LITTLE BOY LAKE
Cass County
The great cabbage beds in Little Boy not only hold big muskies but huge pike as well. This is a situation where special regulations weren’t enacted to produce bigger pike but to protect those already there.

“Wherever you have a popular muskie lake with a decent population of northern pike, those pike are going to get big,” Johnson said. “Not only do they become conditioned by muskie anglers who catch and release them, but the smaller pike are gobbled up by the bigger fish, so there are fewer small fish.”

The pike in Little Boy have seen every bait and lure there is, so Johnson said you have to think outside the box.

“Use some stuff they haven’t seen before,” he said. “Long plastic worms on a heavy jighead, big spoons or red-tailed chubs instead of sucker minnows. Show them something different and you’ll get these conditioned fish to bite.”

UPPER RED LAKE
Beltrami County
Upper Red Lake has gone through an interesting evolutionary process in the past 15 or so years. Before the big-crappie discovery, the lake received little pressure from anglers who knew the walleye fishery had been beaten down by commercial fishing by the Red Lake tribe.

Then the crappies were discovered and the lake was packed all winter with ice-anglers filling their buckets with these huge panfish.

Thanks to heavy stocking by the Department of Natural Resources in conjunction with the Red Lake tribe, the walleye population made a rapid rebound and is open again for fishing.

Now that anglers are returning in heavy numbers to take advantage of the quality walleye fishing, they’re discovering some huge pike in Red as well.

The upper part of the lake where non-tribal anglers may fish is a big sand bowl with little structure or vegetation. So, how do you find the pike? Troll big crankbaits and use sonar to search for schools of walleyes and perch. Pike prefer to stay close to their food and where there are perch and small walleyes, there are big pike. In this case, huge pike.

PRAIRIE LAKE
St. Louis County
Adam Johnson earned a degree in aquatic biology from Bemidji State University, an area he said is a bastion of big-pike lakes. He attributes the growth of big pike to the high quality of the forage base.

“Tullibees,” Johnson said, “are a forage that results in faster growth rates and fatter fish.

“Tullibees, not being close to any major metropolitan areas add to the ability of some lakes to produce bigger pike.”

He pointed out Prairie Lake as one of those lakes where you have the right conditions for big pike, including special regulations. “Prairie Lake is kind of out in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “Here’s a lake with a big tullibee population -- the perfect big-pike forage base -- and good areas for spawning plus special regulations requiring anglers to release all pike over 30 inches and have only one pike in possession. That is how you get back to having big pike again. Set up restrictions like you have on Prairie Lake and soon there will be some huge fish swimming there.”