Essential
MATERIALS
Flash helps get the attention of pike, especially in murky water. You don't always need a lot of it, but it never hurts to add flash as it often teases a neutral pike into eating. It also moves very well in the water and can be used as a tailing material. When tying it in, try tapering it by pulling it to uneven lengths. This will ensure that it won't stick together and will move very well in the water. Another trick is to use your thumbnail to splay it out when you are trying to spread it around the fly. Some flashes, like lateral scale, make great lateral lines on baitfish patterns. Hedron Inc. makes the widest range and highest quality flash out there.
Bucktail is the “base” material of most pike and musky flies, as many flies are based off of patterns like deceivers and flashtail whistlers. It can be reverse tied, flared, it moves well in the water, and it is readily available. It doesn't soak a lot of water and is a solid foundation to your fly. The tip dyed tails from Spirit River are a really good option. Any long hair that can be flared well, without a lot of underfur, is your best bet.
Eyes - Although a pike fly doesn’t need eyes to catch fish, it certainly doesn't hurt. This is because they provide a big target for the pike to hit right at the head of the fly, and large colored eyes do a great job of exaggerating a frantic baitfish. Deer Creek and Fish Skull are a couple of my favorites. I like to stick to red eyes- for me it just seems like the perfect trigger for a predator. Anything from 7 to 15 millimeters is commonly seen on my pike flies. Putting large eyes on your fly will often squeeze the head and make it vertically displaced, causing a sharp cutting action in the water. The change of direction is a great factor in getting a predator to eat. One other very notable form of adding eyes to your fly is by using weighted dumbbells. You can easily tie them in durably, and fish them at whatever depth you choose without endlessly hanging up on weeds. Jigging them off of weed beds and drop offs provides an effective action.
Hackle- Using grizzly saddle hackles adds length, movement, and color to your fly. Anything with a good, long taper will work- and it can be quite webby compared to your dry fly hackle. They are quite expensive, but you can also use saddle hackle and schlappen for tails- you just won't get the barred grizzly look. My favorite is the bugger packs from Whiting - great value and many color options.
Durability
Because pike and other predatory species attack a fly, have teeth, and tend to rip apart flies, it is important to make your fly durable. If you are going to put in the effort to create a time consuming fly, it is very clear that you want the fly to last. The easiest way to do this is to use super glue to lock and seal your thread wraps. Using a thin super glue will help soak into the thread wraps when building your body, and a gel type super glue will help lock your eyes in place. For gels, I like a loctite or LePage glue, whereas brush ones seem to all be quite similar in quality from what I've tried. UV resins and epoxies are also very popular for certain applications, such as building heads. Any 5 minute epoxy will be good for making durable heads, like on tube flies. Thicker Loon UV resins also work well for this.
Hook Selection
Pike have teeth, they’re big, strong, and they need a big, strong hook for those reasons. Most people like to use a 1/0-7/0 for big bucktail based flies. Anything with an O’Shaughnessy or round bend is just fine, but many tyers also like to use tarpon hooks and the Partridge of Redditch predator style hooks. Jig hooks are also used when a hook- up presentation is preferred, and of course this will impart a jigging action on the fly. Articulated flies can either be tied with a wire connection or an articulation shank. Another key thing to remember is that while pike often try to hit their prey at the head first, when they follow from behind or are somewhat inactive they often eat the tail. I have found that adding a stinger hook with wire tippet can ensure more hookups. Overall, having a strong and sharp hook will help you land more fish.