Most productive bait

[Pike Dude]

What are your most productive pike baits? New regs this year in Vermont, so I might have to get creative, lol. Thanks

[hard_water]

depends if i can jig smelt i like them dead, i usually just step on em good and hard one time loosens the scales and squeezes the oil out of em. and if smelt is not available shiners,suckers, small gill but i like em all dead.


                                                                        water

[Master Angler]

I thought you already made this post under northern pike.  I believe there was lots of replies.  What are the new regs? how creative do u have to get?  can you not use dead frozen baitfish, smelts, sardines, etc.?

[Pike Dude]

If I did sorry. You can only use bait native to vermont. I do not know about sardines. Smelt can only be used in the waters from hich they were caught, which in Vermont there are not many AT ALL. Lake Champlain is the only one that I know of. You also can't trap. You must have a receipt from the bai shop from which you purchased the fish. Here is all the info.  http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/vhs.cfm

[Fish_Tko]

Ever try a smokey link soaked in menhaden oil?

[Master Angler]

Wow.  THose are some extreme regs, but likely necessary for the health of our waters and fish populations.  If you can catch yellow perch from where you are pike fishing I would use them.  I would be tempted to catch a small northern and throw it on a quick strike rig too, LOL.  

Another thing I would do if you have a permanent shanty on the lake, catch a bunch of perch via jigging, and keep them live in your shack, and you would always have fresh bait from that lake.   Have a cooler in there as a live well, rig up an aerator to a battery and maybe a small solar panel to charge the battery.  That should be somewhat legal, and quite creative, LOL.  Or just leave them froze in your shanty.

You may also just jig with tube jigs, bucktails, spoons etc, tipped w minnows.

[Gezzah]

And if you cant get a solar panel, feel free to install some wind turbines around your shanty which can charge a generator for your aerator.....  You should be able to keep your bait alive that way as well!! 

[JCaughtem]

What are your most productive pike baits? New regs this year in Vermont, so I might have to get creative, lol. Thanks

Fall fish dead/life ive had much sucsess.

[shrub]

Im also from VT, the states definiton of "baitfish" is any fish live or dead that is to be used for bait, sardines wouldent be legal. my plan was to order a bunch of perseaved shiners but thats not legal either. your best bet if you cant buy shiners would be to jig smelt or perch ( as long as you are using them in the same body of water you caught them in) if you cant do that iv heard that hotdogs and chiken livers work good.