MyFishFinder.com Just like iceshanty but warmer
Where do you hook your bait ? My experience has been to hook all bait it the rear 1/4 of the bait... I know everyone runs with the idea that pike tussle and flip bait around in their mouths before attempting to swallow it.. My belief is they just inhale it from the get go... Their teeth are more of a restraining or wounding tool.. I dont know about yall but it always seems a bait is going down their throat head 1st... Keeping this in mind and having a bait hooked in its tail quarter allows the hook to leave the bait more freely and at the same time have a shorter distance to the tooth line.. Which is why i seem to have almost a 95% hook up rate in the outside corner of the jaw.. Thus eliminating teeth from the equation.. Do i still get gut shots ? Yup.. But not nearly as many as i have in the past hooking bait in the dorsal fin or back area... I just recently started to document this... Tail hoked bait leads to corner of the jaw hooksets... Give it a try see for yourself... Rub a few sets like that and see what happens, id be interested to see your results....
I tend to use only 2 rigs. One is a single circle hook, and there other is a 2 treble quickstrike. The circle hook I hook it right in front of the dorsal fin so the bait is balanced. The quick strike I put one right behind the dorsal fin, but in the side of the body, and the other some where in front of the fin, on the other side, and also in the side of the body. There's no way pike inhale the bait I use. I've seen in many times on camera and in person how pike strike these big suckers. The come up the the side and t bone them. Then they cruise off 25-75 yards, sometimes more, and finally turn the bait head first and swallow. Small bait sure, it gets sucked right in, but not a foot long live sucker struggling the whole way. Pike go to where they feel safe. I don't wait to set hooks, and I couldn't even begin to give percentages, but I don't miss many fish anymore, and most are hooked on the outside of the jaw. The problem is they are wild creatures, and a lot can happen in the seconds it takes to get to your tip up. I've tried tail hooked bait before, but it was dead bait. What kind of bait are you using, and what size of hooks?
my god, go STEEL or go home.................. ......please we are talking big pike here ,right ? not panfish, teeth, big teeth, figure it out...
80lb fluoro. How many 20 pounders you ever caught?
You sir are a broken record.This has gotten the original question absolutely no where. Fish with what you're comfortable with and experiment.
Its even personal preference in the pro staff world. Obvious that not one setup is key. This argument can go on for years. http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/magazine/february-magazine/finding-big-wi-pike-through-the-ice/