bennygesserit
Well-known member
having only caught pike inadvertantly this isnt at all how I imagined them to interact or not with a dead bait
Click here for you tube
Click here for you tube
Underwater pike video dead baiting
- Thread starter bennygesserit
- Start date
@Clive
Well-known member
I like this guy's videos. They teach us a lot that contradicts conventional knowledge.
flightliner
Well-known member
I'e met his brother a couple of time when out fishing.
They both did videos at one time but only the one in the vid seems to have continued.
Take note of his casting Clive next time you watch his next vid, spot on in some dificult situations most times.
He does catch some lovely fish from canals, small rivers and streams.
The point about striking pike takes quickly was interesting. I'd fish for them more often if I knew how to set up a single hook rig for early hooking and swerve the pairs of trebles, risk of deep hooking etc.
The point about striking pike takes quickly was interesting. I'd fish for them more often if I knew how to set up a single hook rig for early hooking and swerve the pairs of trebles, risk of deep hooking etc.
@Clive
Well-known member
Do you think the rig has something to with that Kev? I have long thought that the more hook length that you give fish, the more likely you are to have fish deeply hooked. Especially when fishing bottom rigs.
I guess it must Clive. Thankfully, I don't often deep-hook any fish as I fish with the rod in my hand and hit bites asap, but some species - brownies and perch come to mind, as I was after the first but caught the second last weekend - wolf a bait down. I had to cut the line twice as far down as I could on Saturday to avoid poking around with a disgorger into an 8 oz perch. When it comes to pike, I'm really only tempted to catch them when they're interrupting my roach fishing or tearing holes in my net, but I'd like to be able to do it without endangering my fingers or the pike.
@Clive
Well-known member
I don't do much pike fishing these days. But on the upper Charente, it is a small river there, similar the the Derwent above Darley Dale but slower, I used a single hooked bleak dead bait with a SSG about 9" from the bait that anchored the rig and larger LG suspended a few inches off the bottom. The rest of the weight needed to cock the float was right under the float. It resembles the sliding float rig that I use for barbel on the lower part of the river. As soon as the bottom shot is disturbed you get an indication on the float. The deadbait rig caught zander and perch as well as the sub 10lb pike that I was after. I think that would be a better option on a canal or river where you can fish close in.
bennygesserit
Well-known member
sorry for being the muggle , but could you make the dead bait float in some way so it looked more natural ?
@Clive
Well-known member
Not a daft question Paul. Yes, you can put rig foam inside the fish to make it float. But whether that is natural is a another question. For me the key is in the comments that movement often created interest and takes.
Aknib
Well-known member
I still use double trebles... Snap tackle, Jardine rigs or whatever you want to call them and based on something I saw as a kid on the upper Witham I modified the spacing and positioning to enable me to instantly strike and it barely ever lets me down.
I use it for Zander too.
I don't position one treble in the root of the tail, or the head, with the other treble mid body.
I shorten the distance between the two trebles and position them both to span the mid-body of the deadbait, right where I watched my first ever Pike suck up my deadbait from off that riverbed, with it slumped sideways across its beak before turning it.
I've been down single and circle hook rigs to quite an extent with a higher loss ratio but this approach allows me to strike instantly, I put more fish on the bank by using it and i've never had a deep hooked fish with it.
I've also wondered why Pike pick up deadbaits this way and all I can conclude is that the bigger surface area of the mid-body of a deadbait attracts more 'draw' when the Pike opens its mouth than the streamlined head or tail, making it easier to pick up where it then goes on to turn the bait with relative ease.
I do think that trebles look barbaric by comparison but the reality of what i've been doing for some time now helps to level things up when you consider that out of the six hook points it's one or two at the most which actually penetrate that bony mouth and then only very shallow given the fact i'm striking instantly with full confidence, making for far quicker and easier hook removal.
It's an incentive to strike quickly too...
The longer the wait the more chance the Pike has of detecting the hooks and throwing the bait.
I use it for Zander too.
I don't position one treble in the root of the tail, or the head, with the other treble mid body.
I shorten the distance between the two trebles and position them both to span the mid-body of the deadbait, right where I watched my first ever Pike suck up my deadbait from off that riverbed, with it slumped sideways across its beak before turning it.
I've been down single and circle hook rigs to quite an extent with a higher loss ratio but this approach allows me to strike instantly, I put more fish on the bank by using it and i've never had a deep hooked fish with it.
I've also wondered why Pike pick up deadbaits this way and all I can conclude is that the bigger surface area of the mid-body of a deadbait attracts more 'draw' when the Pike opens its mouth than the streamlined head or tail, making it easier to pick up where it then goes on to turn the bait with relative ease.
I do think that trebles look barbaric by comparison but the reality of what i've been doing for some time now helps to level things up when you consider that out of the six hook points it's one or two at the most which actually penetrate that bony mouth and then only very shallow given the fact i'm striking instantly with full confidence, making for far quicker and easier hook removal.
It's an incentive to strike quickly too...
The longer the wait the more chance the Pike has of detecting the hooks and throwing the bait.
I remeber watching a Pike pick up a lump of meat on the Kennet, I had positioned it on some gravel near the far bank were I could see it and had sat back to watch events. A decent Pike appeared some way away and slowly edged up to the meat, nothing rushed at all and picked it up with the tip of its mouth with surprising dexterity. I never forgot that. Colin Dyson also wrote a really good article about this once & described how he watched a fry feeding Pike. There was a very large and dense concentration of fry in the corner of a lake and he watched a Pike basically swimmoing slowly along with its mouth open like a sort of basking shark just scooping up the fry graceful as you like.
He said prior to seeing that his vison of how Pike would feed in a mass of fry would be smashing into them in a sort of shark feeding frenzy and he said his respect for the quarry went up several notches as a result.
About unhooking ..about 2 or 3 weeks ago I was walking along the river and spotted an older chap carrying a Pike of about 8lbs around by the gill flap with a trace hanging out of its mouth. I went up to him and asked if all was ok and he said its deep hooked & asked if I wanted it ? (to eat). At that moment the Pike gave a twitch. I asked if I could have a look, he let me and peering inside its mouth I could just make out the eye of his hook deep in the gullet. The Pike was very near dead but I asked if I could have a go at unhooking it. The guy kept insisting it was impossible, the fish was too deep hooked etc etc so I asked him to wait and ran back to my car to get some unhooking stuff. To cut a long story short I managed to unhook it, eventually by going via the gill flaps which can sometime be easier with a very deep hooked fish (dont touch the rakers!) with the guy constantly in my ear telling me to give up, not to try, it wont work blah blah. I knew it was going to be a lost cause but I then spent another 20mins trying to revive it in the river (got soaked and covered in mud as a result) but I couldnt save it so he took it to eat. I dont think he was fishing specifically to kill the fish it was pretty obvious the problem was down to him leaving it too long before striking and not knowing how to unhook a fish. At least I have probably helped to solve one of those issues by showing him how to unhook them but of course it wont solve the other issue of simply not striking quick enough.
He said prior to seeing that his vison of how Pike would feed in a mass of fry would be smashing into them in a sort of shark feeding frenzy and he said his respect for the quarry went up several notches as a result.
About unhooking ..about 2 or 3 weeks ago I was walking along the river and spotted an older chap carrying a Pike of about 8lbs around by the gill flap with a trace hanging out of its mouth. I went up to him and asked if all was ok and he said its deep hooked & asked if I wanted it ? (to eat). At that moment the Pike gave a twitch. I asked if I could have a look, he let me and peering inside its mouth I could just make out the eye of his hook deep in the gullet. The Pike was very near dead but I asked if I could have a go at unhooking it. The guy kept insisting it was impossible, the fish was too deep hooked etc etc so I asked him to wait and ran back to my car to get some unhooking stuff. To cut a long story short I managed to unhook it, eventually by going via the gill flaps which can sometime be easier with a very deep hooked fish (dont touch the rakers!) with the guy constantly in my ear telling me to give up, not to try, it wont work blah blah. I knew it was going to be a lost cause but I then spent another 20mins trying to revive it in the river (got soaked and covered in mud as a result) but I couldnt save it so he took it to eat. I dont think he was fishing specifically to kill the fish it was pretty obvious the problem was down to him leaving it too long before striking and not knowing how to unhook a fish. At least I have probably helped to solve one of those issues by showing him how to unhook them but of course it wont solve the other issue of simply not striking quick enough.
Last edited: