decoy bait

[hollis]

Not sure that is the best title for this but I understand that some people use decoys to attract big pike for spearing we don't allow spearing here so I don't have anyone to ask, but I was wondering  two things,...after the pike come close,..do they eventually strike the decoy? If so,..would not a big Rebel/Rapella catch a big pike on a tip up?
I understand that some guys feel that dead bait work best for pike as they are looking for easy meals that won't bolt on them and there are dead bait for the picking of occasional suspended minnows (?) Anyway wondering if anyone has tried a stationary fish type lure and if so any success?

[gulp]

While I was still in michigan we would hang the decoy up on a steel wire tied to a screen door spring. Before we came up with this rig we lost two decoys to pike hits. Most of the time the pike would swim up real slow kind of like it was trying to sneak up on it. When the decoy did not move it would just swim away.If you jiged the decoy the pike would come back but they did not always hit it. I am not sure about the dead bait thing but I have caught pike with both live and dead bait.

[bisceglia]

is this a question on jigging for pike?

[hollis]

Well not really jigging. Just if you set up a large  rebel or rapella on a tipup line,..would you expect a pike to hit it like they might do with a dead minnow. I guess they do hit the old decoys that guys have used when spearing was used fr them.
Then in thinking about it, you might have to rig it differently to keep it horizontal . Maybe not? Would a dying/dead minnow always be horizontal?