Best Bait for Pike

by **muskat** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:24 pm

What does everyone like to use for Pike through the ice? I am heading out Friday and might try some new things.

by **GooseBuster3** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 9:15 pm

Hot dogs, brats. smelt, herring*. All of these work great.

by **dblkluk** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 9:24 pm

Buster, I think he meant what you use for bait... not what you eat for lunch!! :lol:

For me.. Its smelt or herring.

by **GooseBuster3** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 9:56 pm

They really do work!!

by **dblkluk** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 10:07 pm

I know..A buddy of mine once tried to convince me, I told him he'd have to prove it before I used a hot dog!! Well after his fourth fish and my none! I gave it a shot. It sounds stupid but they do work!!

I just like the smell that herring leaves on my fingers! :lol:

by **win4win** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 10:49 am

I tried to tell em the same thing this past summer over on the Red River when it came to catfish....everyone just laughed. Suprised a few people when they saw us catching big cats.

We used smelt thru the ice with good success this past weekend and took a 3 man limit......only limits on the lake that day that we know of. We probably missed just as many fish as we caught.

by **muskat** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:53 pm

Hot Dogs, now that is something I have never tried. Do you cut them in half or just throw the entire thing on the hook?

by **GooseBuster3** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 4:14 pm

Use a smelt harness and rig the whole dog on it.

by **Brad Anderson** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 11:45 pm

Caught a 36" pike friday, on a bare hook and small minnow. Largest pike I've ever caught through the ice. Landed the sucka with me bare hands. It is kinda fun fighting em' with an ultralight rod and 4 lb mono.

He must've been a repeat customer, I pulled 5 hooks outta his mouth.

by **Brad Anderson** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 11:46 pm

Caught a 36" pike friday, on a bare hook and small minnow. Largest pike I've ever caught through the ice. Landed the sucka with me bare hands. It is kinda fun fighting em' with an ultralight rod and 4 lb mono.

He must've been a repeat customer, I pulled 5 hooks outta his mouth.

by **rockinmichigan** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 9:58 pm

I find that interesting guys, never heard of hot dogs and brats being used for any kind of fishing. I've heard people using blue gills for pike bait. I do have a problem with that personally, because knowing my crap for luck if I were to use a blue gill for pike fishing, I'd snag the biggest pike in the lake and it would snap my line and I'll never see that bluegill again, and it be the type of blue gill I would normally fillet up if it was worth a darn. But anyways, I have heard and used chicken liver when catfishing, and actually was hooking white bass left and right, so its amazing what you can use.

by **RhinoNorth** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 1:55 pm

ive used many many smelts over the years, but one bad cast and its bye bye smelt. the best bait for pike is to go down to the supermarket and buy one of those 5 dollar farm raised salmon and use about the last 8 inches of his tail (split in half) if you hook it right you can land a days worth of fish without having to rebait

damn that salmon skin is tough....watch the fingers when driving your hook through

by **rockinmichigan** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:10 pm

That's not a bad idea at all RhinoNorth, what else would bite on that besides pike? Sounds like something catfish would bite on.

by **RhinoNorth** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:02 am

well Rocks i use the ol salmon tail trick on for pike, lake and brown trout big walleye burbot and i used to catch many o bull trout back before they outlawed bait in the athabasca for walleye id only recomend you use the last 3 inches of tail. the closest thing we have to catfish around here is a burbot and they love salmon. large strips of skin also work great. all in all its cheaper to buy a farm salmon than it is to use smelts and its bullet proof

by **Ryan_Todd** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:33 am

i like to use large decoy suckers on a tipup. they work really well. i also have use smelt in nodak and have had good luck.

by **njsimonson** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:22 am

Back in the day when I knew how to ice fish :roll:

I liked a big herring with a 3/0 treble hook threaded through the stomach and up through the dorsal fin, on a Sevenstrand leader.

by **rockinmichigan** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:18 pm

Are burbots bottom feeders? I've seen pictures of them and stuff, but don't know much about them, never caught one, never seen anyone catch one, and never seen one in person.

by **RhinoNorth** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:18 pm

burbot are both scavengers and fresh meat eaters..they have been known to try and take a baitfish 3/4 its size. Around here the average is 2-5 pounds although they grow much much larger. the best time to catch one is at night in about 15 feet of water...during the spawn it is not uncommon to catch 100 in a day. watching the burbot ball of about 1000 eels all having group sex in a huge ball is something to see. spawn hits from late feb to mid march around here

Save a salmon.....kill a burbot

by **cootkiller** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 12:21 pm

Up on Devils Lake I like to chum the water with a freshly skinned cat and then just throw a hook with a minnow and bobber out in the middle of the chum. I am a die hard pike man and this may be a little extreme but the big pigs just come cruising in, plus it helps to keep the cat numbers in the area down.
:lol: