dead bait presentation

[mullen2525]

what are your guys opinions on fishing dead bait, lay it on the bottom or suspend?  how do you hook your dead bait?

[powderburns]

What are you fishing for? For pike I fish either on the bottom or within 2 feet of bottom. I use the biggest bait I can buy, 10-12in. I use a rig I make myself, consisting of a 1/2oz jig with a treble stinger. I've never had a stinger bit off yet.
The jig speeds up the process of sinking the bait. The jig goes thru the head + the stinger hooks ahead of the tail.

[Lobes]

Keep it simple.
Just a # 4 treble on a wire leader works fine. Just bury two of the hooks in the middle and lay it on the bottom. If you want to suspend them you may need to experiment with hook location until it hangs straight or tipped slightly down. Laying them on the bottom works best for me (pike are scavengers and this is what they normally see). When they take a dead bait they normally swallow it and only move a few feet so move fast when you get a flag. It's rare to get a false alarm with dead bait (don't think I ever have). As I've posted before my bait of choice for pike is bluegill (dead or alive - the bigger the better).

[TroutFishingBear]

Lobes is correct in that they only move a few feet after you get a flag. If you get there, and you feel a. the pike sitting there (added weight) or b. no fish, wait up to 3 minutes. Usually the pike will either come back if he left, or he will start moving if he was just sitting there. Set the hook when he is moving. My bait of choice is a 5" dead yellow perch. (if they are in your lake) I set it up as a quick strike rig and my leader is a very heavy floro as our fish are line shy here. I like to set it up about 1 ft. off of the bottom because when I am jigging for perch with my sonar, and I get a pike on my presentation, the pike always came in about 1 ft. off of the bottom. Figured that putting the dead bait there would make it eye level with most pike

[taz54868]

great info

[jrsue]

Lobes is correct in that they only move a few feet after you get a flag. If you get there, and you feel a. the pike sitting there (added weight) or b. no fish, wait up to 3 minutes. Usually the pike will either come back if he left, or he will start moving if he was just sitting there. Set the hook when he is moving. My bait of choice is a 5" dead yellow perch. (if they are in your lake) I set it up as a quick strike rig and my leader is a very heavy floro as our fish are line shy here. I like to set it up about 1 ft. off of the bottom because when I am jigging for perch with my sonar, and I get a pike on my presentation, the pike always came in about 1 ft. off of the bottom. Figured that putting the dead bait there would make it eye level with most pike

when a pike first enters the cone of your sonar signal even if he's 3ft of the bottom it will appear as if he's coming up from the bottom.