Pike Deadbait help

[glowster]

I'm fishing a small canal at close range with smallish deadbaits. Mainly frozen sardines or half fresh herring.
With it being close range I dont want to overstrike but have been having trouble getting hooks from bait to fish.
Im leaving the bait a small amount of time but not enought to deep hook the pike.

If I hook the bait to loose I lose the bait and dont wont to be leaving free offerings in the water when they are only eating occaisionaly - if I hook the bait to well the hooks stay in the bait and the fish comes off when it decides to eject the bait, usualy when they come to the surface after about 5 seconds (with the jacks anyway).

Any advice welcome

[Mark78]

are you using trebles?

[glowster]

Yup,
Usually point in the lip second in the back or if a tail section one in the root one in the flank.

It may also be that the baits are to big for the jacks but going off he few Ive had I dont think so and there are doubles knocking around so I dont want to scale back.

I dont know if this makes a difference but the fish seem to be just laying up, lots of leeches etc so may not be too active. I'd rather not hook the fish than deep hook them so maybe striking to early but the last thing I want to do is kill a fish just for a picture.

[blackwater]

Id look at your hooking arrangement, the pike take there baits head first so getting the trebles positioned correctly is a must.

Look here >> Pike Fishing Rigs

I'd use the top hook arrangement for my ledgered dead baits, the middle for trolling and then the bottom for float fished deads...

Hope this helps.

[Bassboy78]

Just wondering way rods ate u using and wat line bs or do u use braid.

I use both braid and mono and don't have any trouble setting the hooks also I tend to strike side ways not upwards.
I place one hook in the tail root and one hook in the pectoral fin and let the pike have 5 to 10 seconds from the first sign of a pick up then wind down till the line goes tight with the rod pointed just away from the fish and strike firmly even with frozen baits I don't get the bait back (one thing I also do is cast straight back to the rough area of were the first fish took) just incase.

[glowster]

will try your advice and the deadbaiting rigging advice. Im using 12ft shimano specimen rods that Ive had for about 12 years 2.5lb test curve. 15lb mono 25lb wire trace with size 8 or 6 trebles. been waiting about 5 seconds when the bait goes to striking. Usual technique is to fish the bait overdepth with a float, if theres a bit of a toe I'll float ledger or fish slightly shallower and let the bait drift. At times I'm striking into fish that are only 8' from the rod tip hence the tentative strike, do you think i should be more brutal?

[Bassboy78]

Hi mate the rods might be too soft now as after time they will get soft so there might not be enough power in them to set the hooks with the strike you are doing I would let the float/bait get further away from the rod and give it a bit more of a strike I would try and be 10 foot from the float to be honest that way you will be able to give it the power needed to get the hooks into there hard mouths and out of the bait As for your mono 15 is fine mate thats way I use if you still dont get any luck with that try using braid as it will set them better mate

[glowster]

cheers for that, I suppose as the float slides off I can actualy lift the rod of the rest and back away from the fish to create more distance or start with the rods further back from the waters edge

[Baz T]

Also if you are using sardines I use a bit of bait elastic around the treble hooked into the tail as sardines can become very soft so it helps keep bait on the hook especially when casting

[glowster]

Thanks all, not many pike runs these last few days but have managed 100% hook ups from those ive had. 3 from 3 biggest possibly 6/7lb - now to find some bigger ones