Shop around and try to find a Shimano Calcutta. For pike I think the little 200/250 Calcutta would be about perfect. I don't think they make it anymore however. eBay maybe. You'll get many many years of use out of it. I keep one on a MH Muskie rod for small bucktails, topwaters and twitch baits.
In the price range you mentioned; I'd probably just look at one of the ABU Garcia reels. A C3 would probably handle about all you need a bait caster to do for a northern.
I prefer round reels over Low Profiles.
