A northern pike will bite straight through the line a bass box is built around. Seven picks that fix that, starting with a wire leader and ending with a hook remover long enough to keep your fingers out of the way.
A pike will eat a spinnerbait meant for bass, pull harder than the bass would, and then part your line on the first headshake. That is not bad luck and it is not a knot problem. A northern pike has rows of backward slanting teeth set in a long bony jaw, and both monofilament and fluorocarbon give up against them. The fix costs about as much as a sandwich. It is a short piece of wire between your line and the lure, and it is the one thing a bass tackle box does not already contain.
Pike are also closer to home than a lot of people assume. New Jersey Fish and Wildlife runs a northern pike program out of its Hackettstown hatchery and lists established fisheries in Budd Lake, Farrington Lake, Pompton Lake, the Pompton River, Spruce Run Reservoir and the Passaic River. Spruce Run covers 1,290 acres, and the agency reports that pike in the lower teens are common there with fish above fifteen pounds not unusual. The state allows two pike a day at a minimum of twenty four inches. Those numbers tell you what you are rigging for better than any lure box does.
So the seven picks below cover the pike specific half of a kit. Two leaders, because that is the part you cannot improvise. Four baits in the size range pike actually hunt. One long hook remover, because a treble buried behind those teeth is not a finger job. No rod, reel or line is ranked, since a pike outfit is an ordinary seven foot medium heavy spinning setup that another guide here already compares. Tom has not fished these products. The picks come from the published guidance cited on this page and from each listing's own specs, and every star rating and review count printed beside a product was read off its Amazon listing on 2026-08-22.
Most of a pike kit is gear you already own. These are the pieces that are genuinely different, marked by whether you can leave them at home.
The one item with no substitute. Bass Pro's pike guide calls for twelve to eighteen inches of wire, or eighty pound plus fluorocarbon. Buy more than one, because a leader that has been chewed, kinked or straightened by a fish is finished and should be cut off rather than fished again.
Distance between your hand and the teeth. A pike often takes a bait well back, and a treble sitting behind that jaw cannot be reached safely with the four inch pliers in a bass bag. Length is the whole feature here.
The oldest pike lure there is and still one of the best. It casts a long way, flutters on the drop, and covers water at any speed you like. One flashy finish and one red and white is a complete starter selection.
A spoon with a wire weed guard is what lets you fish the pads and cabbage where pike actually sit. Without one you are limited to open water, which on a lot of pike lakes is the least productive part of the map.
The searching tool. Heavy thump, long casts, steady retrieve, and it lets you cover a weed flat far faster than a slow bait does. New Jersey Fish and Wildlife lists casting large spinners among the popular methods on its pike waters.
Skippable on your first trip and worth having by the third. A six to eight inch swimbait fished slowly gets fewer bites and bigger ones. It is the bait for water you already know holds a good fish.
Field & Stream recommends netting larger pike rather than hand landing them. A long fish in a small net is a mess of trebles, mesh and teeth, so size the net to the fish rather than to the tackle bag.
Pike carry a minimum length in most states. New Jersey sets it at twenty four inches with a two fish daily limit, and guessing at that from memory on a wet bank is how people end up in the wrong.
Four retrieves cover almost everything a pike angler runs into. The first two do most of the work and the other two solve problems the first two cannot.
Cast it out, let it sink a few seconds, then reel steadily with the occasional pause to let it flash and fall. Bass Pro's guide describes a slow lazy retrieve for pike spoons and puts working sizes at four to five inches. Most takes come either on the drop or the moment the spoon starts moving again after a pause.
Start reeling the instant it lands so it rides high and skims the vegetation. The wire guard keeps the single hook from fouling. Strikes look like the weed opening up. Wait for weight before setting the hook, because setting on the sight of the boil usually pulls the spoon clear of a fish that has not closed yet.
Straight, steady and reasonably quick, with the blade thumping the whole way. This is a locating tool rather than a finishing one. If fish follow to your feet without eating, speed the retrieve up rather than slowing it down, and sweep the rod in a wide arc at the end of the cast.
Cast, count it down to the depth you want, and swim it back slowly and evenly without added action. The size does the selecting for you. Expect long gaps between bites and a much better average fish when one comes, which makes it the right choice when you already know the water holds something big.
Short on time? Start with these top-rated pike fishing gear picks.
Scotank Stainless Steel Wire Leader Kit (60-Piece, 7 to 12 Inch) ranks in the top 1 by combining 4.5-star Amazon buyer ratings (4,272 ratings) with a clear practical role: every pike cast.
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Booms Fishing R1 Stainless Steel Hook Remover (11-1/2 Inch) ranks in the top 2 by combining 4.5-star Amazon buyer ratings (2,200 ratings) with a clear practical role: unhooking safely.
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Mepps Musky Killer Bucktail Spinner (3/4 oz, Hot Orange) ranks in the top 3 by combining 4.6-star Amazon buyer ratings (557 ratings) with a clear practical role: searching new water.
Check PriceDetailed picks with verdicts, strengths, tradeoffs, and the situations where each one makes the most sense.
Quick verdict: Scotank Stainless Steel Wire Leader Kit (60-Piece, 7 to 12 Inch) ranks in the top 1 by combining 4.5-star Amazon buyer ratings (4,272 ratings) with a clear practical role: every pike cast.
Quick verdict: Booms Fishing R1 Stainless Steel Hook Remover (11-1/2 Inch) ranks in the top 2 by combining 4.5-star Amazon buyer ratings (2,200 ratings) with a clear practical role: unhooking safely.
Quick verdict: Mepps Musky Killer Bucktail Spinner (3/4 oz, Hot Orange) ranks in the top 3 by combining 4.6-star Amazon buyer ratings (557 ratings) with a clear practical role: searching new water.
Quick verdict: Johnson Silver Minnow Weedless Spoon (2-3/4 Inch, 3/4 oz, Silver) ranks in the top 4 by combining 4.6-star Amazon buyer ratings (496 ratings) with a clear practical role: pads and cabbage.
Quick verdict: Eppinger Dardevlet Spoon (3/4 oz, Red and White Stripe) ranks in the top 5 by combining 4.6-star Amazon buyer ratings (221 ratings) with a clear practical role: open water and long casts.
Quick verdict: MIZUGIWA Pike Musky Dawg Soft Swimbait (8 Inch, Pre-Rigged) ranks in the top 6 by combining 4.5-star Amazon buyer ratings (1,119 ratings) with a clear practical role: one large fish.
Quick verdict: Berkley Wire-Wound Steelon Leaders (6 Inch, 30 lb, 3-Pack) ranks in the top 7 by combining 4.4-star Amazon buyer ratings (237 ratings) with a clear practical role: a spare on short baits.
Bass Pro Shops' 1Source pike guide is blunt about it: run a wire leader of a foot to eighteen inches, or heavy fluorocarbon of eighty pounds and up, and the odds of teeth and gill rakers slicing your line drop sharply. Everything else on this page is optional in the sense that you could fish without it. The leader is not. Buy wire if you fish stained water or take beginners along, because it simply does not fail. Buy heavy fluorocarbon if you fish clear water and think the fish are looking at your hardware, and accept that it is a probability play rather than a guarantee.
Field & Stream puts working pike sizes at a quarter ounce to an ounce for spoons, a sixth of an ounce to an ounce for inline spinners, and four and a half to six inches for large surface and minnow plugs. Bass Pro's guide lands in the same place with four to five inch spoons and four to six inch spinnerbaits. The practical read is that a three quarter ounce spoon or bucktail is the single most useful size to start with. It casts a long way on a medium heavy rod, it is big enough that a twelve pound fish takes it seriously, and it is still small enough that a two pound pike will have a go.
Pike live in salad. Field & Stream points anglers at weed flats, weed edges, weedy points, flooded timber and beaver dams, which is exactly the cover that turns a treble hooked bait into a weed collector. That is why a weedless spoon with a wire guard earns its place next to the treble baits rather than competing with them. Open water, a clean flat, a drop off: throw the flutter spoon or the bucktail. Lily pads, cabbage, matted grass: throw the weedless one and retrieve it right over the top. Owning only treble baits means half the water you can see is off limits.
A pike's mouth is the reason people photograph their hands afterwards. Field & Stream's handling advice is to grip smaller fish across the back of the head behind the eye or over the gill plate, net the bigger ones, and back hooks out with needle nose pliers. An eleven inch remover does the same job with more distance and more leverage, and it reaches a treble that has gone deep without asking you to put a hand past the teeth. This is not a nice to have. If you are going to catch a fish that is built to shred, own the tool that unbuilds the hook.
Fan cast it across a weed flat or a point and reel steadily. A three quarter ounce bucktail throws a long way, puts out a heavy thump a pike can track from a distance, and lets you eliminate empty water quickly. New Jersey Fish and Wildlife names casting large spinners among the popular methods on its own pike waters. Speed it up if fish follow without eating, and add a slow sweep of the rod near the boat or bank so a following fish gets one last chance to commit.
A spoon with a wire weed guard is the classic answer to water you cannot otherwise fish. Cast it into the thickest cabbage or pads you can reach and start reeling before it sinks, so it skitters over the tops rather than burying in the stems. The strike usually comes as a hole in the weed where the spoon was. Wait until you feel weight before you set, because setting on the boil pulls the spoon away from a fish that has not closed on it yet.
A big soft swimbait filters out the small pike and puts your bait in front of the fish that eat other fish for a living. Cast it, count it down to the depth you want, and swim it back slowly and evenly. Fewer bites, larger average size, and a much better chance of the fish that makes the trip. It is the bait to tie on when you already know the water holds something worth the extra effort.
A first pike is mostly about fishing the right water with a leader on. Do these in order and the rest gets much simpler.
Wildlife agencies publish which waters hold or get stocked with northern pike. New Jersey Fish and Wildlife names Budd Lake, Farrington Lake, Pompton Lake, the Pompton River, Spruce Run Reservoir and the Passaic River. Fishing a pond that has never held a pike is the most reliable way to blank.
New Jersey allows two northern pike a day at a minimum of twenty four inches. Other states set their own numbers, and some individual waters differ from the statewide rule, so read the page for the specific water and put a tape in the bag.
Clip a wire leader between your main line and the lure, not after you lose the first fish. Tie your main line to the leader's swivel end and clip the lure to the snap. If the leader kinks, bends into a curve or shows a chewed coating, cut it off and use a fresh one.
Field & Stream names weed flats, weed edges, weedy points, flooded timber and beaver dams as the structure that holds pike, with post spawn fish in three to ten feet and later fish out on six to ten foot drop offs. Walk or idle until you find where the vegetation stops and the bottom falls away, and start there.
Fan cast the bucktail across the edge to find out whether anyone is home. Once you get a follow or a bite, work that same stretch properly with the spoon at a slower speed. Covering water first and fishing it thoroughly second is far quicker than doing it the other way around.
Net a good fish rather than grabbing it. Field & Stream's grip for smaller pike is across the back of the head behind the eye or over the gill plate. Keep fingers away from both the teeth and the gill rakers, use the long remover on the hooks, and support the fish's weight if you are putting it back.
Once you know which kit type fits your situation, dig into each gear category for in-depth picks and buying advice:
Want to browse beyond the ranked picks? Filter and sort the full pike fishing gear listing below.
If you are targeting pike, yes. Bass Pro Shops' 1Source pike guide recommends a wire leader of twelve to eighteen inches, or heavy fluorocarbon of eighty pounds and up, and says that with a leader in place the chances of teeth and gill rakers slicing through your line drop dramatically. A pike's teeth slant backwards and its jaw is bone, so a fish that rolls or shakes with the lure inside its mouth will run your main line across them. Mono and fluorocarbon in normal bass strengths both part. The leader costs a couple of dollars and the lure you lose without one usually costs more.
Reader-supported and free of paid placements. Every pick is ranked on published specs and Amazon buyer ratings, not on who pays us.
Each pick is compared on published specs, materials, design, and category fit across the major brands.
Rankings factor in how well each product matches common freshwater fishing needs, not just popularity.
Star ratings and review volume from verified Amazon buyers are factored in to reflect real-world satisfaction.
A pick earns its spot by delivering useful performance for the money, whether budget or premium.
No rod or reel is ranked here, on purpose. A pike outfit is a seven foot medium heavy spinning rod with a 3000 or 4000 size reel, which is the same second rod another guide on this site already compares in detail. Own one of those and you own a pike rod.
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