Springtime in Maine is a great time to target northern pike. There are two time windows in spring that are highly productive for pike: pre-spawn and post spawn. This timing will vary system to system but generally directly after a body of water goes ice free is a great time for pre-spawn pike. At this time of year pike will move into shallow flats seeking warmer water on sunny days and to feed. There are certain instances where pike will even spawn under the ice or on the ice free edges of a body of water. Once northern pike start to spawn they can become extremely difficult to catch, ignoring every offering you put in front of them. This is easily distinguishable because the fish will be extremely shallow and paired up. It is best to leave the fish alone when they are doing their thing. However once they come out of spawn they often stay shallow and start to feed heavily to recoup the energy lost in previous weeks.
Prespawn pike often don't require giant offerings to get attention, the flies just need to be fished slowly. Patterns like bucktail deceivers, half and halves, and other baitfish patterns in the 4"-8" range are safe bets. For colors it seems like they like it all over the place depending on the day and conditions at hand. In clearer water with sunny conditions I tend to gravitate toward more natural color schemes that imitate the forage at hand. With stained water and or in low light I like bright colors with UV reactive and flashy materials. This being said I've also definitely caught fish on flashy bright flies in high sun, and on dull natural flies in stained water. Long slow strips with occasional pausing is a productive way of retrieving the fly at most times.
When fishing for post spawn pike, introducing the bigger 8"+ flies is a good idea. Don't necessarily ditch the smaller flies all together, but northern pike do start looking for larger prey items at this time. They will start feeding more often and more heavily and will start to look for bigger forage like perch, bass and other species that start to become more readily available to the pike as waters warm. Pike are opportunistic so specific forage will be dictated by the specific area being fished. In the spring this can mean stocked trout in some places. Other areas might have more yellow perch or suckers for the main forage. And sometimes they just want something obnoxious that they've never seen before. Post spawn pike is a great time to target pike using top water offerings as well because they tend to stay relatively shallow once they have finished spawning. Starting to fish the flies a little faster this time of year can also get bites when a slow presentation is ignored.
For gear, 9wt rod reel and line setups are a good all around size. For many the set up they use for striped bass will make a great northern pike outfit. 7 and 8 weight rods can be used for smaller flies. Conversely sometimes you might need a 10 or even 11wt to turn over a large air resistant 10"+ fly when the time calls. This is all relative to the situation. For spring northern pike fishing the RIO Outbound Short lines do really well with the flies we find ourselves throwing. They feature a short compact head that is good for turning over large streamers. The Outbound Short lines also come in many different sink rates which can be helpful as some areas require the fly to be at more depth than others. For the most part we are using floating lines or the F/H/I(Float/Hover/Intermediate) configuration of the outbound short during the spring months. The sink tip and full intermediate fly lines can be saved for when the water warms up and the fish search for deeper structure in summer months. Wire leader is recommended though some anglers choose to just use heavy fluorocarbon. Pliers are also a must when handling and removing hooks from northern pike.
The Outbound Short lines also come in many different sink rates which can be helpful as some areas require the fly to be at more depth than others. For the most part we are using floating lines or the F/H/I(Float/Hover/