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Home › Waters › Indiana › Pike Lake
Lake · Kosciusko County, a natural glacial lake on the edge of Warsaw in Indiana's northern lakes district · Indiana

Pike Lake Fishing Guides

A natural glacial lake on the edge of Warsaw, small, town-adjacent and genuinely productive, with a stage gauge that tracks the seasonal drawdown.

An angler on a dock beside a moored boat on a calm reservoir
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Pike Lake

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About the Pike Lake

Pike Lake sits on the northern edge of Warsaw, in the middle of Kosciusko County’s cluster of natural glacial lakes. It is a true kettle lake rather than an impoundment, formed when the last ice sheet retreated, and it is connected through a chain to Center Lake and Winona Lake nearby. At roughly two hundred acres it is small by the standards of the county’s better-known waters, and it is fished accordingly: by locals, from small boats and from shore, without much fanfare.

The lake has a shallow, weedy character through much of its area, with a deeper basin that holds fish through the summer and winter. Weed growth is heavy by midsummer and is the main structural feature an angler works with, along with the drop-offs at the edge of the basin and the inlet and outlet areas. The gauge reports stage, which on a lake this size mostly reflects the seasonal cycle and rainfall rather than dramatic change, but it is a useful check on whether the shallow margins are fishable and whether the connecting channels are navigable.

Bluegill and redear are the bread and butter, and the redear in particular reach good size in the county’s lakes. Largemouth are abundant and, in a lake this weedy, best approached with something that can be fished through cover. Northern pike are present and give the lake its name, holding along the weed edges. Walleye and yellow perch round out the fishery. Being on the edge of a town, the shoreline is substantially developed, with docks and residential frontage over much of it, so public access matters: the city park provides the practical launch and the most reliable bank fishing. This is an accessible, unpretentious fishery rather than a destination, and it is a good one for exactly that reason.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Pike Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Warsaw - the city on the lake's southern shore, with the public park, ramp, tackle shops and full services.
Pike Lake Park - the municipal park providing the main boat ramp, beach and shoreline fishing access.
Center Lake - the connected lake within Warsaw itself, fished on the same trip for bluegill and bass.
Winona Lake - the larger lake immediately south, with better-known bass and panfish water.
Tippecanoe Lake - the county's deepest lake a short drive north, holding cisco, walleye and larger bass.
Wawasee - Indiana's largest natural lake nearby, offering a change of scale and a different fishery.
Tippecanoe River - the river draining the lake district, providing river smallmouth as an alternative.

Seasons

Spring: bluegill and redear move shallow to spawn and bass follow, giving the easiest fishing of the year.
Summer: heavy weed growth concentrates fish along the edges, with early and late sessions well ahead of midday.
Fall: weeds die back, perch and crappie school on the basin edge and pike feed hard along the remaining cover.
Winter: a reliable ice fishery in most years for bluegill, perch and crappie over the deeper basin.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Pike Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Bullhead, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Redear Sunfish, Rock Bass, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Pike Lake in Indiana.

Where can you access the Pike Lake?

Warsaw - the city on the lake's southern shore, with the public park, ramp, tackle shops and full services. Pike Lake Park - the municipal park providing the main boat ramp, beach and shoreline fishing access. Center Lake - the connected lake within Warsaw itself, fished on the same trip for bluegill and bass. Winona Lake - the larger lake immediately south, with better-known bass and panfish water. Tippecanoe Lake - the county's deepest lake a short drive north, holding cisco, walleye and larger bass. Wawasee - Indiana's largest natural lake nearby, offering a change of scale and a different...

When is the best time to fish the Pike Lake?

Spring: bluegill and redear move shallow to spawn and bass follow, giving the easiest fishing of the year. Summer: heavy weed growth concentrates fish along the edges, with early and late sessions well ahead of midday. Fall: weeds die back, perch and crappie school on the basin edge and pike feed hard along the remaining cover. Winter: a reliable ice fishery in most years for bluegill, perch and crappie over the deeper basin.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Pike Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Indiana agency site: https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/fishing/fishing-guide-and-regulations/