I haven’t used live bait for pike since the early 90’s. Back then I would get a soda flat full of 8-10 inch smelt for about 6 bucks. Now 6 bucks will only get you 3 smelt total and they are smaller…it must be said that this is in Wisconsin and it was the VHS regulations that really threw a wrench into using smelt. Once those regs went into effect fewer bait shops carried them and the price jumped immediately because you can buy treated ones that meet the VHS restrictions. Typically these are salted but every now and then you can find ones to buy that are already treated with mineral oil.
Since the price got out of hand and they were getting smaller and smaller I looked for an alternative type of bait. Looked all over the place but the best prices and selection I could find was at Asian grocery stores. I’ve tried whole sardines, mackerel, scads, sand gobies blew everything else away but those things were darn expensive. The others all seemed to work a tick better than smelt except for the mackerel. Those things are great. You buy this stuff already frozen. I’ll thaw them out and use the salt/borax method to cover my butt on the VHS stuff. The downside of mackerel compared to smelt is that with smelt you could sometimes salvage them after one fish. The mackerel are not as tough and are destroyed 99% of the time they are whacked.
There was a pic of a flagel rig earlier in this thread. I use a homemade rig based on the same idea. I’ve cut the points off of large swedish hooks and use them as a hanger for the bait. Then run a 7 strand leader through the mouth of the bait and out the gill plate which is then connected to my line. The end that is connected goes through the eye of that cut swedish hook. On the business end of the leader I’ll run a circle hook. Since there is the bend in that swedish hook a pike will only get the rig in so far…it’s not inhaling the entire set up, just the dead bait. The key to this is that you can’t dilly dally around when a flag goes up. When one pops you bust your tail to it like you are trying to outrun Usain Bolt. You also can’t be lax in watching for flags. You want to respond as soon as possible and not allow that fish to go on multiple runs. Even with circle hooks, if you dawdle with them and take your time getting to it that rig could move in a way where it injures the fish. Once they take that bait they will be hooked, no need to set the hook when it runs…just grab the tip up and start pulling line.
