pike fishing

[gprosi]

how far do I set my bait of the bottom for pike

[SeisMec]

There are a few threads on this. It's easy to do a search using the search button that is just under the sponsor banner at the top of the page.

The short answer is it varies for a foot off the bottom to just a few inches under the ice. The longer answer is that pike's eyes are to the top of their head so they are looking up for their prey so if they are cruising the bottom, anywhere from 1 to 3 foot off the bottom works. If they are cruising the middle of the water column you but your bait somewhere in the middle and if t you are fishing shallow water or the pike are cruising along the surface you drop your bait just below the ice.

[gooner]

X2. I did an experiment 1 weekend, where I put one bait a foot off bottom,and one bait 1 foot below the ice . the one just below the ICE out fished the one on bottom but that was from a one weekend trial .

[iceman8132]

I tend to fish a few inches off the bottom when jigging because even if there is very little light the fish can still key in on the vibrations. Now for tip ups I use shiners generally set in the middle of the water column when it's sunny and not much snow on the ice. Now if it's cloudy and little light is penetrating the ice I set them shallower so mor light is reflected off of the shiner thus attracting fish while it's swimming. I have great success sticking to this but every lake and fisherman has their own preference the best thing to do is experiment.