TYING:
If this one doesn't ring the dinner bell for hungry pike, then nothing will bring them around. Northern Pike are opportunists who feed on literally anything that is smaller than themselves and have been documented as eating fish that were 40% of their body weight. So field mice, voles, shrews, lemmings, and even baby muskrats and beavers have been fair game for northerns when they end up swimming within striking range. Using highly developed lateral line "sensors" to pick up vibrations in the water, anything that moves is fair game.
This pattern is easy to tie and the use of spun deer or elk hair will add some buoyancy to the pattern to offset the hook and wire leader weight. Eyes could be added if desired, but at the high velocity that pike hit a morsel like this, it probably won't care whether this meal could see or not. :-)
Keep your hooks sharp, use at least 6 inches of wire leader, and bring plenty of flies. The razor-sharp teeth in a pike's mouth can shred a pattern in just a few fights.
Pattern by Brad Hanson
Photo by B. Hanson ©2002
