How deep is too deep for pike?
For most lakes, past about 15 m (50 ft) you are fishing under the fish. A pike's year is shallow by design: marsh and weed flats in spring, the top few metres and the deep weed edge in summer, shallow again in fall, weedy bays and perch flats under the ice. The documented deep excursion is a summer one — at mid-latitudes big females follow ciscoes and whitefish down along the thermocline, typically 8–15 m (25–50 ft). Going deeper than that takes a particular lake: clear, infertile, cisco water that keeps oxygen in the cold layer all summer, and even there fish below 15 m (49 ft) are the exception. In fertile lakes the deep water has no oxygen and no pike. Beyond 25 m (82 ft) is lake trout water.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Movement & range
Same topic, other species
- Is there a maximum depth for crappie? — Crappie
- Will I find largemouth in a tailwater below a dam, or out on the open mud basin? — Largemouth Bass
- Do muskie ever use really deep water — or sit on the bottom? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- How deep do perch schools go on big lakes? — Yellow Perch
- When are tailwaters productive for smallmouth? — Smallmouth Bass
- Do trout hug the bottom? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- Do walleye ever live deeper than 25 m (82 ft)? — Walleye