Using hotdogs for northern pike

Looking for some advice/knowledge about using hotdogs for fishing northern pike. I am a pike fisherman so have all the equipment. Tip ups, quick strike rigs, heavy line etc. I’m used to using all sizes of sucker minnows but have never tried hotdogs. How do you guys usually rig them? What size rigs? Where in the water column should I set it at? Just below the ice, closer to the bottom or in the middle somewhere? I will adjust as necessary. Going to Upper Red next weekend for lake reference if that makes a difference.

I pike fish typically 12 to 15 ft of water and used to do the hot dog thing often when I was young and had fun dogs in the fridge. I put a full hot dog on a quick strike rig 6 ot 7 ft down and let it sit.
Thats the entire trick. You do nothing and it does catch fish.

Do pike prefer ketchup or mustard?

Matt Moen wrote:

Do <em class=”ido-tag-em”>pike prefer ketchup or mustard?

Tabasco

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
Do <em class=”ido-tag-em”>pike prefer ketchup or mustard?

Tabasco

I should’ve known that.

i thought this was strictly a wisconsin thing. will MN pike eat fundogs as often as sconi pike?

You want to use the cheapest, most greasy hot dogs you can buy. That’s what I’ve been told from other people.

I have heard about this and tried it twice without any luck. I used a quick strike rig with the hooks in opposite corners of the dog. I might have been using the wrong brand of hot dog.

Grilled, boiled or raw?

Ron wrote:

Grilled, boiled or raw?

No such thing as a raw hot dog. The meat is cooked prior to packaging.

Bun or no bun?

I use BarS…$.99 at Walmart

Here in the MPLS city limits it’s gluten free tofu dogs only. Pike love em.

Matt Moen wrote:

Here in the MPLS city limits it’s gluten free tofu dogs only. Pike love em.

I think you guys have the strain of pike transplanted from California. Use Vegan dogs and remember, no lead weights. Most importantly use caution handling anything you use because everything is “known to cause cancer”

I call BS. If there was another way for John Gillespie to schill Johnsonville’s, he’d be fishing with them every show.

AK Guy wrote:

I call BS. If there was another way for John Gillespie to schill Johnsonville’s, he’d be fishing with them every show.

That’s so true.

Pinnacle Pursuit Outdoors uses hot dogs and dead bait in this video

We fish for pike a fair amount. We use them mostly when other bait is hard to come by, or inconvenient. I’ve noticed mostly smaller fish on them. Just my experience, may not be typical. I have NEVER caught a pike on LOTW’s with a hot dog for some reason. I’ve seen it done, but if you can get smelt or live suckers I won’t waste my time with them. Mostly put them on quick strike rigs and smelt hooks horizontally.

Matt Moen wrote:

Do <em class=”ido-tag-em”>pike prefer ketchup or mustard?

Depends where they are located. Ketchup in the north, but near Chicago it’s mustard only.

Single treble quick strike light wire leader, little or no weight, rigged horizontal. They are a very different fish in cold water they will swim up to your bait, leave, come back, investigate some more, and hit. If you rig it right your bait will bounce a bit when they scoot off, that will put scent into the water and give them just enough action to trigger. I would rather use stinky deadbait, but whatever you use poke or cut into it to help release odor. Change your bait out every hour, skinless HDs, and slowly lift or rotate your bait about every 20 min. this could scare them or trigger them, so gauge the mood of the fish. I know a 15lb pike is scared of an aggressive weinie! Lots of vids on YT, check it out for yourself, a small difference in action is a trigger or is scaring them off, and it varies daily (why fishing is fun)Good luck

Fishing in a contest a few years back I tried one for the first time. Buddies were all giving my crap. The bang goes off to start the contest. I put that tip up down first. As im walking to set my next one my buddies are yelling that I had a flag. Thinking they set it off as im walking back towards it I see it spinning. Well I know that’s not a hotdog trip. I caught about a 3 pound lake trout. Unfortunately you couldn’t keep them on this lake. I would have gotten 8th place had it been anything else.

Lakers like smelly meat too (smelly BTW does not mean spoiled, fish even cats like spoiled meat as much as you do)

Pike with Lamprey

Riding shotgun

Stopping by the

Drive thru

For some Shore Lunch

Attachments:

1. trim.7FBEDE1D-4229-4DAA-8114-DE1A47878787.mov

^^^^^ Dundee
I love those triangle hooks for smelt. Very hard to find them nowadays.

MNdrifter wrote:

^^^^^ Dundee
I love those triangle hooks for smelt. Very hard to find them nowadays.

Mustad #7724
Swedish Pike Hook
(COAT HANGERS)

Technique: Horse Them to the hole

Yes getting harder to come by.

These are extremely rare vintage

Size #12.

As a reminder

If you find something you like.

Don’t be afraid to purchase extras

You never know if it will still

Be on the shelf the next season.

Including your frozen bait.

Tip:

Sharpen your hooks

Rig Heavy

I remove the snaps from my leaders

And replace them with 3/8” splitrings

Tip:

Remove all the metal blades and flash

For the last 2 to 3 weeks.

Just run a bare hook and your bait.

The Pike get picky end of the season.

Attachments:

1. 

   DEB236FA-DAC2-4C03-9AD5-10DF3EA3FEF5-scaled.jpeg
   

2. 

   5D098667-124F-4752-B944-4FC838D4EB3A-scaled.jpeg
   

3. 

   AC88FCF5-717C-434E-96B1-A159C59C54C8-scaled.jpeg
   

1. trim.58FB1B51-AB32-49D5-9E5D-FCBFDC783E8B.mov