pre baiting

[fishypaul]

Has anyone ever tried pre-baiting for pike?.

i was wondering because i tried it once and it was a total failure,
i regularly threw in small tit bits of fish,i thought it might attract the pike,but maybe it did the job too well,perhaps i filled them up and thats why i blanked.

i wonder if i pre-baited as if i was roach fishing,this would attract the roach and they in turn would attract the pike.
what do you think ?

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Interesting thought - I have never tried it but I have pre baited swims for roach / bream fishing and have always have pike in the swim the next day

Suppose they follow where the fish are so maybe it a different slant on the pre baiting idea

[fishypaul]

yes,i remember a book by richard walker (i think),he said that the best way to go pike fishing is to go roach fishing,

what about loose feeding maggots around your deadbaits,now theres an idea!

Pre baiting for pike does work... but works beter if maintained over a long period on a water where the fish density is low.

Pike on the whole are opportunist feeders, they quite literally grab what they can when they can. So on waters were roach etc are abundant, ie where you can chuck a handfull of maggots in and the roach appear, the pike dont have to work to hard for food. They nip out when hungry, grab a passing roach ( all too often with a size 20 in it mouth already :/ ) then return to their lie up area to digest it till they are hungry again. If you throw pre bait in they will simply move in ....eat it or whatever else they see in passing and go home.

But if the venue has a far lower stocking level i.e gravel pit, or scottish loch where they have to travel much further and work harder for a meal, they will soon learn that a particular area has easy pickings and will therefore relocate to the area so giving a higher pike concentration in one particular area.

So does pre baiting work ?...it does if you catch!

Hope it helps
Dave

[fishypaul]

thanks dave,food for thought

[Norfolkboy]

Have often thought about loosefeeding maggots around deadbaits, and know of someone who does it for catfish.

Have also seen 2 boys loosefeeding bits of cut up mackerel around there deadbaits and they went on to catch 4 pike up to 16lb in just a few hours.

[fishypaul]

in my younger years,(before wife and kids spoilt my fishing career),i played about with groundbaiting minced fish.
i used to save all my leftover fish baits(heads,guts,old pike baits etc)and i froze them,
when i had enough i would mince it all up and freeze the mixture into ice cubes,
i took the ice cubes to the lake in a food flask and threw them in,imagine my surprise when the bloody things floated and then drifted off up the lake before they melted.

i tried it again the following week,this time putting a small pebble in each ice cube,
great success !, they sunk when i threw them in, and the result ?
I BLANKED ! !.

all that effort for no result,i never tried it again

so much for good ideas

I think we have all had those day where we go to a peg one day ...and bag up ...next day or week ...nothing...

To test out or prove a theory it has got to be based on more than one days results. Just personally I dont think minced frozen leftovers is a good attractor for pike...firstly they were stale when u brought em home...and you had used the best bits for fishing....not exactly an appetising morsel for something capable of eating a 3 lb fish. BUT....you may have given me a cool idea for feeder fishing for chub perch and trout!

Clinical trials on medicine are based on several years fully documented trials...we base it on did we catch on a particular day when dozens of other factors may be involved. That is the whole point why so many people love fishing..every new session reveals new questions and challenges. During summer we could all go and catch mackerel in huge numbers....but we dont do it every day because we would soon get bored...we make a deliberate effort to get different species. You tried ice cubes...problems...u sorted problems and tried it again...you didn't catch...but you enjoyed doing it and the day was memorable enought to spring to mind when u saw this post...it was a good days fishing in my opinion.

Dave

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Good posts guys

Thinking about it I pre baited a swim for two days with trout pellets and on the day of the the fishing was very poor so I went for dead bait on a float rig and had 5 jack 5-11lb - now was that because of the pre baiting a fish food into the peg or just a lucky day

Nope ...thats cos the jacks moved in to eat the skimmers wallowing around saying to themselves...."if i eat another pellet i'll burst!"

:)