As spring progresses, spawning areas also become ice-free, and it's possible to reach the best fishing spots by boat.
In coastal areas, the prime pike season is like a symphony, reaching its peak during spring in April and May, just before spawning time. This is when the sea offers the best opportunities to catch that dream fish every angler yearns for. Every cast is a promise of a great adventure, and every lure that hits the water's surface is an invitation to the big pike. This is the time when the angler's heart beats with excitement and hope, and every catch feels like a major victory.
At the end of April, we started crafting our own symphony with fishing guide Jani Ollikainen. Our goal was to gather Jani's best tips for spring pike fishing for your assistance and enjoyment.
Our journey was powered by a Buster XXL aluminum boat, made at the Inha factory in Ähtäri, Finland. Buster has been a part of Finnish boat manufacturing history for 45 years, while the Inha factory has been around for almost 200 years. The boat is also equipped with a Humminbird combo unit and a bow-mounted Minn Kota electric motor.
Using Electronics to Find Fishing Spots: Can You Get By Without Live Units?
Live units allow you to not only search for schools of baitfish but also explore bottom formations and vegetation. With these units, you can see not only fish but also rocks, shallows, and various types of structures. Even a small change in the bottom can signal a potential pike spot.
If your boat is not equipped with live units, you can still use a traditional 2D sonar or side-scan sonar to look for potential fishing spots. With a side-scan sonar, you can also search for the pike's prey fish, such as schools of bream.
Finding schools of bream, ide, or other large cyprinid fish is a good tip for those looking for the hunting grounds of big pike. Large schools of cyprinids often reveal themselves through a surprising murkiness in the water. Bream, ide, tench, and other fish species dig into the bottom like treasure hunters, stirring up fine clay and other organic material, known as silt, into the water. This clouds the water, acting as nature's own secret, which reveals the best spots for big pike.
Searching for Pike Spots: Sonar Tips
- Start by scanning the front, middle, and edges of the suspected spawning bay to determine where there is vegetation, rocky bottoms, or other formations that could offer shelter for pike. Use Google Maps satellite images to identify the boundary of the vegetation.
- Next, focus your fishing on these areas. In spring, the periods when fish are active can be short, so it’s better to be in a potential spot during these times.
- In addition to bottom formations and structures, keep an eye on the water temperature, paying special attention to warmer areas.
Choosing Pike Fishing Spots: The Importance of Temperature
Weather and the fish's appetite are the only factors we can't control. While we can decide in which weather to fish, the weather itself is a variable in our equation that can change in an instant. Here, we’ll go through how different weather conditions generally affect the choice of fishing spots.
Pike prepare for spawning, but not as intensely as during the weeks following it. Often, a pre-spawning feeding peak occurs in coastal areas just before the main spawning weeks. As the water temperature rises, the fish gradually move toward shallow waters to spawn. Of course, not all pike rush to the spawning grounds simultaneously; the process can take weeks if conditions change.
Nothing is entirely certain when it comes to the laws of fishing. These tips were shared by Jani Ollikainen in the Archipelago Sea near Naantali, Finland, based on his own experience and studies of content produced by other anglers.
The more I researched online content, the more convinced I became that this topic could fill a book, and even then, someone would have a different opinion.
Water Temperature’s Impact on Pike Locations: Is it true that springtime pike are found where the water is warmer?
"We fish along the edges of reeds, in front of reed areas, and possibly in shallow reed zones. In the centers of bays. Currents along the fronts of reed areas. Perhaps in inner coves, but everything depends heavily on both water and air temperatures. Generally, my safest choice for a fishing spot is where the water is between one and five meters deep," explains Ollikainen.
Let's start by solving the equation with I, which in our equation is water temperature.
Pike spawning begins when the water temperature is just 1–4°C, but when spawning concludes, the temperature has risen to 3–13°C. Spawning takes place in shallow, vegetation-covered areas.
Coves and small bays sheltered from the wind can be a few degrees warmer, and in such places, spawning may have already started while it hasn't begun elsewhere. The warmest water areas are often found on coasts facing south, where the water heats up the most during the day.
Pike are temperature-sensitive fish, and a few degrees difference in water temperature can be crucial for their location. Pike like cover and structure, and during spring when they prepare to spawn, you can search for them using these tips:
- Consider the impact of wind direction on surface water currents and places where warm water can collect, known as heat pockets. These can include points at the entrances to bays, in the innermost parts of bays, or small coves.
- Reefs in bay areas, along the edges of islands
- Deep holes and their edges
- Boundaries of vegetation zones
- Deeper reed edges leading to spawning areas
- Thresholds and underwater bottom changes
Spring Pike Fishing: The Importance of Wind Direction
As previously mentioned, the wind significantly impacts water temperature and, consequently, the choice of fish habitats. When waters have warmed up, the windward shore is a better choice than the calm one. The choppy water surface on the windward side is usually advantageous for pike, but does the same rule apply during spring when the water is cold?
"The wind's impact is an interesting variable because sometimes you find fish on the windward side, sometimes on the leeward side, and surprisingly, sometimes even on the calm side," says Ollikainen.
When the water surface is disturbed, fish are not as shy as in calm weather conditions. Windy weather also stirs up the bottom, bringing food for the pike's prey fish, which they come to feed on. The prey fish then guide the way for the predatory fish.
- ”Under the wind” = the shore to which the wind is blowing / direction where the wind is blowing
- ”Over the wind” = the shore from which the wind is blowing away / direction from which the wind is blowing
In spring, water temperature and its impact from wind direction are more important.
Spring Pike Fishing: Lure Choices for Reedy and Vegetated Areas
Fishing in vegetation and rocky bottoms can sometimes be challenging due to hooks getting snagged on plants or caught on rocks. Such "lost casts" can be minimized by selecting the right baits and hooks. On deeper shores, short reeds can be misleading, and in reality, it can be significantly deeper near the shoreline.
Pike shads with offset hooks glide easily through the vegetation as you reel in, avoiding unnecessary snags. You can also rig pike jigs with a single hook on the back, which requires you to weight the jig on the keel to ensure proper swimming.
"My lure choice is often, perhaps too often, pike rubber lures. Later in the spring, I use spinnerbaits, large spoons, or a pike rubber with a small spoon added. I use an offset hook exceptionally 95–99% of the time when fishing with pike rubbers. The color is most often determined by the water color, as well as the temperature and light conditions," explains Ollikainen.
In addition to shads, other good bait options in vegetation include spinnerbaits and spoons, and one should not forget the legendary pike bait, the Minnow Spoon, or the emerging Norolan pike spoons.
Do not overlook Spintube pike flies; by slowly pulling and dropping them, you can entice even the most finicky pikes. Even jerkbaits, slowly reeled in, are highly effective for the somewhat sluggish spring pike.
When casting spinnerbaits, remember to start reeling in immediately as the bait hits the water to avoid tangling. It's also important to maintain a steady speed as you reel in; this also helps to navigate the bait through the vegetation.
Bait rally gets the variable F.
Before spawning, the waters are still well below 10°C, and as the spring days warm up, the baits must be able to be reeled in slowly. Warm waters get the sluggish pike activated and striking at faster-retrieved baits.
During cold and cool water times, pikes are stiff and do not actively chase prey but wait for a tasty morsel to swim by for an easy catch. The baits should therefore swim slowly, and sometimes even a pause with a slowly sinking or hovering suspending bait can be the magic tool to awaken the pike's appetite.
You may need to cast several times almost in the same spot before a nearby pike is activated.
It's worth fishing meticulously and slowly, and don't forget a longer pause at the boat's side!
Choosing Pike Fishing Spots: The Importance of Water Depth
"Of course, when you're on the water, especially in my home waters, rising or sinking water in certain places is very important in choosing the color of the bait. In muddy, murky water, the bait color should be as dark as possible," explains Ollikainen.
Pike Locations in April-May: Tips
We are headed to our first fishing spot. The weather is spring-like, and it feels like rain is on the way. The air temperature is below 5°C, and the water temperature is showing below 3°C on the sonar.
Spawning areas are easy to find with the help of map markings. Bays where ditches or streams flow, shallow lush coves, flats, or reedy straits. From the transport routes or fronts of these areas, you can find your record specimen. Sometimes, the spawning site can be a small beach strip where the water rises in the spring. Such places can only be found by searching. At the end of the article, more is discussed about the condition of the pike strain, here is a quote from the end.
"Therefore, sufficient production of pike fry in certain archipelago areas often depends on one or two spawning sites that produce a lot of fry," says Janne Antila, leader of Finland's recreational fishermen's (Suomen Vapaa-ajankalastajat) Pike Factory (Haukitehdas) project.
In spring, pikes move to shallow cove waters to spawn. Good fishing spots are then in front of and in the middle of sheltered coves before spawning. During spawning, you find the fish in the middle of shallow water among short reeds and vegetation, focused on the essential, namely reproducing, and they are not particularly interested in baits.
Fishing begins by carefully searching along the entrances to the coves and looking for individuals preparing for spawning or who have already spawned. "Scouting" means using the wind or an electric outboard to move around the fishing spot, for example, along the edge of the reeds.
"The biggest key to success is knowing your own pike waters. From places where you've caught a big pike once, you usually catch another, and when you accumulate these places through experience and focus your fishing there, the chances of catching a big pike always improve.
When you study satellite images at home with that in mind, you can find big new pike spots on the map. There are no secret big pike spots or private spots, they already exist on the map and in the satellite images," says Ollikainen.
Pike Fishing During Spawning Season: What to Consider?
During the spawning season, pikes are particularly sensitive, therefore fishing should be avoided in the actual spawning areas! Spawning areas are often shallow, vegetation-covered coves where the backs of pikes can be seen among short reeds or vegetation.
If fishing does occur in spawning areas, it is important to handle the fish gently and quickly release the large, roe-heavy females back into the water.
A responsible angler's duty is to keep the spawning and hooked mother fish alive as the heirs to the species. The fish taken for consumption should be in the weight class of 1–3 kg.
It is wise to check local fishing regulations before fishing begins. Movement restrictions and other possible restrictions in the area should also be adhered to!
Potential fishing spots determine the letter L in our equation.
Improving Pike Populations in the Archipelago Sea
We humans should take a look in the mirror when discussing the state of pike populations. Deepening of shores, draining of wetlands, trap fishing, and netting of spawning fish before and after spawning. Fortunately, we can support the recovery of pike populations by doing our part.
"Pike face the challenge of being a local fish with quite demanding reproduction conditions. Therefore, sufficient production of pike fry in certain archipelago areas is often dependent on one or two spawning sites that produce a lot of young," says Janne Antila, leader of Finland's recreational fishermen's Haukitehdas project.
"The pike populations could be in better condition in my fishing area than they are right now, and surely over-fertilization, shoreline construction, and dredging affect a lot," reflects Ollikainen.
"Pike populations can thus locally deteriorate quickly if something is wrong with individual spawning areas. For the mobile pike fisherman, this can often manifest as a top spot declining over a few years, even though pike can still be caught as usual 10 km away," continues Antila.
The silver lining is that spawning areas can be improved, often with quite small efforts, if one knows what they are doing. A single location can be a real goldmine – a true pike factory. The motivation is certainly also helped by the fact that the biggest benefits of the work done remain local, where the efforts are made," summarizes Antila.
The equation for spring pike fishing is now in the form I * L * F, which means I Love Fishing. So go out and fish and learn more about our beloved hobby. There are several variables we can influence, but the weather and the fishes' willingness to bite are variables we cannot determine in advance.
Buster has returned to home port, and it's time to thank the conductor and draw two vertical lines at the end of the notes. Our symphony is written and the equation calculated.
"Tight lines to all Happy Angler customers and fishermen around the Nordics and beyond, hoping this tip brings joy just for you on your spring pike trips," greets Jani Ollikainen.
Text: Juha Salonen, Finland’s worst pike fisherman
Photos: Juha Salonen & Jani Ollikainen
