What is the S-strike, and why should it change how I retrieve?
A pike does not chase prey down; it coils its body into a tensioned S and releases the whole spring in one lunge covering a body length or two. That standing start means the decisive moment is when your lure passes through firing range of an ambush point — not how much water you cover. So slow down near cover, run lures tight past weed edges, downed wood, and inside turns, and build in pauses and direction changes right where an ambusher would be lying: you are not trying to outrun the fish, you are trying to walk through its kill box convincingly.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about How it strikes
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