BEMIDJI, Minn. – Every fall, about the time most outdoors enthusiasts across the Northland put away their rods and reels and set their sights on hunting, Steve Young gets serious about fly fishing.
His quarry: Big northern pike – and the occasional bonus muskie.
“I don’t deer hunt, so one of my favorite times to pike fish is deer season,” said Young, who lives on a small lake north of Bemidji. “There’s hardly anybody on the lake during deer season. And if I have a nice day on the (deer) opener, I’ll be the only person out there.”
A retired Bemidji attorney, Young says he got started fly fishing as a kid growing up in Montana. The family moved to the Twin Cities area when he was 11, and he didn’t get back into serious fly fishing until about 30 years ago.
“Fall fishing is a great time to catch bigger pike,” Young said. “(They’re) shallower, and they need to be kind of shallow to get them on a fly. … And the big pike and the muskies do come shallow in the fall.”
Young credits Vince Cafaro, a Becida, Minn., fly fishing enthusiast who died in 2017, with getting him hooked on targeting pike and muskies with a fly rod. Cafaro was fly fishing for pike and muskies “back in the ’70s,” Young says, long before anyone else in the Bemidji area was targeting the toothy predators with fly fishing gear.
“Vince was an excellent fisherman, and he was way ahead of the curve,” Young said.
Jeff Korbel, an avid fly fisherman who also makes and sells fly rods and hand-tied flies, got other Bemidji-area anglers hooked on fly fishing for big pike, Young says.
Fly fishing enthusiast Jeff Korbel, who also makes and sells fly rods and hand-tied flies, is among the anglers who helped spur interest in fall fly fishing for northern pike in the Bemidji area. (Steve Young via Forum News Service)
“(Korbel) is an excellent fly tier and rod builder, and he used to teach community ed classes, and I think that’s what got some of the other guys going on it,” Young said. “There’s a hardcore group of about half a dozen of us that hit the pike fly fishing pretty hard in the fall. And there’s another half a dozen or more people that actually have jobs and families, so they can’t get out as often.
“So, there’s probably a dozen or so people over here that fly fish for pike.”
By coincidence, most of them met through the Headwaters Chapter 642 of Minnesota Trout Unlimited, which is ironic, perhaps, considering pike are voracious predators of trout, Young says.
“The chapter occasionally puts on a ‘pike hunt,’ where people who want to try their hand at fly fishing for pike are teamed with an experienced angler,” he said.
Cooling water
Fall fly fishing for pike begins to heat up when the water temperature dips into the low 50s and mid-40 degree range, Young says. Perch and ciscoes – also known as tullibees – move into shallower water, drawing big, toothy predators in close pursuit.
“That provides, really, the first good opportunity for bigger fish,” Young said. “And then around the low 40s is when the ciscoes spawn. And if you can stand to be out there, you can target areas where the ciscoes might be staging to spawn.”
Ciscoes generally favor shallow, sandy areas, he says, while perch move into areas with bulrushes and cabbage weeds.
“For the most part, we’re fishing for pike, and so we’re doing bulrush beds and cabbage and that sort of thing,” Young said. “If I really want to target a muskie, what I’ll do is target places here where ciscoes might spawn later in the fall.
“If you see a muskie or if you happen to hook a muskie, that’s a bonus.”
Young has landed pike up to 38 inches on fly fishing gear, releasing all of the fish he catches.
“There’s plenty of lakes around (Bemidji) that have bigger pike,” he said. “What you’re looking for is lakes with a good forage base, and generally, bigger lakes tend to give you a better shot at bigger fish.
“It starts getting good in mid-October and then it is off-and-on good until you can’t stand to be out there anymore.”
Weather the wild card
As with any kind of fall fishing, weather – and especially wind – is the wild card when it comes to targeting big, toothy fish on a fly.
“For us fly guys, wind is a big deal,” Young said. “It’s just so much harder to cast if you have to fight the wind. Trying to push a big, heavy, wind-resistant fly into the wind is not easy, and it’s tiring, and it’s not that much fun.”
Most of the fly fishermen who target pike in the fall cast flies that are 6 to 12 inches long, although some throw flies even bigger than 12 inches, Young says. To cast his flies, Young generally uses a 10-foot, 10-weight fly rod, special pike/muskie 10-weight fly line and a 12-inch tippet made from nylon-coated stainless steel leader material.
Because he’s casting such large flies, Young says he rarely catches “hammer-handle” pike.
“What’s really interesting is I’ve had guys in my boat who are fishing conventional tackle – spoons, jerkbaits or something – and I’ve been fly fishing and outfished them in the fall,” Young said. “And I think the reason for that is the movement of the fly is slower than conventional tackle, and in colder water like that, it gives the pike an easier target to hit than something that’s moving faster.”
Different hook-set
When targeting pike, Young also uses a different hook-setting technique than he’d use for trout, bass or panfish. Instead of lifting the rod tip to set the hook, he uses a “strip set” technique, keeping the rod tip low to the water and straight at the fly, and jerking back with his free hand when a fish strikes.
Bemidji-area fly fishing enthusiast Steve Young tied this “Half Chicken Dinner,” a large fly that is part of his fall pike fishing arsenal. (Steve Young via Forum News Service)
“You’re holding the rod with your one hand, and you’re stripping the line with your free hand,” Young said. “And when they hit, there’s a direct connection between your hand and the fly. Pike tend to hit really hard, and so it’s very exciting when that happens.”
The technique, he says, ups the odds of hooking pike that just “t-bone” the fly, which often happens.
“The hook isn’t in them, and they’re just hanging on to your fly, so you have to set the hook hard enough to move the hook point inside their mouth and get it into their jaw,” Young said. “Otherwise, they’ll swim around with it for a while, and then they’ll just spit it out.”
That can be easier said than done on brisk fall days, he says.
“It gets harder to do a good strip set because the line slips through your fingers,” Young said. “Your hands are cold, and you’re not grabbing (the line) tight. So, even though you can get really big fish when the water temperatures are down there near 40, your hands are wet from stripping the line in, and they get cold and then it gets harder to actually get a good hookset.”
There have been days, Young says, when two people fly fishing will put 35 to 40 pike in the boat during an afternoon, which also tends to be the best time of day for targeting fall pike.
“There’s the occasional time when you get blanked, but boy, it doesn’t happen very often,” Young said.
For anyone looking to target fall pike with a fly, Young says he recommends finding someone who already has the expertise.
That can “cut the learning curve significantly,” he says.
“There are little nuances that make a big difference, starting with the rod and the line that you use,” Young said. “Getting the right line to match your rod is really important, and trying to do that on your own would be really difficult.”
Targeting fall pike with fly fishing gear definitely falls into the category of “unusual outdoor niche activity,” Young says.
“It’s a lot of fun – and it is a great opportunity to catch a big pike,” he said.
Related Articles
St. Paul Ice Fishing & Winter Sports Show returns to RiverCentre from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8
After Trump’s win, mining near BWCA back in play
New onX Fish Minnesota app offers anglers a comprehensive digital toolkit for lakes statewide
Colder water brings increased danger for boaters, paddlers as winter approaches
Smallmouth bass excursion on Lake of the Woods’ south shore offers action that’s hard to comprehend
Leave a Reply