Best Pike Lures UK 2026: A Complete Buyer's Guide

Quick Answer

The best pike lures for most anglers are soft shads on jig heads. A Fox Rage Pro Shad Natural Classics 2 in 14cm is £5.99 and will catch you more pike this autumn than anything else you can buy. If you want the lot in one go, the Westin Predator Soft Lure Box is £49.99 down from £179.99. And whatever you tie on, it goes on a wire trace — every lure, every cast, no exceptions.

What Makes a Good Pike Lure?

Quick answer: the right size first, then an action that moves water, then a weight that gets it to the depth the pike are sitting at.

Size. Pike lures start at about 10cm and the working range is 10–15cm. Anything under 10cm is perch and zander territory — it will catch jacks and get bitten off by anything decent. If small lures are what you are after, our summer perch guide and perch fishing tips are the right home for them.

Action. Pike hunt by vibration as much as by sight, using the lateral line to find something struggling long before they see it. A paddle tail thumping on a steady retrieve, or a jointed body rolling side to side, puts out exactly that signal. A lure that swims prettily but pushes no water goes unnoticed in coloured October water.

Sink rate and jig head weight. This is where most of the skill in pike lure fishing lives. Matching head weight to depth is the difference between fishing and just casting — too light and you never reach them, too heavy and you drag bottom. Count the lure down after it lands, and change the count before you change the lure.

Hooks. Singles are easier to unhook and kinder to the fish; trebles hold better on hard-mouthed takes. Either way, the stock hooks on a cheap lure are often its weakest part, and barbless waters have their own rules worth checking first.

Colour. Natural in clear water, bright or UV in coloured water, and that is as complicated as it needs to get. Colour matters far less than depth and retrieve speed, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling you a fourth packet.

The best pike lure is the one you fish confidently for a whole session, not the one you swap out after ten casts.

Best Pike Lures at a Glance

Quick answer: a 14cm soft shad at £5.99 covers most pike fishing; everything else on this table solves a specific problem.

Lure	Type	Size	Price	Best for
Fox Rage Pro Shad Natural Classics 2	Soft shad	14cm	£5.99	The one to start with
Westin ShadTeez	Soft shad	12cm	£5.49	Clear water, natural patterns
Fox Rage UV Slick Shad	Soft shad	13cm	£5.99	Coloured water, UV finish
Fox Rage Ultra UV Jointed Pro Shad	Loaded jointed shad	14cm	£5.99	Ready to fish from the packet
Westin BullTeez Shadtail	Soft shad	18cm	£5.99	Sorting out the bigger fish
Westin Ricky The Roach Shadtail R'N'R	Loaded shad	14cm	£9.99	A finished, weighted shad
Westin JerkBite MR	Jerkbait	15cm	£10.99	Working the middle depths
Westin Mike The Pike	Crankbait	14cm	£12.99	Covering water quickly
Rapala X-Rap Otus	Jointed hard lure	17cm	£17.65	Big fish in open water
Blue Fox Vibrax Hot Pepper	Inline spinner	8g	£4.85	Rivers and coloured water

Prices correct as of September 2026 — check the product page for current pricing and availability. Lures sell through fast once the season opens.

Best Pike Lure for Beginners

Quick answer: the Fox Rage Pro Shad Natural Classics 2 in 14cm at £5.99, fished on a jig head.

A soft shad on a jig head is where every pike angler should start, and plenty never need to move on. It casts well because the weight sits at the front, it swims properly at almost any retrieve speed a beginner will try, and it fishes at whatever depth you choose by changing the head.

The second reason is money. At £5.99 a packet you can bump it along the bottom, drop it into snags and lose the odd one, and none of that ruins your day. Do the same with a £17 hard lure on your first session and you will fish scared all afternoon, which is the fastest way to catch nothing.

For the rod, reel, trace and unhooking kit that goes around all this, Pike Fishing for Beginners is the companion piece to this one. Read that first if you have never landed a pike.

Best Soft Shads for Pike

Quick answer: the Westin ShadTeez in 12cm at £5.49 for clear water, and the Fox Rage UV Slick Shad in 13cm at £5.99 when the water colours up.

Paddle tails are the workhorse of soft lures for pike. The tail kicks against the water on a straight retrieve and sends out a steady thump that pike home in on, and it keeps working even when you slow right down — which, in October and November, is exactly what you want. The Westin BullTeez Shadtail at 18cm and £5.99 is the one to tie on when you have decided to sit out the jacks and wait for something better.

Loaded versus unloaded is a question of convenience against control. A loaded shad such as the Westin Ricky The Roach Shadtail R'N'R at 14cm and £9.99 comes rigged and balanced, ready to fish out of the packet. An unloaded shad plus a separate jig head costs less per lure and lets you change the weight to suit the swim, which matters more than it sounds.

On head weight, most UK stillwater and drain fishing sits between 7g and 20g. Start in the middle and let the depth tell you which way to move. The full soft shads range has the patterns.

Best Jerkbaits and Hard Lures for Pike

Quick answer: the Westin JerkBite MR at 15cm and £10.99 is the sensible first jerkbait, and the Westin Mike The Pike crankbait at 14cm and £12.99 is the one for covering water.

A jerkbait does not swim on its own. You give it life with the rod tip, and it darts, glides and stalls in a way no steady retrieve can imitate. That hanging pause triggers a following pike into taking, which is why these catch fish that have already turned away from a shad.

They ask more of your tackle. A jerkbait needs a stiffer lure rod with a fast tip to work properly, and a soft, through-actioned rod will just pull it along in a straight line. Jointed hard lures such as the Rapala X-Rap Otus at 17cm and £17.65 are a genuine big-fish option, though at that price they are a considered purchase.

Being plain about it: hard lures are the second purchase, not the first. They cost two to three times what a shad costs and do not out-fish a well-worked one often enough to justify starting there. Buy them once you know where the pike are. The spinners and hard baits range is there when you are ready.

Best Spinnerbaits and Spoons for Pike

Quick answer: the Blue Fox Vibrax Hot Pepper spinner in 8g at £4.85, and the Westin BladeBite V2 bladed jig in 9g at £9.99.

Honest note first: we do not currently stock traditional pike spoons or safety-pin spinnerbaits. What we do stock for the same job is inline spinners and bladed jigs, and for most UK pike water they do it better anyway.

Both work because they let you search. A spinning blade throws out vibration and flash continuously, so you can cover a long bank at walking pace and find where the fish are holding rather than guessing. That makes them the right choice for a first hour on unfamiliar water.

They also shine where a subtle presentation fails. In coloured water after rain, or over weed still dying back in early autumn, a blade gives a pike something to find when it cannot see far. The Westin BladeBite V2 is the more weedless of the two and sinks fast enough for deeper drains.

Best Swimbaits for Pike

Quick answer: the Westin Ricky The Roach Multi Jointed at £12.99.

A multi-jointed swimbait does something no single-bodied lure can. The Ricky The Roach Multi Jointed runs on nine joints, which keeps the head steady while the body behind it wriggles along its whole length, and the result on a slow steady retrieve looks uncannily like a roach that has not noticed anything is wrong.

That slow retrieve is the point. As water temperature drops through November, pike stop chasing and start ambushing, and a lure that still looks alive at a crawl beats several that need speed to work. Fish it high, or add a weight to the extra wire eyelet to get it down.

It is also a big-fish lure. A larger profile moved slowly filters out the jacks, and while you get fewer takes, the ones you get tend to be worth photographing. At £12.99 it sits between the shads and the serious hard lures.

Best Value: Boxed Lure Sets

Quick answer: the Westin Predator Soft Lure Box, 60 pieces, at £49.99 down from £179.99.

That is 72% off, and it is not a number we can pretend is normal. Sixty soft lures for £49.99 works out at around 83p each, against £5 to £6 buying them singly, and there is no version of this that lasts into the season proper. When it is gone it is gone, and the next one will be at £179.99.

If you would rather buy pike-specific rather than mixed, the Westin Pike Cast & Jig Lure Box at £44.99 is built around casting and jigging patterns in pike sizes, which saves you sorting through perch lures you will not use.

One honest caveat. A 60-piece box gives a beginner variety without paying single-lure prices, but half of any mixed box will be sizes and colours you will never tie on. Buy it for the third that is right for your water, treat the rest as spares, and it is still comfortably the cheapest way into pike lures there is.

What Most Anglers Get Wrong

Quick answer: buying too many lures and fishing all of them far too fast.

1. Buying hard lures first. A £6 soft shad on the right jig head out-fishes a £25 jerkbait for almost every beginner, and you can lose it in a snag without it ruining the session.
2. Retrieving too fast. The lure is not escaping; it is trying to get eaten. Slow down until it feels wrong, then slow down again — most people's "slow" is still twice what it should be in cold water.
3. Fishing perch lures for pike. A 5cm shad catches jacks and gets cut off by anything decent. Pike lures start around 10cm, and the size chart above is not a suggestion.
4. Skipping the wire trace because "it's only lures". A pike's teeth do not know the difference between a lure and a deadbait. A wire trace goes on every cast, no exceptions, and it is a fish-welfare point as much as a tackle one.
5. Twenty colours, one depth. Ten patterns fished at the wrong depth catch nothing. One pattern fished at three depths finds the fish, every time.

What Else You Need

Quick answer: a wire trace, jig heads, a lure rod, braid, and the tools to unhook a pike safely — the last one is not optional.

• Wire traces — the Drennan E-SOX 7 Strand Pike Wire is £7.25 and makes several. Nothing goes on the end without one.
• Jig heads — a spread of weights matters more than a spread of colours.
• Lure rods — something with a fast tip if jerkbaits are in your future.
• Predator braid — no stretch means you feel the take and set the hook. Fishing Line Explained covers the strengths.
• Forceps and side cutters — long forceps for the hooks, cutters for when they are somewhere awkward.
• Unhooking mats — a pike on gravel is a pike you have damaged.
• Lure boxes — loose trebles in a rucksack find your fingers eventually.

If you have not unhooked a pike before, read the Pike Anglers' Club handling guidance before your first session, and take someone who has. Pike season is also cold season, so the winter clothing guide is worth ten minutes before October.

FAQs

What is the best lure for pike?
A soft shad of 12–15cm on a jig head, fished slowly. The Fox Rage Pro Shad Natural Classics 2 at 14cm and £5.99 is the one we sell most of and the one that comes back most often in customers' catch photos. Hard lures and swimbaits are additions rather than starting points.

What size lure should I use for pike?
Between 10cm and 15cm for most UK pike fishing, up to 18–21cm if you are deliberately targeting bigger fish. Anything under 10cm is a perch or zander lure — pike still take them, but you lose lures and risk deep-hooking jacks. Size up rather than down.

Do I need a wire trace for lure fishing?
Yes, always, without exception. Pike teeth go through mono and braid instantly, and fishing without one means leaving lures in fish, which is expensive and indefensible. Use one even where you are "only" expecting perch, because pike do not read the stocking list.

What colour lure is best for pike?
Natural patterns in clear water, bright or UV in coloured water. Beyond that, colour matters far less than tackle marketing suggests — depth and retrieve speed decide whether you catch. If you buy two, take a natural roach pattern and a firetiger.

How fast should I retrieve a pike lure?
Slower than you think, and slower again as the water cools. In September a steady walking-pace retrieve works; by December a shad crawled along the bottom with long pauses beats it several times over. If the lure feels like it is barely working, you are about right.

Are soft or hard lures better for pike?
Soft lures are better for most anglers most of the time: cheaper, more forgiving, and effective across a wider range of retrieves. Hard lures earn their place when you need to hold a depth, cover water fast, or show a following fish a different action. Start soft and add them later.

How many lures do I need to start pike fishing?
Three or four. One natural shad and one bright shad in 12–14cm plus a couple of jig heads in different weights is a full session's fishing. A boxed set is worth it for the variety, but you do not need forty lures to catch your first pike — you need one you trust, fished properly.

Get Kitted Out

The best pike lures are the simple ones fished properly: start with soft shads, slow them down, and put a wire trace on every cast. Browse the full pike lures range or the wider pike and predator range, and if you would rather see them in your hand than on a screen, come into the shop in Newmarket.