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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.
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?
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.
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.