Mice as pike bait?

[symonh2000]

I read in one of John wilsons fishing books years ago that suggested that mice could be a good pike bait.

Has anyone actually tried it?

I have access to mice as my cat regularly deposits them outside my bedroom door.

 

[terry m]

I have never used mice as a bait, but I remember catching a pike of about 12lb that had what I thought was a shoe lace hanging from it's mouth. I tugged gently on the shoe lace and a tiny pair of hands (rear feet) appeared. The pike had swallowed a water vole and the lace was it's tail. The pike was returned non-the worse for it's experience. The vole stayed in the pike stomach.

 

[ronroach]

I do quite a bit of fly fishing. Once in Ireland a fellow angler gave me a mouse, an imitation mouse. For the fly rod. Apparantly they catch Sea Trout on them. I must have had it for 20 yrs and am ashamed to say I've yet to try it. Sure looks the part, tied with deerhair which is very buoyant, leather ears and tail, cute eyes! The body sits on a large single hook with a length of heavy mono running from eye to hook bend as a weed guard. I happen to know he bought it in Farlows of Pall Mall in the late 80s.

I have little doubt Pike would go for it. Couldn't stand to see my little mouse roughed up though .

Ron.

 

[chub_on_the_block]

For a static bait on the deck, free-lined tortoise is the dogs.

 

[beerweasel]

Surely mice would be for catfish ?

 

[chav professor]

used to throw mice into our Mill pool.... Boy we would hunt for them... occasionally the odd sack of animal feed had a family. First and foremost, rats and mice where air rifle targets.

My brother threw one into the Mill pool to have a 'moving' target and a big set of white lips came up and took it off the surface. Chub love them... for certain... Never used one for bait. The thought of hooking one is a bit distasteful..

There, proper Suffolk country entertainment!

 

[symonh2000]

For a static bait on the deck, free-lined tortoise is the dogs.

mg:


PMSL.

 

[BarryC]

Dont think I could stick anything into something warm and furry.

 

[Rickrod]

Dont think I could stick anything into something warm and furry.

Ha ha ha are you sure Barry

 

[Paul Boote]

Take a gander at this Google pics page.

deer hair mouse fly - Google Search

Over the past thirty years, both here and abroad, I have had pike to 19 pounds (here), wild brown trout to 18 pounds and wild rainbow to around 14 pounds (abroad) on cunningly self-tied versions. Sure beat plugs, when you have spent some time with a sheet of suede from some lady's old handbag, some leather bootlaces, a large square of Red deer hide, some black beads (for eyes), some very sharp scissors and some scalpels and razorblades: satisfaction.

PS - Also very popular with non-Angler ladies ... the numbers I have been "forced" to give away....

 

[S-Kippy]

Fly fishing DVD :: Once in a Blue Moon Fly fishing Video Awards Winning Clip - YouTube

 

[Derek Gibson]

Yes, pike readily take mice and rats, whilst they are swimming on the surface, I've watched them do it. Don't know about dead ones though.

One thing's for sure, during the warmer months of the year, lures fashioned in the shape of rats and mice take regular hauls of pike for me and friends I have supplied with my home made creations, complete with leather tails. Those lures have varied in size, from 5-9inches.

 

[dorsetandchub]

For a static bait on the deck, free-lined tortoise is the dogs.

Chub,

Would that be like using a pacifist signal crayfish?? Imagine a chub trying to pass THOSE bits of shell.....?


Phil.

 

[Paul Boote]

Take a gander at this Google pics page.

deer hair mouse fly - Google Search

Over the past thirty years, both here and abroad, I have had pike to 19 pounds (here), wild brown trout to 18 pounds and wild rainbow to around 14 pounds (abroad) on cunningly self-tied versions. Sure beat plugs, when you have spent some time with a sheet of suede from some lady's old handbag, some leather bootlaces, a large square of Red deer hide, some black beads (for eyes), some very sharp scissors and some scalpels and razorblades: satisfaction.

PS - Also very popular with non-Angler ladies ... the numbers I have been "forced" to give away....

And look what appears on the excellent Erin Block's Midcurrent flyfishing blog the following morning. As Mister Jinxs the cat said in the Pixie and Dixie cartoon when I was a very small child, "I hate meeces to pieces!". Trout, on the other hand, love them - that 18-pound Chilean backcountry stream brown I mentioned above, 28-plus long x 18-plus inches girth, took my mouse in a yard-wide boil, came out of the water another full yard, then took the 15-yard-wide stream and me (holding just some pathetic little 3.25-ounce, 9ft, 5-weight fly rod and Toy Town reel) apart! Grrrr!

Video Hatch: “Trout and Mice” | MidCurrent

 

[pointngo]

take a look at the Heddon Meadow Mouse and Smity Scuttle Bug lures.. both mouse imitations that catch fish.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=h...om%2Flures%2FlureperfMeadowMouse.html;350;122

SMITY from Chicoslures Chicos Lures sells a wide range of crank,

 

[nicepix]

Not tried mice flies for pike, but I have had a few large mouth bass on them in Cyprus. I would imagine that they could be useful in shallow water in spring when the rodent migration is in full swing.

 

[symonh2000]

Lures that look like mice certainly work, but to me that doesn't necessarily mean that mice themselves would work hence why I asked.

Some of the lures that catch fish look nothing like anything that swims in the water, yet they still catch fish.


I suppose only the pike knows for sure why that is the case...

 

[chav professor]

I had a spell 2 seasons ago when I was getting pike striking at Luncheon meat as I was retrieving it... This was after dark... the trigger was when the meat started to skip or make a disturbance on the surface.

Lure fishing after dark..... With surface lures....

I remember starting a thread on this and learnt that one or two anglers who are ahead in the game are already exploiting lures well into darkness. If you think about it, jitter bugs and poppers don't really look that realistic... its the action.. if it behaves like a creature struggling on the surface its going to elicit that evolutionary response.

I will give after dark lure angling a proper go at some point.... and surface lures will be my main prong of attack.

 

[tiinker]

I have caught pike on the heddon meadow mouse lure and hav made my own version using corks and mole pelts. My brother has used the deer hair mice to catch rainbows in Alaska mousing on the side streams.

 

[Derek Gibson]

One thing that did emerge during my years of lure making, was that jointed surface lures scored heavily over the straight versions. And both types were given equal fishing time.

The commercially made ''Hawg Wobbler'' being a classic example. The wobble and click these jointed lures give out should never be under estimated. So much so that all my surface lures over the last 25 plus years have been jointed versions.