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Covering Water for Northern Pike
1K views
Mar 26, 2025
On this Fish’n Canada episode, Pete Bowman is on a tiny area of a rather large lake and tries to pinpoint of a group of Northern Pike that have taken over a small territory of the lake. He starts out by casting but eventually succumbs to what might be the absolute best way of fishing new water… and that’s trolling. ► Subscribe http://bit.ly/youtube-fishncanada Don't forget to leave a COMMENT and give us a LIKE if you enjoyed what you saw. SUBSCRIBE for new videos and episodes released weekly! CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- ► WEBSITE http://fishncanada.com ► FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/ ► INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/fishncanada... ► TWITTER https://twitter.com/angeloviolafnc/ One of Canada's longest-running fishing shows, Fish'n Canada travels from coast to coast in search of trophy fishing opportunities. First started by brothers Angelo and Reno Viola in 1986, The Fish’n Canada Show has been on the air for over 30 years. Today, Angelo is joined by lifelong fishing buddy, Peter Bowman, and the pair continue to travel across Canada educating anglers using the experience they’ve gained over the years
View Video Transcript
0:02
this is walleye time
0:04
they're a blast
0:07
they're fishing
0:09
we've been pounding somebody walleye on
0:10
big pike
0:15
[Music]
0:19
we're lucky on that yeah oh that is
0:21
gorgeous that's so cool
0:25
nice
0:26
first pass
0:28
butt the fish in canada show brought to
0:32
you in part by
0:33
ram trucks built to serve
0:38
princecraft votes dominate the waters
0:42
garmin plot your paradise reel them in
0:45
and ontario canada in partnership with
0:48
destination ontario
0:52
[Applause]
0:53
[Music]
0:56
hey everybody today's fishing canada
0:58
show has me sitting in a small aluminum
1:00
boat scouring a cold canadian lake for a
1:02
species of fish that some love and some
1:05
hate
1:07
i'm in search of northern pike i know
1:09
i'll catch some little ones but as
1:10
you'll see persistence does pay off
1:14
look at that
1:16
now the reason i say some love pike is
1:17
that first they are one of the ultimate
1:19
predators in fresh water second they
1:22
always seem ready willing and able to
1:24
bite and third they taste great for
1:26
those who like white flaky meat on their
1:28
fish
1:29
[Music]
1:31
the reason they hated this and trust me
1:33
some people hate them is first their
1:35
teeth are razor sharp so if anglers are
1:37
targeting other species they could be in
1:39
for an expensive day of lost lures
1:43
the second reason for pike haters is the
1:46
same as i said in the love fest they're
1:47
always ready to pounce on lures
1:50
from ultra light and all the way up
1:52
their aggressiveness often makes them a
1:54
nuisance
1:56
i'm starting out today in my usual pike
1:58
fishing mode casting a variety of moving
2:00
baits lures like glide baits crankbaits
2:03
swim baits spinners and spoons are a
2:05
great starting point to see if the fish
2:07
are active if they are i'll stick with
2:09
the program
2:10
if not then my normal backup is to cover
2:13
a lot more water by trolling
2:16
[Music]
2:20
you're fishing
2:22
right off the bat
2:24
i have no idea fishing up the back side
2:26
of the boat
2:28
he's not pulling but i'll tell you why
2:29
he's probably not pulling because the
2:30
water just turned 58 degrees so
2:33
that's good looking it feels half heavy
2:39
doesn't even feel like a fish but that's
2:41
okay
2:42
a little weak bike tiny little wee pike
2:44
okay
2:46
probably gonna have to weed through some
2:47
of these small guys even with that giant
2:48
bait giant leader and a big glide bait
2:51
probably gonna have to weed through
2:52
these guys just to
2:55
get to some bigger fish
2:57
but that's okay you start the day with
2:58
that
3:00
wow he wasn't even hooked in the mouth
3:02
that fish slashed at that bait being a
3:04
glide bait he had one under here and one
3:06
in the fin
3:07
little guy little
3:09
okay now we know they're here
3:12
one of the great aspects of modern day
3:14
angling is the equipment available to us
3:17
on this particular day since the lake is
3:18
not a drive to i was limited to a small
3:21
boat and motor
3:23
i have no problem with that and in fact
3:25
i love hitting northern lakes in such
3:27
rigs
3:28
my luxury for the day is having our
3:30
portable fish finder including live
3:32
scope forward viewing technology even if
3:34
the fish stays small all day i don't
3:36
really care because i can at least be
3:38
entertained by fiddling around with this
3:39
great kite
3:51
not the same size the other one
3:53
same size the other one
3:56
okay we're getting there we've got to
3:58
build up build up size i believe i saw
4:01
that fish on the live scope stuck right
4:03
to the bottom it's a big blob it's a
4:04
really flat bottom here
4:06
and i just thought i'm gonna scope
4:07
around
4:08
our portable livescope unit and uh
4:11
let's see
4:12
i could probably handle you on this guy
4:14
too again
4:15
now i'll net him
4:16
just to be safe
4:18
single oh i don't have to perfect
4:21
he's a little bigger than the other one
4:22
so i saw a fish sitting what looked like
4:24
a fish you can't hunt always tell a
4:26
hundred percent um
4:28
on the bottom
4:30
with the live scope and i thought you
4:32
know i was throwing a crankbait right
4:33
off the bat the jerkbait right off the
4:34
bat and i thought well you know what
4:35
i'll throw this big swimbait
4:37
the beauty of a swimbait is that you can
4:39
cast and reel it you can work it just
4:41
like a casting bait or
4:43
you can jig it all i did was i thought i
4:45
saw that fishing drill in the bottom
4:46
it's left dropped left and you gotta
4:48
remember that big tail is just flopping
4:50
ever so slowly down there and just he
4:52
just ate it right on the bottom so
4:55
i could have a fun day going on here you
4:56
never know
4:58
we're gonna work with a few different
5:00
baits
5:01
crank bait
5:02
glide bait and swim bait will be a good
5:04
start i think and they're all big i'm
5:06
gonna use big baits in here i'm not
5:08
gonna play around for smaller fish as
5:09
you can see smaller fish eat big baits
5:11
so that happens a lot
5:14
and just keep scoping
5:17
that was fun actually i like that
5:20
i'm sure i'm going to get fish trolling
5:22
today here
5:26
teeth marks all through this thing
5:28
already
5:32
it became pretty obvious that on this
5:33
day if there were any big fish in this
5:35
first area they weren't hitting my
5:37
casting presentations
5:39
[Music]
5:43
so as i said earlier on
5:45
i need to cover more water more
5:46
efficiently
5:48
and that means trolling the trolling
5:50
thing might be the deal it certainly
5:52
doesn't guarantee any bigger fish trust
5:54
me small pike will hit pretty much
5:56
anything that moves
5:58
but
5:59
it puts the odds in my favor that i may
6:01
pull my bait in front of a lunker
6:04
he's twisting he's coming in twisty
6:06
which is typical of trolling and they
6:08
get tired out already
6:10
but we'll see
6:13
what do we got no another little guy i
6:14
think
6:15
oh yeah really small this one
6:18
you can see i'm using a big chunk of
6:20
crankbait here whoa
6:23
and even the small ones are hitting i've
6:25
opt-sized my crank
6:26
trying to avoid small fish now that's
6:28
not a big crank by any means um for a 40
6:31
or 45 inch fish but
6:33
you'll see the small guys they
6:34
they just beat them up too there's teeth
6:36
marks all through this thing already
6:39
little teeth marks on it
6:41
from this little pike you know what if i
6:43
weed through these small guys enough
6:44
keep trolling around i'm gonna try
6:45
different depths i'm gonna try about the
6:46
eight foot that was in 15 foot i might
6:48
do some rips right across the middle of
6:50
this bay i think it's 25 feet ish and
6:54
by the way you can kind of eliminate
6:55
water you can run your gps and your fish
6:57
finder and if you see something you pop
6:59
a waypoint in you can go back and cast
7:00
it so that's what i'll just keep doing
7:02
until you get a big one
7:06
up on a flat here
7:09
just gonna troll some a brake line
7:12
get to this calmer water again
7:16
there's one right there
7:19
on a turn
7:21
always on the turn
7:24
here he comes up to the surface
7:27
i don't know how big he is
7:31
we'll soon see
7:37
i don't think he's big he's not pulling
7:38
very hard
7:41
oh he's spinning in
7:43
look at this guy
7:44
come on give us some effort
7:47
hey small anyways another small fish
7:50
i know that's bigger than that because
7:51
i've seen him already today so
7:54
hopefully i can just pop him
7:56
right off yeah
8:01
they're dangerous when you're landing
8:02
pike you want to be very careful
8:04
especially if you're running treble
8:05
hooks like this
8:08
double trebles
8:14
like that
8:16
okay your little guys can stop biting
8:18
and your bigger
8:19
siblings can start
8:21
start please
8:23
what i'm doing since i got just a small
8:25
boat here
8:26
you know a small area of a lake
8:28
i'm just going to troll around too i'm
8:30
going to definitely cast i cast that
8:32
shoreline already coming up there i
8:33
thought instead of driving
8:35
up without i'm wasting time i'll just
8:37
troll up and find the brake lane that
8:38
way i can actually quick draw on the
8:40
garment and and
8:42
see if anything bites on a troll too
8:43
because i'm sure i'm going to get fish
8:45
trolling today so
8:46
i'll use this little bay
8:48
it's kind of like my lake that's it i
8:50
want to get i'm not even going to leave
8:51
this area today it's going to work at
8:52
all and find out as much as i can so
8:55
i might as well troll her back in to get
8:57
i want to get into there anyways and
8:58
that shallow stuff now the fun begins
9:00
whoa that's a nice big fish he popped me
9:02
and swam with it oh yes that's a lot of
9:05
water moving buddy
9:11
if i had to pick one consistent pattern
9:13
for catching big fish in northern
9:15
ontario it would be trolling from
9:17
walleye to lake trout to northern pike
9:19
there is no better way to dissect the
9:21
lake or river than by running trolling
9:23
passes to cover a vast amount of water
9:26
if you're planning on taking a pike
9:28
fishing trip to the north country never
9:30
neglect to bring along a trolling rod
9:31
and reel
9:33
ants and i prefer bait casting equipment
9:35
with around a seven foot long medium
9:37
heavy rod a medium to high capacity
9:40
baitcast reel spooled with a minimum of
9:42
30 pound test braid or 17 to 20 pound
9:45
fluorocarbon or monofilament line
9:47
add a strong leader and you're in
9:49
business
9:50
another thing edge and i have banked on
9:52
whenever and wherever we fish big
9:53
northern pike in canada is when we're
9:55
faced with trolling at least one of us
9:58
will be pulling either a big crank bait
9:59
or a big minnow bait
10:01
day in and day out these two baits are
10:04
money when trolling for big northerners
10:06
[Music]
10:08
whoa it's a nice big fish that's a
10:11
quality pike there he is right there i
10:13
can see him
10:14
he's on the top like a long he's coming
10:16
up like a log
10:18
wow
10:19
that is weird
10:21
okay now the fun begins you're gonna
10:24
bring that guy into me head first
10:28
he swallowed the bait
10:30
don't turd there you go no he's not in
10:32
yet there he is
10:36
oh look at the bait popped out
10:38
99 here hang on to that bar right there
10:41
yeah he's not that big of fish but he's
10:43
got a big guy
10:45
he's going huge belly
10:46
that's so cool
10:49
all right let's get it right back
10:52
[Music]
10:53
good one don't know yet but
10:55
he popped me and swam with it
10:58
oh he feels okay now oh a lot oh yes
11:01
that's a lot of water moving buddy there
11:02
he is right there
11:05
nice fish that's a beauty that's a
11:07
quality fish look at this thing he's got
11:10
the bait completely completely now this
11:11
is a single hook so we're lucky on that
11:13
yeah oh that is gorgeous here he goes
11:21
how cool is that
11:24
we got him trained pretty good around
11:25
here at brace lake folks that is a big
11:28
fish that's a nice pike man he's got one
11:31
big hook in him yeah it's not gonna be
11:32
bad
11:33
if he if he's cooperative
11:36
he's a big fella trying to get a hold of
11:37
his gill plate is what he's doing
11:39
without uh getting his hands on the
11:41
gills yeah exactly you know sometimes
11:44
big fish like this
11:45
whoa
11:47
he's having fun with me he's having fun
11:49
with you for sure are you actually yeah
11:51
give me the ride
11:52
yeah
11:53
he's just feeling underneath for the
11:55
gill plate
11:56
and trying to get a finger
11:58
there you don't touch the gills there
12:00
you go and then you put your hand under
12:02
their belly perfect so you support their
12:04
belly look at this
12:07
and he's fat yeah he's gorgeous
12:10
so
12:11
i'm gonna put him back real quick yeah
12:14
look at that for a bracelet beauty folks
12:16
wow look at the sun is down
12:18
big this is walleye time i love that
12:21
broadhead okay big fella there we go
12:27
he's going to take off no problem this
12:29
fish i'll go over here
12:30
he is still as good as gold
12:38
[Music]
12:40
another great perk that ans and i get
12:41
while out in the field is stumbling
12:43
under all kinds of situations that we
12:45
would never find at a regular 9-5 job
12:48
encountering wildlife is one of those
12:49
things
12:51
on this trip during one of my trolling
12:52
passes out of the corner of my eye i saw
12:54
a gorgeous bald eagle it was high atop
12:57
the tallest tree in the shore within
12:59
seconds it was down on the shoreline
13:00
eating what i presumed was a fish
13:03
then a second bald eagle popped into the
13:04
sea they literally came from nowhere
13:07
just up here
13:08
now as big a bird as a mature bald eagle
13:11
is these two paled in comparison to the
13:13
next guest at the shoreline i believe it
13:16
was a golden eagle please correct me if
13:17
i'm wrong which swooped in without
13:20
hesitation i might add and literally
13:22
scared the two big balls into the
13:24
surrounding trees with the run on the
13:25
bald eagle
13:27
it's freaking crazy
13:30
[Music]
13:37
this episode's hot spot is a small area
13:40
on cabin akagami lake the waypoint on
13:42
your screen will get you right there
13:45
although this great body of water is
13:46
known for its amazing walleye fishing
13:48
the pike fishing here is outstanding as
13:50
well
13:51
pete started out here in typical pike
13:53
fishing fashion catching lots of smaller
13:55
aggressive fish however as luck would
13:58
have it things got much better and he
14:00
scored in a big way
14:02
we pretty much use the cast first and
14:04
troll later as our standard pike fishing
14:06
procedure
14:07
both techniques cover lots of water but
14:10
in very different ways for more hot
14:12
spots like this one check out
14:13
fishingcanada.com
14:18
[Music]
14:22
on the turn
14:24
oh oh my god this is a big bike
14:26
[Music]
14:28
got here
14:31
[Music]
14:36
look at that right there oh my
14:39
on the turn
14:41
on a turn
14:43
okay this
14:45
this spot the bottom of this area i
14:47
marked bait here earlier there's the
14:48
bait right now
14:50
i'm trolling over it
14:52
let's see this hole
14:55
it's so long it's like a basin it's all
14:56
flat it's all really flat and then we
14:59
just started hitting all these ups and
15:01
downs and bumps and grinds and
15:03
and uh and that's two fish in a row
15:06
doing that oh i like that
15:09
okay
15:10
there he is oh oh
15:12
my god this is a big bike this is a
15:14
really big pike
15:16
oh man what am i going to do here
15:19
i'm just going to let them go because of
15:21
this light line this is a big fish this
15:22
is like a really big fish
15:24
surprisingly big fish
15:28
i'm gonna i'm gonna scoop him if i can
15:31
like he hasn't even really made any big
15:32
runs there he goes again
15:39
that is so cool seeing a different
15:41
bottom on your depth finder the first
15:43
pass i saw a bunch of bait on with that
15:45
fighter and then all of a sudden you
15:46
hook up with a fish it makes total sense
15:47
and there it is right there get a look
15:49
at it at least before i
15:51
oh my god
15:55
that's a big girl right there
15:59
trolling i mean
16:01
covering a lot of water
16:03
mapping out the areas so pretty good
16:06
i think
16:07
i hope
16:08
but to get her in the net is gonna be
16:09
another story
16:11
this fish is really thick
16:13
really beefy
16:16
so let me attempt to get that fish in
16:18
this net i don't even know if it'll fit
16:20
in here to be honest with you here she's
16:22
going to go right now look at her
16:24
this is going to be i got my live scope
16:26
transducer right there
16:28
can you swim into my head
16:30
for me
16:31
it's barely hooked now i see that she's
16:33
barely hooked
16:37
come on
16:38
oh no she just swam away from me
16:41
come on
16:43
i'm probably better off hand landing
16:44
this fish
16:50
okay come on
16:52
come on turn around now
16:54
turn around here we're gonna take a
16:56
swipe batter
16:57
if she turns for me
17:02
wow
17:04
not cooperating very well
17:10
got her
17:11
oh my god
17:13
holy crap
17:15
that's just a giant fish
17:17
this is totally
17:18
not what i was expecting
17:20
i mean the lodge told us and told me
17:22
that there were some good ones in here
17:23
but i
17:25
holy man
17:27
what an awesome fish
17:30
on the big perch crank bait
17:32
like i was saying earlier you get some
17:34
small ones on it but you got a good
17:35
chance of getting
17:36
a good one on it
17:39
there you go folks
17:41
how was that for a northern ontario
17:42
fight
17:44
trolling a crankbait
17:46
baby
17:48
you got a big fish on like this and they
17:49
they pretty much they rule you you know
17:51
what i mean so i you just saw what i did
17:53
there i waited it out waited it out
17:56
and uh that's a great fish look at that
17:58
look at that head look at that mouth
18:00
that's an eating machine right there
18:02
folks in this little bay of this lake
18:05
i can feel her wanting to kind of
18:08
move around so i'm going to put her back
18:13
i'm hoping she'll go real quick
18:16
that's a great fish wow what a great
18:19
pike
18:20
what a fantastic fish
18:24
ah and that trolling you know what your
18:27
troll
18:29
look at that
18:30
look at that
18:36
covering lots of water you know what
18:37
that that is
18:39
a good pike in any
18:42
northern ontario lake i mean there's
18:44
bigger than that for sure but you can
18:45
get you know one or two of those in a
18:47
trip you know if you do a walleye trip
18:49
or any others almost whatever you're
18:51
doing
18:52
aside from pike what a bonus fish that
18:54
would be and then you can come to these
18:56
lodges and fish for fish like that and
18:58
it's just a it's an experience of a
18:59
lifetime that's a fish of a lifetime for
19:01
a lot of people including myself i
19:02
haven't got one of those in years so
19:04
it's just uh it's made my day made my
19:06
year right there
19:08
but i'm not done yet
19:12
get this guy out
19:13
get back at her
19:19
to get to today's fantastic fishing
19:21
location pete first drove north on
19:23
highway 400 to highway 69 he then turned
19:26
northwest on highway 17 to the town of
19:29
white river turned right on 631 and then
19:32
left on tuckeney road which took him to
19:34
white river air base from there it's a
19:36
short flight to agatch's cavey cavins on
19:39
cabin academy lake
19:43
the fish in canada show brought to you
19:45
in part by
19:47
yozuri fishing lures fish the best
19:51
mercury outboards go boldly
19:54
and outdoor canada canada's only
19:57
national fishing and hunting magazine
20:01
closed captioning for this episode is
20:02
brought to you by fishingcanada.com
20:05
the gateway to your next fishing
20:06
adventure
20:11
[Music]
20:18
[Music]
20:26
in canada
20:27
[Applause]
20:27
[Music]
20:39
you
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