Pike on the Fly

If you’ve never targeted pike on the fly, you’re missing out on one of the great sport fish we have in the northern latitudes!! The rivers and lakes of western Montana are inundated with northern pike. Illegally introduced decades ago, pike are a voracious predator that will eat almost anything, attain ripe old ages, and grow to arm’s length. Pike are one of those species seemingly designed for the fly rod. These ambush predators generally prefer a slow-moving presentation with plenty of movement. We incorporate these qualities into the flies that we tie for pike. They often follow the fly before committing and need to be teased, the old cat toy trick! It’s a very visual game, akin to saltwater fly fishing. The eat is savage and addicting! However, pike fishing isn’t necessarily easy, and will test your casting abilities and resolve. Depending on the time of year and conditions, we sight fish for pike in the backwaters of our mainstream rivers and among the weedbeds on area lakes. Pike fishing picks up in April and continues to improve as water temperatures warm into the heat of the summer. We conduct pike trips via drift boat or custom-built Jon boats built specifically for the purpose. An 8 or 9 weight rod loaded with floating line and a spare spool/reel with an intermediate sinking line is preferred for casting the large (not heavy) flies and putting the wood to these toothy critters. At times, we employ specialized two-handed rods to make overhead casting the large flies easier. We welcome anglers to keep their catch (we do not offer cleaning/packaging services) as pike are delicious and the population needs to be kept in check. However, we return the largest females as studies have shown that these fish actually feed on smaller pike and are less of threat to the native trout populations.