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It's funny, almost every pike I clean has small bluegills in them. I would love to use them as bait, but I just can't seem to catch any quite small enough. Usually catch plenty of small perch, though.
We bring tipups with us a lot when we don't buy bait. My son and I throw small perch on the tipups as we catch them. Last weekend we ended up with about 7 tipups out, because that was how many perch we caught that were in the right size range. Had several flags and caught a 30"/7lb pike on one of them. It works. It's funny, almost every pike I clean has small bluegills in them. I would love to use them as bait, but I just can't seem to catch any quite small enough. Usually catch plenty of small perch, though.
A little different here ... most "non-game" species can be used for bait. Thanks for the tip, though!