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Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Northern Pike => Topic started by: Remps17 on Dec 16, 2019, 02:47 PM
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I am able to get my hands on free suckers from a buddy who does some commercial fishing. The suckers are pretty big, ranging from a foot to over 20". I have never used suckers for bait before. I am fishing in Saskatchewan and Alberta so the suckers will be dead when I use them.
How big is to big for a sucker. We have some giant pike in my neck of the woods and have caught big pike on some big bait before but nothing this big.
Any suggestions on how to fish them and how to rig them would be appreciated. I was thinking of fishing the suckers right on the bottom.
Thanks for the help
Cheers
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I am a big sucker for pike and I am pretty big. ;D ;D
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that makes two of us
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Use them whole up to 14" then fillet the rest. Leave the skin and scales on and cut the fillets into workable size strips. ;)
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by cutting the suckers into smaller bait, does it affect how it fishes when compared to whole bait?
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I would leave them whole. You can just use a single treble but your success rate will increase with a quick strike rig.
I would use the smaller bait but try the larger too, it might be the answer.
I would set tip ups in the entire water column. I never fish on the bottom for pike. Usually 3-10ft off the bottom.
Hope that helps :tipup:
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I was just looking into the subject myself since I dont have a bait tank set up and I rarely need them.
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This all depends on the limit of your fishery. If you've got a crack at legit 40"+ I'd say fish 'em whole. I've swung 15" deads in the hopes of sorting for size and caught fish from 39 - 44". 20 inches is a LOT of bait and unless you're looking for a mid 40s fish I'd lean toward carving the roast a bit. Pike don't seem to mind chunks of fish. Presented in the right spot they are opportunistic feeders and a fish stick, hot dog, pop can, quarter pounder can all be fair game.
In fairness, when you hang a 15" dead on a rig you feel kinda stupid (at least I did) until a flag pops. Thing is it might be a while depending on where you are.
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This all depends on the limit of your fishery. If you've got a crack at legit 40"+ I'd say fish 'em whole. I've swung 15" deads in the hopes of sorting for size and caught fish from 39 - 44". 20 inches is a LOT of bait and unless you're looking for a mid 40s fish I'd lean toward carving the roast a bit. Pike don't seem to mind chunks of fish. Presented in the right spot they are opportunistic feeders and a fish stick, hot dog, pop can, quarter pounder can all be fair game.
In fairness, when you hang a 15" dead on a rig you feel kinda stupid (at least I did) until a flag pops. Thing is it might be a while depending on where you are.
On the big trip we do every year, we go with about 10-15 guys, so we can have 20-30 lines in the water. I was thinking of taking a handful of these lines and chucking some 15"+ bait. so many lines, were not loosing much if we don't catch on the big baits. Also we catch pike in the 30lb range out of this lake. Last year we kept a pike around the 7lb range for dinner. He had five 6inch baits in his belly. He was eating them off the bottom. Makes me want to try a bait or two off the bottom and see how it turns out.
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I use big ones. A few years ago I found a partially decade one that measured 12" (probably a couple inches bigger pre-rot) in a 24" pike I caught on a tip up. They'll eat whatever you put on there if their hungry.
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Its strange but ive caught some of my biggest snot rockets say 37 to 40 on small bait.and i dont do good using suckers.5 to 7 golden shiners for me.
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Its strange but ive caught some of my biggest snot rockets say 37 to 40 on small bait.and i dont do good using suckers.5 to 7 golden shiners for me.
Ever try ciscos?
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Ever try ciscos?
nope,never ran across them to use.i only use live bait for pike too.
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nope,never ran across them to use.i only use live baidt for pike too.
I haven't either. But a lake my cousin lives on has a few. And whenever he catches one he throws it on a tip up. Claims they are deadly. And yeah, live bait here too Doc.
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I haven't either. But a lake my cousin lives on has a few. And whenever he catches one he throws it on a tip up. Claims they are deadly. And yeah, live bait here too Doc.
ive done well using dink perch too.good thing to because quite a few lakes are plagued with 3 to 5 perch.bait stealing little shats.
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Ever try ciscos?
Love to get my hands on a bucket of them! I've used boater chubs and lake herring, both relatives, besides the classic smelt. Smelt and bloaters have come in such short supply these last few years proper size dead bait is hard to source unless you want to pay $18 a half dozen for dead fish of marginal size.
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Love to get my hands on a bucket of them! I've used boater chubs and lake herring, both relatives, besides the classic smelt. Smelt and bloaters have come in such short supply these last few years proper size dead bait is hard to source unless you want to pay $18 a half dozen for dead fish of marginal size.
Yup...oily, slimy and nasty. What's not to like? 🙄😁