Need advice on pike leaders please

[northernnyice]

Big bait Usaually equals big pike.  If your looking for a day of flags use small stuff. That trophy will most likely be taken on the biggest bait you can find.  I've caught many awesome pike in the past few years using 50# Dacron tied to a 12-18 inch steel leader.  Dead bait on bottom.  It's not just the bite off that I worry about it's the line getting froze and tangled when he's trying to make a long run. If it gets caught on anything he's breaking the mono for sure. I've been spooled with a steel leader attached, had the tip up bouncing in the hole when I got to it. The fish wrapped him self around a tree branch. I literally started to pull the line like I was draging an iced up sled through snow. Ended up pulling both the branch (log) and pike in. The pike was only 30-32" long but I got em thanks to steel. One down side I noticed is if they gut the hook it's not as easy to just cut The line and let them go. I Usaually keep my pike so it's not something I worry about.

I would eliminate the blades and sinkers, tie to a steel leader or if your feeling lucky heavy mono. Start useing huge dead bait on bottom. It's a special feeling when a flag goes off when you know your
Baits huge, laying lifeless on the bottom.

Do you use a single treble hook rig when you fish big deads or some sort of quick strike?


Also with the bait, late season i agree with big baits. (Heck I run big baits all year long.) But early and mid season i have seen plenty of 40"+ fish come on small live shiners.

[bird21s]

I'm using a single treble hook. There's no rhyme or reason. One season  I decided to go for pike and didn't really care if I got a lot of hits. I never used my tip ups as I was a perch guy. My brother told me about this area his friend lost a lot of fish due to bite offs so I tied a steal leader on and put the biggest bait I could jig up on it. Heared a lot about dead on the bottom resulting in big fish so I popped the bladder and slit a gill laying the bait on bottom. Half hour later I got my biggest pike ever at 14 lbs. I was loving it. So i re baited the same way and went back to jigging perch. 20 minutes after that I caught a 42" 20#er broke my own pb in the same day. So considering I jig and don't watch flags all day I set them with huge Bait and if they go off great if not I've got perch to keep me occupied. Since that year I've caught multiple 40" pike around the 17-18 lb range and several 13-15 lbers. I've fished next to mono and out fished them using the same bait.  Location and water body is what I believe makes the most difference. I will say that in lake George and bomoseen I've never caught a pike on the steel. But then again I only set up a few tip ups with monster perch and smelt for them a total of 5 times give or take.

[nysurvivorman]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Many different ideas out there but I am going to try  a little of what everyone suggested. First , as Bird was saying I should get rid of all those blades/spinners. It doesn't seem from the post too many people use them. Also , I am going to switch 3 out of 5 to fluoro (40 lb.) , the other 2 I will switch to that fine wire gold leader sold by Eagle Claw. Right now I have too may black thick 12 inch wire leaders. Will go with a combo of large shiners and a few bigger pike baits shiners. They are close to 6 inches long. Would love to use big suckers but in southeastern ny it is hard to find them along with GIANT shiners. The only other question I have is I always try to fish rather shallow for them, 10 ft or less. I have been putting the shiner about 2 ft from bottom or, if weeds, just above them. Do you think in 10 feet or less I should be placing my bait just below the hole?     

[fishslayer730]

I make my own steal leaders and some I use 2-3 crystal beads of same color and some  have just a hook or hooks depending on what bait is going down the hole...I take lots of different styles with me out n see what they want....have very good luck with red, orange, blue, purple, and clear the crystal type flash a lot when bait wiggles....also I usually use nongame fish( ny dec considers anything with out size limit  nongame fish even if it has # limit  u just have to count what is used on your tip ups as part of your daily limit and at end of day u still have some dinner  after debaiting tipups) for bait of diff sizes and do pretty well

[JigSchtickGeorge]

8 lb xt mono for this piggie, I was laker fishing in 40' once I noticed it was a pike I got very nervous it would cut me off as the hook was way inside its mouth.  I'm still in shock i got it out of the hole, we gaffed it safely in the lip and quickly released it
http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x322/Frankiesays1/BBD756C9-8579-4270-BDD7-53ADF55DD830.jpg

[JigSchtickGeorge]

Been a while I hope this one wirks

[Captain1978]

A lot of good info here. Basically you need to go by trial and error. Try different things and do what works for you and what you feel comfortable with............I do want to state this though. Bigger is not always better. I have caught 2 of my biggest Pike on small bait. One on a small Sucker and one on a small Shiner. I have also caught some of my smallest fish on some of my biggest bait. It goes both ways though. Again it's confidence in what you are doing. Some days the big fish doesn't want to use energy on a small bait and sometimes they are eating anything.

[northernnyice]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Many different ideas out there but I am going to try  a little of what everyone suggested. First , as Bird was saying I should get rid of all those blades/spinners. It doesn't seem from the post too many people use them. Also , I am going to switch 3 out of 5 to fluoro (40 lb.) , the other 2 I will switch to that fine wire gold leader sold by Eagle Claw. Right now I have too may black thick 12 inch wire leaders. Will go with a combo of large shiners and a few bigger pike baits shiners. They are close to 6 inches long. Would love to use big suckers but in southeastern ny it is hard to find them along with GIANT shiners. The only other question I have is I always try to fish rather shallow for them, 10 ft or less. I have been putting the shiner about 2 ft from bottom or, if weeds, just above them. Do you think in 10 feet or less I should be placing my bait just below the hole?     

I like 2 beads with a small chrome indiana or french or colorado blade above it for live suckers and shiners, especially in stained water. I think it defeats the purpose with dead bait though. All in all, I dont think a couple beads and a small chrome or gold blade hurts a thing.

[Raquettedacker]

Great fish JigSchtickGeorge .....

[bigfish1212]

Caught this 38" on 20# floro that had been frayed pretty bad by a smaller fish 20 min before. Was impressed with how well it held up.