Dead Bait enhancing

[Tayreel]

Alright all you gator chasers. Typically I have had most luck on live bait or jigs on a jigging rod. Dead bait just hasn't been as effective. Is their any way to enhance dead bait with some sort of scent or salting perhaps. Any favorite scents or salts out there to really get that dead bait giving off some fishy aromas?
Perhaps downsizing the tackle its rigged on as the pike tend to have a lot more time to look at and inspect the bait? Or taking off all the flashy spoons that come more alive with live bait? Love to hear from you guys!

[thomasthepikehunter]

What bait are you using, and where are you located? Here in central MN, pike will spit out a hooligan, yet gobble a frozen sucker almost as readily as a live one.

[Tayreel]

What bait are you using, and where are you located? Here in central MN, pike will spit out a hooligan, yet gobble a frozen sucker almost as readily as a live one.

Well never heard of a hooligan. We've used mostly frozen shiners. This year we found a local seafood place that sells smelt that are in an average of 8ins so hoping they produce a little better! I'm located up in Montana/Wyoming Area. Primarily fishing for pike in Montana but we have a few waters here in Wyo that have tiger muskies and figured I'd try the same techniques and pray for the best!

[thomasthepikehunter]

Here in MN the laws are really screwed up. Hooligan is basically a sea smelt. I've heard up north as in alaska and some places they work fine. Around here, they don't at all. Every single flag I got the pike spit it out in no time. Back before these AIS laws, regular lake smelt was dynamite on pike. If you were using shiners, as in the little 3" ones, thats your problem. It seems pike will eat a bigger dead bait than live bait. That's saying a lot, as I have caught a pike on a live 3 pound bass, on accident of course.

[HybridHunter]

Here in MN the laws are really screwed up. Hooligan is basically a sea smelt. I've heard up north as in alaska and some places they work fine. Around here, they don't at all. Every single flag I got the pike spit it out in no time. Back before these AIS laws, regular lake smelt was dynamite on pike. If you were using shiners, as in the little 3" ones, thats your problem. It seems pike will eat a bigger dead bait than live bait. That's saying a lot, as I have caught a pike on a live 3 pound bass, on accident of course.

I read tour story about the pike devouring the bass. That's just a whole nother level of aggression and its simply awesome. Also, why I target these fish!

[derek_buck]

I fish with frozen smelt for pike, and if the pike aren't biting the smelt itself I will sometimes hook a minnow through the tail one one treble hook and put a smelt on another hook from the treble.  I believe this adds a little more movement to the dead smelt.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I fish with frozen smelt for pike, and if the pike aren't biting the smelt itself I will sometimes hook a minnow through the tail one one treble hook and put a smelt on another hook from the treble.  I believe this adds a little more movement to the dead smelt.

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose? I feel you might as well be using live sucker or even live smelt if you can find them.

[esox_xtm]

I fish lots of deads for pike and do pretty well. Here in WI it used to be all smelt until the trout/salmon took the GL population down to the point of near extinction. I switched to bloater chubs before that happened and actually liked 'em better. Cheaper, better profile and oilier. Guess what? Not many of them left either. Few years back I got some lake herring from Superior. Pretty big stuff, the smallest was about 12" and the biggest was like 15". Still caught fish... Last year I used mackerel from the Asian grocery, still caught fish. I've said before, I'll say it again. Pike are pretty shameless creatures and good locations trump any presentation tweaks every time.

One of my secrets is the Windlass tipup. Yup, very labor intensive to maintain in bitter cold but down to 10 F or warmer they are the ticket to better catches with dead bait. Gotta have a breeze, but gently bobbing dead bait is an attraction you just have to experience. I'm still trying to work on how to use the presentation in colder temps but it has eluded me.

WI regs say we gotta keep our deads "preserved in a manner that does not require refrigeration or freezing", that means salt and lots of it. Since I've been following the letter of the law my dead catches have actually increased and if they changed the law today I'd be hard pressed to go back to straight frozen.

Also monkeyed a bit with food colored bait but haven't had enough confidence in it to form an opinion one way or the other.

As usual, just my opinions based on my experiences, UMMV....

[Tayreel]

I fish lots of deads for pike and do pretty well. Here in WI it used to be all smelt until the trout/salmon took the GL population down to the point of near extinction. I switched to bloater chubs before that happened and actually liked 'em better. Cheaper, better profile and oilier. Guess what? Not many of them left either. Few years back I got some lake herring from Superior. Pretty big stuff, the smallest was about 12" and the biggest was like 15". Still caught fish... Last year I used mackerel from the Asian grocery, still caught fish. I've said before, I'll say it again. Pike are pretty shameless creatures and good locations trump any presentation tweaks every time.

One of my secrets is the Windlass tipup. Yup, very labor intensive to maintain in bitter cold but down to 10 F or warmer they are the ticket to better catches with dead bait. Gotta have a breeze, but gently bobbing dead bait is an attraction you just have to experience. I'm still trying to work on how to use the presentation in colder temps but it has eluded me.

WI regs say we gotta keep our deads "preserved in a manner that does not require refrigeration or freezing", that means salt and lots of it. Since I've been following the letter of the law my dead catches have actually increased and if they changed the law today I'd be hard pressed to go back to straight frozen.

Also monkeyed a bit with food colored bait but haven't had enough confidence in it to form an opinion one way or the other.

As usual, just my opinions based on my experiences, UMMV....

Great infö and I really appreciate the time it takes to share your personal experiences guys. I look forward to experimenting and look forward to any other pointers people bring to the table!!!

[river_scum]

i use a drop shot type rig to keep bait up off bottom a bit. stuff a bit of sponge in the mouth(or put on hook) soaked in power bait. i dont have a windless yet but love the concept. with the windless i would add some small willow blades for flash. maybe even a worm rattle too for even farther attraction.

[Kobey]

I haven't had much luck with scents so far but I don't give up easily.  This year I plan on buying a bottle of smelt oil attractant to see if that helps with bringing them in on slow days.

One thing I've noticed is that if I catch a pike and it bleeds a bit, the bloody minnow seems to be deadly.  I've had pike take them before I even get the tipup set back in the hole.  Now I'm toying with the idea of trying to get some beef blood from a butcher shop and formulating my own attractant out of it.

[Tayreel]

i use a drop shot type rig to keep bait up off bottom a bit. stuff a bit of sponge in the mouth(or put on hook) soaked in power bait. i dont have a windless yet but love the concept. with the windless i would add some small willow blades for flash. maybe even a worm rattle too for even farther attraction.

This this drop shot rig would be awesome! Great way to know exactly how far your bait is off the bottom and keeps the line tight all the way through the leader so any movement of the rig should tip off the tip up! One thing that I'll be interested to see is if the drop weight causes the fish to experience a little resistance and in tern causing them to drop the bait.

Still experimenting with scents myself and so far haven't found a fool proof one. But blood is a different idea. I usually try and put back a lot of my pike to fight them again another day but some just are not that lucky do to an odd hooking etc. So one thats on the ice due to that might be a good one to experimental tool!

Thanks again guys for all your thoughts!
I haven't had much luck with scents so far but I don't give up easily.  This year I plan on buying a bottle of smelt oil attractant to see if that helps with bringing them in on slow days.

One thing I've noticed is that if I catch a pike and it bleeds a bit, the bloody minnow seems to be deadly.  I've had pike take them before I even get the tipup set back in the hole.  Now I'm toying with the idea of trying to get some beef blood from a butcher shop and formulating my own attractant out of it.

[mjk67]

I did something today, that I never thought I'd attempt.... and it (of course), did not work.

I attempted to put a piece of a canned Sardine on the exposed barb of my treble - which had a 7" sucker on it.



After 3 + decades on the ice, sometimes your mind wanders....

[Tayreel]

I did something today, that I never thought I'd attempt.... and it (of course), did not work.

I attempted to put a piece of a canned Sardine on the exposed barb of my treble - which had a 7" sucker on it.



After 3 + decades on the ice, sometimes your mind wanders....

Valid attempt giving your sucker a little more odor to draw fish in!

[32footsteps]

One of my secrets is the Windlass tipup. Yup, very labor intensive to maintain in bitter cold but down to 10 F or warmer they are the ticket to better catches with dead bait. Gotta have a breeze, but gently bobbing dead bait is an attraction you just have to experience. I'm still trying to work on how to use the presentation in colder temps but it has eluded me.

I agree that having a dead bait move can make a huge difference.  This is why I aggressively fish my tip-ups.  Every 10 minutes or so I'm walking around lifting them up about a foot and setting them back down. Keeps the bait moving, holes don't freeze shut... 

I prefer to keep my holes covered regardless of temperature.  That beam of light shining down a hole onto a lifeless bait is unnatural looking to anything swimming below.  35 degrees above or 35 degrees below, holes are covered. 

Another trick I employ is to drill another hole not far from my dead bait sets, maybe 10-15 feet away, and walk around with my pike jigging rod and spend a minute or two at each of those 2nd holes jigging a one ounce rattle bait.  After watching on camera how winter pike react to a jigged rattle bait it made this a necessary tactic.  Call stuff into the area with a rattle bait, they linger for a bit, dead bait is lifted a foot, a minute or two later a flag goes up.  Rinse and repeat. 

[Tayreel]

I agree that having a dead bait move can make a huge difference.  This is why I aggressively fish my tip-ups.  Every 10 minutes or so I'm walking around lifting them up about a foot and setting them back down. Keeps the bait moving, holes don't freeze shut... 

I prefer to keep my holes covered regardless of temperature.  That beam of light shining down a hole onto a lifeless bait is unnatural looking to anything swimming below.  35 degrees above or 35 degrees below, holes are covered. 

Another trick I employ is to drill another hole not far from my dead bait sets, maybe 10-15 feet away, and walk around with my pike jigging rod and spend a minute or two at each of those 2nd holes jigging a one ounce rattle bait.  After watching on camera how winter pike react to a jigged rattle bait it made this a necessary tactic.  Call stuff into the area with a rattle bait, they linger for a bit, dead bait is lifted a foot, a minute or two later a flag goes up.  Rinse and repeat. 

Well this way you will definitely always be doing some I have implied the extra ice holes to jig an attractor jig to call in fish but have never really thought to move the dead bait themselves very often. I typically fish really shallow though so I don't often cause much foot traffic around my tip ups in fear that the foot traffic would scare off potential pike.

[32footsteps]

Well this way you will definitely always be doing some I have implied the extra ice holes to jig an attractor jig to call in fish but have never really thought to move the dead bait themselves very often. I typically fish really shallow though so I don't often cause much foot traffic around my tip ups in fear that the foot traffic would scare off potential pike.

If pike are aggressive you won't have to lift the baits at all.  It's something I've gotten into the habit of doing because so many times it was the case where I'd go and clean holes out, set the tip-up back down, start heading to the next hole and the one you were just at would be up.  I suspect a pike was laying there eyeballing that hunk of meat and when it moved giving the impression that it was going to go away the pike was triggered to respond.  I've seen this on a camera where I've watched a smelt on a jig pole that was being dead sticked.  A pike would come into view and just sit there for minutes at a time without moving but they had the body posture that they were ready to strike.  Move the rod a little bit and bang, it explodes on the bait. 

This past weekend a similar situation occurred.  Three of us had tip-ups set out and were jigging.  We alternated our tip-ups so that half had smelt and the other half had shiners.  We had some consistent panfish action jigging and then all at once it just stopped.  I called the shot... "keep an eye on the flags, there's a pike in the area."  The other guys laughed.  I did a tip-up walk and just lifted the dead bait up 6 inches and set them back down.  Within 15 seconds of setting one back down the flag goes up and on the other end was a chunky 36 inch fish.  Within 5 minutes the panfish action went from nothing to once again fairly consistent. 

I wouldn't worry too much about foot traffic.  When ice is being formed and expands it makes quite a racket.  A little bit of crunching on the surface doesn't seem to bother them that much.  Pike are like goats, they'll eat anything and when they get locked onto what they want to eat regardless of size they'll stay locked on.  If I had a dollar for every time my flags went up after someone drives by with a vehicle I'd be able to retire.  In some situations I've even driven around my spread with my truck just to trigger something.  Fools gold?  perhaps.  Self fulfilling prophecy?  Perhaps.  Either way, that never seemed to spook the fish so a little foot traffic won't be too big of a deal either. 

[Tayreel]

Great advice 32footsteps! I've often had crappie bites seem pretty consistent and then action would go dead for a while with an occasional flag but guess never really thought about the connection between the two when no flags would pop. Always just assumed that it was primarily time of day because I could pretty much set my watch to it when the bite would happen at dawn and dusk. Thanks again for all the advice and I look forward to trying them out with the rest of the season!

[32footsteps]

Tayreel,

Another thing to pay attention to is what the dead bait looks like when you pull it up.  I primarily fish on a body of water that has pike, bullheads, and perch.  If the guts are eaten out of my dead bait that has been a huge tip-off that there are perch around.  If that's the case then the dead bait gets put away and I start targeting perch exclusively.  For this reason I carry a good number of tip-ups.  In WI we can only have 3 lines but I'll bring around 25-30 tip-ups on the lake with me so that I don't have to re-tie lines if I switch from dead to live bait or vice versa.  My panfish tip-ups have various colored hooks, jigs, some with spinners, some without, and anything else you can imagine.  Time wasted switching a tip-up over from one species to the next is time wasted fishing. 

[esox_xtm]

@32 - I like the way you think. We're a bit alike though I'm about a 20 minute guy on the tippy jiggling. Even live bait rigs get a lift..... I also have been jigging for pike the past four years with good results and I just keep "broadening the horizons". It's cool stuff. I agree that pike aren't usually too spooky though I have had fish spit bait on occasion if I run loudly to a set.

As for other noise, vehicles driving by can trigger a strike as can the train a half a mile away, or just someone walking across the lake that wanders through my sets or sometimes I even go around the outside banging with a spud. It's all worked at one time or another.

[32footsteps]

I also have been jigging for pike the past four years with good results and I just keep "broadening the horizons". It's cool stuff.

Pike jigging is a blast, especially if you are on water with a good population of decent fish.  If you are on a body of water that is loaded with snakes it gets old quick.  I posted this in another thread here and have talked about it on a couple of other sites but I've rigged up a stout walleye rod.  It has a backbone but isn't a pool cue.  A basic open faced reel and strung it with 80 pound power pro I pulled off of a muskie rod.  Essentially it's a muskie set up but for ice pike.  Leaders I'll use 100 pound flourocarbon, same as I do in the summer.  For baits I'll use the 1 ounce rattle baits to attract them in a tip-up spread or in a shack but as soon as they start showing up on camera I switch out to a bondy bait, fuzzy duzzit, regular sized bulldawg, etc.  Best day on my little honey hole (jigging in 6-7 feet of water) saw 17 pike caught jigging between 31-37 inches.  The buddy who was with me thought I lost my mind when I pulled out that rod and a bondy bait. 

The thought of using "oversized" baits like a bondy or a bulldawg through the ice never occurs to anyone but pike will eat almost anything.  You can catch snakes on those same baits in the summer so why wouldn't larger pike take them in the winter?  Seems pretty obvious to me. 

[Martian]

 I really don't think you need any, it is supposed to represent something dead

[oldman50]

Great ideas 32! I do the same thing with lifting the tip ups every now and then. I fish a lot of dead bait. Usually large suckers but I have been using a little trick for a while now. I salt and freeze the suckers so they don't freeze solid. They don't sink if they freeze solid. I put a few that I am going to use and put them in a separate bag with a little Cod liver oil. Just a few drops, don't over do it. I don't dose the whole bag, just a few that I know I will use. Just speaking from experience and what works for me.