Northern Pike Fishing on the Saranac Lake Chain

There are few places in the Lower 48 where you can have a legitimate chance at catching 25 to 50 Northern Pike in a day while being completely immersed in a remote wilderness oasis deep in the Adirondacks. Saranac Lake is every Pike fisherman’s dream.

This Pike paradise has it all. Picture-perfect weed beds, spectacular mountains surrounding the lakes, narrow river channels, rocky shorelines, islands and even the last remaining hand-operated lock system in the United States. There is something different around every corner, and some days it feels like you're fishing somewhere in remote Canada rather than New York.

The Saranac Lake Chain of Lakes has the highest population of Northern Pike that I have found anywhere in the Adirondacks and maybe even the lower 48 states. The amount of good Pike habitat throughout these lakes is incredible. Expansive weed beds provide perfect ambush points, and when the fish are feeding, the action can happen incredibly fast.A feeding frenzy on Saranac is something every Pike fisherman should experience at least once. Pike will shoot out of the weed beds and attack just about anything swimming above them, including our lures. You can go from quietly casting down a weed line to suddenly having follows, strikes and fish coming to the boat one after another. When you hit it right, it is one of the most exciting experiences in fishing.

The average Pike here isn't going to compare in size to the giant Northern Pike we target on Great Sacandaga Lake, but that's not why I love fishing Saranac. This is a completely different type of Pike fishery. Instead of making thousands of casts hoping for one opportunity at a giant, Saranac gives us the chance to catch Pike after Pike while exploring one of the most beautiful areas in the Adirondack Park. And for that matter we do catch very large pike here but way less common than Sacandaga.

And one of my favorite parts about fishing here is just how quiet it can be. Despite the quality of the Northern Pike fishing on Saranac Lake, these lakes are still highly underfished. We regularly fish stretches of water without seeing another boat targeting Pike, and there have been plenty of days when it feels like we have the entire place to ourselves.

Saranac is also a special place to me personally. I caught my very first pike here as youngster and have spent years exploring these lakes, learning the weed beds, channels and different sections of the chain. Even after all that time, running through these lakes surrounded by the Adirondack Mountains never gets old.

If you've never caught a Northern Pike before, Saranac is one of my favorite places to introduce someone to them. If you're already a Pike fisherman and simply want the chance to catch a lot of fish, it's hard to beat. And if your idea of a great fishing trip is getting away from everything and spending a day surrounded by mountains, forests and water, the experience itself is worth the trip.

The Saranac Lake Chain isn't just one of my favorite places to fish for Northern Pike. It's one of my favorite places to fish, period.