[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f your goal is to catch a trophy northern pike, the best time to do it is coming soon.
Pike are powerful and oft overlooked as fly fishing quarry.
The big, old females, those 20-pound-plus leviathans, move into shallow bays to spawn even before the ice goes out. By the time the ice leaves the bays, the spawn is usually over, but those hogs stay around, basking in the warmer water those bright, sunny spring days often bring.
And the good news is, they can be caught.
Much of what these big females are foraging on is winter-killed fish that are lying on the bottom. If your lake has shad, the bottom might be littered with dead fish. And big catfish will join northerns in this feeding frenzy. If there are no shad, rest assured there will be other fish offering meals to the cruising northerns.
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