What do pike like for bait

A great advantage being weedless in fishing shoreline reeds, lily pads, or cabbage beds. If you have a deep weed bed to explore and fishing the top of the water column is not producing, try drifting across the area and vertically jigging the spoon off the bottom with 2' swipes. Big pike hanging on the bottom will destroy it. Silver for sunny days, gold for cloudy. A " white or yellow twister tail or pork rind added to the back end is an absolute must.

When fish get selective, try a smaller size. Another classic. Pike absolutely love spinners of all kinds but the Mepps 5 or the big Blue Fox in silver, silver and blue, or gold work best.

These produce well in any situation and work well in quickly casting and working an area. For pike, the smaller size- 5- definitely works better than the larger musky bucktails.

We also prefer undressed no hair spinners. One tip on using a Mepps Aglia in early season conditions when the pike are really shallow.

Take the treble off and add a much larger treble. It will add enough drag to fish the spinner at a lower retrieve, important for slower, early season pike in very cold water. Rattletraps are great lures, particularly when fish are not as active.

The noise and action when working them adds a different weapon to your arsenal. Use the larger sizes. All of these color combos work really well but the best producer at the North Seal is the silver and blue version. Rattle traps also work well on schooling, shallow water lake trout and especially in situations were the wind has been pounding a shoreline for a few days.

On the pike, it can also work well in early season when cold weather and a lack of warmer water will actually push the pike out of the bays and into the mouths of the bays, suspended in slightly deeper water.

On some venues they out-fish even smelts. Best used whole and cast out frozen, because of their soft flesh. Expect to get just one cast from each bait. Try to buy roach that are in good condition. They will last several casts and are ideal for wobbling or twitching back.

Make sure they sink by puncturing the swim bladder and squeezing the air out. This strange whitefish is very much hit-and-miss on many waters.

I like to use them on rivers, where their natural buoyancy makes them ideal for popping up, and they will sway gently in the current. A tough bait, and one that casts well.

Mackerel have caught me a lot of pike over the years, including my personal best. Getting hold of the right size and the freshest baits can be difficult in winter, so stock up when you find some good examples. These prehistoric fish have a very chequered track record in my book. Dead bait works best when the rig is set up so the minnow hangs horizontally in the water and about 1 to 2 feet off the bottom.

If the fishing area has a lot of weed growth, suspend the bait about 1 to 2 feet above the weed cover. On two hook rigs, one hook should be placed just behind the dorsal fin and the second near the tail. A second option is to place one hook near the dorsal fin and the second on the bottom of the minnow near the head. Since pike tends to swallow their prey head first, this puts a hook at the business end. The bait clicker allows the bail to be left open without line playing off the spool.

When a fish grabs the dead bait and makes off, the bait clicker feature allows the line to play off the reel with minimal resistance and an audible clicking alerts the angler to the strike. Rigged in this manner, an angler has the advantage and excitement of fighting pike using a rod and reel.

Rig a piece of drinking straw on the line as described with the baitcasting outfit, and lower the bait to the desired depth level. Baitrunner reels allow the line to play off the reel spool smoothly when a fish runs with the bait.

Some anglers prefer to rig the rod holder on their fishing bucket or sled and others favour a wire rack that rests on the surface of the ice. Both options work well. The biggest advantage of tip-ups is they resist freezing because the line spool is below the water surface.

Once a pike is hooked, however, the biggest disadvantage of the tip-up becomes apparent. Unfortunately, the angler must fight the fish hand over hand. The fluorocarbon can be tied directly to the dead bait leader.

This line is very tough, hard to see in the water and, because it absorbs little water, it resists freezing better than braided lines. Just before the ice melts is prime time for fishing dead bait to target trophy pike.

A dead and frozen sucker minnow will actually sink slowly on its own. A small sliding sinker positioned at the top of the dead bait rig will help sink the bait a little quicker. Using too much weight can cause unnatural drag and lead to fish striking, but dropping the bait.

In late winter, when pike are exceptionally lethargic, using dead bait will produce bites when other more traditional options fail.