Pike on the Fly | Topwater to Deep Water
with: skjern_river_guiding
We caught up with Marc to talk about one of the most underrated fly rod targets—pike. From his first toothy encounter to dialing in the right flies, retrieves, and setups, Marc shares what he’s learned over the years. If you’re looking to chase big fish with big flies, you won’t want to miss this one
Marc, what drew you into fly fishing for pike initially, and how did you develop your expertise on these toothy critters?
I’v always been crazy about chasing new species on the fly… I grew up fly fishing for searun browns and grayling, so when pike became an option I ofcourse had to catch one! I imediatly fel in love with the game of casting big flies for big fish… One of the coolest things about pike is that they can be found I so many diffrent habitats, from river, swampy ponds, big lakes and even in the brakish sea! they can caught on topwater flies between lillypads as well as on sinking lines in freezing water… Due to the variety of habitat and situations pike can be caught at, one have to be curius and ready to explore and eksperiment to be succesfull in most of the habitats and by trying to acheive that over the years have really contributed a lot to my toolbox of flyfishing knowledge in general…
Could you share your top five tips for anglers looking to target pike on the fly,?
1 presentation, pike are ambush predators keep that in mind and take advantage of it… Think before you cast and read the water… fishing close to weed or structure is just like picking pockets on a trout river, present you fly in the most likely spots where a pike could be lurking…
2 Get a bellyboat! These small vessels are easy to carry on you back to remote waters and gives you the opotunity to fish the spots on the water that you really wanna fish and not just the ones you can fish when fishing from the bank…
3 Get a line designed to carry a big fly and tie a leader wich can do the same… and dont forget the bite tippet!
4 Think about the retrieve! lot of anglers assumes that pike would eat just anything as long as its big and flashy and most often just retrieve the fly in the same monotone phase… pike an be as picky as any other fish so think about you retrieve pattern and speed… if one thing dosnt work, then throw in a few pauses or some agressive strips… mix it up! pike often love a retrieve with a lot of variation…
5 follow the bait… get into the cycle of the fish the pike feed on in your waters… when and where do they spawn, what do they do during the cold of the winter etc. if one have an ideer of the baitfish behavior and habitat its easier to find them, and often the pike wont be far away…
Your Instagram shows some impressive pike . What's the most memorable pike encounter you've had, and what made it special?
I must be my first really big pike… My dad and I had for years spend atleast one week a year on the south coast of sweden chasing pike in the brakish coastal waters… We loved it and had over the years caught a lot and some really nice ones… The trip was on my dads 50th birthday and the evening before we had talked about how to raise the odds for getting those really big ones…
the day after we went to one of our favorit reef… the reef it self was full of big stones narrow and shallow, not much more than one deep and with deeper water on the western side… we always had some nice fish there but mainly on the deep edge… my dad went out to fish the usual edge but with the water leven being a bit higher than norbalbI desided to give the reef a few cast… on the middle of the reef and just 5-6m behind my dads back my line got tight in a big splash on the surface! my 8’ 6wt bended into a horisontal line and this massiv pike imediately showed in the surface! a pretty epic fight on the light rod really made it a team effort to land the fish inbetween all those big rocks on the reef!
but after a while my dad could finally grab this 114cm beautiful coastal pike…
Amazing experience to share with my dad!
"When it comes to pike flies, we see a lot of variety in your posts. What are your thoughts on fly size selection throughout the different seasons?"
When it comes to fly size I’v been experimenting with everything from 6cm to 30cm and have had succes with basicly all sizes but for the smaller and bigger ones mainly in specifik situations…
Over the years I have slowly and unintentional ended up tying 95% of my flies in sizes from 13cm to 20cm wich are the size range I catch nearly all my pike on now and only at rare occasions fish flies bigger or smaller…Wich size to use when most often depends on the day or the water one fish and again drops back on knowing a bit about the foodsource for the pike on the particular water… “Matching the hatch” is often a great way to start…
"Marc, having guided countless anglers for pike, what's the most common mistake you see newcomers make when targeting these predators?"
pike got a reputation for eating just anything wich often results in that people dont put that much thought and effort into it…
I see a lot of new pike anglers just fishing the same desity line(often a floater) and same flies in any water during any conditions… and shure, at some point one will get fish one it and even perhaps also regulary, but thinking about the depth of presentation, the flies apperance and the retrieve will often the make the diffence in wherever one get 1-3 pike once in a while or if one gets 5-30 pike each time…
"Looking beyond your home waters, what's one pike fishing destination you dream of exploring, and why?"
Far up north into the swedish mountains searching undiscovered river pike would be epic! River pike are among my favorit fish to target and to combine that with adventures feeling of looking for them in untouched waters would be amazing…
