I spent last week fishing in Northwestern Ontario. like a dummy, I didn't take any quality pictures of the scenery or fish, but I have a few lure recommendations.
First ,and all for this post, are baits made by Nikko Fishing. Nikko makes extremely durable TPE soft baits. I've never seen one receive meaningful damage from fish. Which is impressive, given how well pike's teeth cut. If anyone is familiar with the Z-Man plastics, these are several times tougher, enough so they can resist being cut with scissors or knives.
In particular I used Nikko's Winnow 95 and Zaza Super Ned. For the Winnow 95s, I like the Milky Way and Tennessee Shad colors. One offers good color contrast in stained or dirty water and the other is a natural representation of any number of prey fish. Winnows have a strong side to side kick at the tail and the whole bait rolls back and forth around it's center line berry nicely. Nikko's plastic will not work with most keeper on jig heads, so hook selection is important. For shallow fishing through weeds or for skimming the surface almost like a buzzbait, I use a belly weighted hook, the 5/0 Ryugi Pierce Weighted Screwlock Wide Gap Hook. I replace the screwlock at the front of the hook with the medium sized Owner CPS Slim Centering Pin Spring made for TPE baits (the stock one will not puncture Nikko's baits). For eberrything else, there's Mastercard I like to use a jointed head swimbait hook, the 5/0, 3/8oz Z-Man Texas Eye TeXL Jig Head. The joint allows for greater body roll and more overall action.
I fish the Zaza Super Neds in an unconventional way. Instead of using a ned jig, I rig them with a 2/0 Ryugi Slide Pierce Worm Hook and a 1/8oz Zappu Sasuteki Tungsten Sinker. I poke a hole at the front of the lure and run in the wire on the weight before rigging the hook through it. This causes the bait to be "backwards" with the weight at the end and the line running off about 60% of the way up the bait. This results in less hanging up, and I just like to do things differently for fun. I'm explaining this setup poorly, so these videos should clarify what I am talking about:
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=Fm5THrJfAdk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm5THrJfAdk
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=I9U2mlb4S4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9U2mlb4S4U