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Any of you northerners do any pike spearing?

I used to bowfish when I was in high school and JR high but haven't in a long time. I was fishing on Saturday and had a bunch of shy Northerns approach my lure and just sit there stare at it for 3-5 minutes before slowly swimming off. This got me to thinking that it might be fun to shoot some with my recurve. I thought of taking my wife's Kodiak Magnum because it's shorter but I still don't think I could effectively shoot it in my 2 man popup. I've watched some vids on YouTube of guys spearing and it looks like it could be fun.

I'm thinking of building a spear this week and seeing what I can round up to use for a saw. Some of our local sporting goods places have spears and ice saws, but I'm looking at a $200 investment to get started. Since I work in a machine shop I should be able to come up with something digging through the scrap tubs.

Might not ever do it but it just sounded kinda neat.

By saw do you mean a saw for cutting through the ice?

I have not done it, but I think a chain saw, or a cross cut saw will work fine sawing ice.

The old joke on the crosscut saw is the bottom man has the worst job.

Northern Dave has an ice spearing hut & set up !

Posted pictures, reasonably recently, but I can't remember with thread.

Send him a PM, I'm sure he'll point you in the right direction.

I'm going to go to the thrift store after work to look for a crosscut. I had initially thought of just overlapping holes like a chain around the outside using my auger but I think that drilling 4 and connecting them with a saw will be faster. We've got 20" of ice and the temps aren't supposed to get out of the single digits for the foreseeable future so drilling a dozen holes is going to take a while.

Cool,

I see you have been posting in some of the same threads as Dave.

He is an encyclopedia of outdoor knowledge & expertise !

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/9398625/2909

The above link takes you to the page Dave's ice spearing pike adventure begins this year. Net page has the saw he uses & how he does it !

Hope that helps some !

Kid:

A chain saw will work for cutting the ice. . just don't cut all the way through to water until you have cut the entire perimeter of the hole - water slows things down a bit.

If you do make a spear, make it SHARP! with lots of taper on the points. You want to hit them right behind the head; a dull spear will just bounce off. You'll also need a decoy - you can buy big sucker minnows for about $3 each - then you have to protect them from the pike. . You can use artificial decoys, and they work. I just learned a new trick of having a daredevil on a rod (w/o hook) and using it to tease pike into range. And then there is my recently developed method - put a fish camera down. The last two times I have been out I have had 2 pike EAT the camera, and one bump it! And this is a black and white, cubic looking camera, not a fake fish! I pulled one of the pike up about 10 ft before he let go of it. Next time I will turn the camera light on and look at what is in his stomach!

I have seen the ice saws in action, and they work well; I will buy one next year. We have a spear house out on the lake and we use it often enough to keep the ice to 6" or less, so not a big deal with a spud. Also, keep an eye out for a pair of ice tongs. They really help you get the block out of the hole. Now with 20", you will probably want to break it into several pcs, but that beats breaking it into chunks you can get out with an ice scoop. Or pushing the block under the ice. .

get after it - there is just more than a month left to get on the gators!

We can't use any type of live bait or attractor up here, F&G says they don't want them getting loose and taking over. Strangely enough that's how we got pike on this side of the Alaska range.

I don't have a chainsaw or I'd know exactly how I was going to get a spearing hole cut. I wasn't sure if I needed to pull the block out or if I could just push it under. This is looking like a lot of work but I have about 4 months of ice left so it might be fun.

You might check out how ice is cut for ice house storage.
A brother of a friend was cutting for his ice house a short time back.
As I understand it, you want to leave an inch of ice un cut, then pry it up with a bar.
That was using a chain saw.
The old large tongs for gripping the blocks is the way I have heard of.

ND's tools of the trade:

Well things were slow on Saturday around the old salt mine. So I rummaged around and found some scraps and hit the workbench. An hour and a half worth of tinkering around, with a little lathe work, some forging, and a bit of TIG welding and I came up with this.
Sharpened it up with a flat file until it was sticking sharp. Rounded up a couple of buddies and headed to the hard water this morning. Ended up just drilling a cluster of interlocking holes for the trial run and it worked okay, a saw will be nice when I find a good deal on one.

Missed 4 in a row, they were too deep and dodged before the spear could get to them. But on the 5th try I struck pay dirt!

The fish in this lake are small, they've been fished hard and F&G has a kill order out on their heads because they are an invasive species on this side of the Alaska Range. No limit, no season, don't have to do anything with them aside from kill them, in fact I think about the only thing that isn't legal is DuPont spinners and releasing them alive. So nobody that came to the baby pike decoy was given a pass. I got 7 throws, or launches, releases, thrusts or whatever you call trying to spear a pike and I managed to connect with three. Including this world record for best shot, center tine dead center of his bratwurst sized body about 5 feet down.


Had an absolute blast, my two pards are on the hunt for building material for spears of their own. And we are planning a snomachine trip to a lake that has a much larger population of larger pike. Figure we can go stick a bunch to fill the pickling jars and have a good time while we're at it. I'm hooked!

You have to like the shop made gear made from scrap.

Kid:

Well done on the spear - and the fish! As far as what to do with the fish - keep em all! We fillet them regardless of size, brine them, smoke them, and then can them. The canning process makes the fork bones go away, and you are left with wonderful finger food. Just package in small jars so you don't make a pig of yourself! I've done the basic smoked with a bit of olive oil in the canning jars. A friend is testing halepeno's in the jar, and has had encouraging results, but hasn't hit nirvana yet.

Decided to skip the Super Bowl on Sunday and setup the darkhouse instead. Just as I suspected I didn't have much competition, two other guys on the lake.

I still don't have a saw but I sharpened my auger up and had it cutting like a razor. Six 10" interlocked holes make a usable spear hole and take longer to scoop out than to drill.

The oxygen levels must be getting low in the lakes around here as the Northerns seem really sluggish. They aren't aggressive and generally just sneek in to have a look at the decoy before turning and easing back into the weeds. Using a combination of a baby pike decoy and a huge silver and gold spoon I did manage to coax 7 in for a looksee. I threw the spear 3 times and stuck all of them.


Filleted them and the wife has sent them to the pickling jars.


I'm certainly having fun with my new hobby! Hopefully I can get out to some more remote water where they grow a little bigger soon.

Good "catch"! And thanks for sharing the pics

Nice! Ice is getting thick isn't it?

I suppose spearing will end soon, does it close in feb or? I can't remember how it goes.

No closed season for it up here Dave. The department of fish and game just wants pike killed period. We can spear, snag, bowfish, and about anything else short of dynamite year round if we choose. It's sure been a lot of fun so far. I put some bigger barbs on my spear yesterday as I've lost two fish inside the darkhouse that flopped off and back into the hole, if I get the chance to tangle with a big one I don't want the spear pulling out.

Kid:

Just turned a batch of pike into wonderful food! Smoked them, and then put them in jars and canned them. These were the small pike with fork bones. Canning them - 90 min @ 11psi made the fork bones go away. And damm they are good! Put 1 T of water and 1T of olive oil in each jar. My friend puts jalepenos in with them, but they are not for me. ;-)

So keep after them - if fillets get boring here is another option

Thanks Forpest, I don't have a pressure cooker but I've been wanting one for some time. You may have just pushed me over the edge.

We put up 4 pints in pickle brine the other night from the ones I speared last weekend. If everything works out I'm going to get back after them this weekend. I made a big pot of chowder with some Northerns last week and it was stellar, the only thing I don't like about normal chowder is clams so it was perfection to me. I'm sure I'll be fileting fork bones out again soon.

Kid, I'd like to see the recipe for the chowder.
And, you can send me any clams you don't want!

I know this calls for walleye but I don't see why a good boneless northern pike wouldn't work.

Tony Dean's walleye chowder recipe. It is fantastic! I double the recipe and use more bacon then he suggests.

Best Walleye Chowder Ever

Imagine sitting inside an ice fishing shack on a cold winter day, preparing to dig into a big bowl of walleye chowder. And, if you try this version, created by Chef Mark Mancuso of La Minestra Restaurant in Pierre, SD, you’ll agree that it’s superb.

It’s easy to make too, and from start to finish, it should take just 45 minutes, and much of that time is spent relaxing while your Walleye Chowder simmers to a delightful flavor.

INGREDIENTS

3 tbsp butter
3 strips diced bacon
One half cup diced celery
1 large yellow onion
One quarter cup flour
3 cups cold milk
2 cups quartered red potatoes
2 eight-ounce walleye filets
One half cup whipping cream
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

PREPARATION

Put the butter into a large stock pot to melt over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and quickly saute until the bacon begins to crisp.

Add the celery and onions, saute both until onions turn slightly opaque. Then add flour to form a roux. Stir until the roux blends with the butter, forming an almost paste-like consistency. Then add milk. Be sure to use cold milk to prevent lumping. You can adjust the thickness at this point. To thin it, simply add chicken stock, milk or water.

Add the potatoes and chunks of fish and stir gently. Use a whisk and be careful not to break up the delicate pieces of walleye. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Then, add the whipping cream and stir gently, then put in bowls. Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with parsley.

Bon Appetit!