Beginner’s Guide to Pike Fishing with Deadbaits
Pike Fishing with Deadbaits: If you’ve not tried deadbaiting for pike, then this article is for you. We give you information and advice that will help catch your first pike on deadbaits and encourage you to develop a love of pike fishing.
Pike fishing with deadbaits is exciting and fun.
Pike are formidable creatures, sometimes of a large size, and with mouths full of sharp teeth. Sets of treble hooks used in pike rigs can be hazardous, too.
Going fishing for pike can feel a bit daunting at first. But, if you are well prepared and organised, and have the right unhooking equipment, handling pike becomes much easier. As you catch more pike, your confidence grows, and your concerns quickly disappear.
First Time Pike Fishing with Deadbaits?
If it’s your first time fishing for pike, consider going with a more experienced pike angler who can give you a hand and give you useful advice. Having someone there who can help you takes the pressure off you.
What is Deadbaiting?
Deadbaiting is fishing with dead fish, which can be presented on float or ledger tackle, or that are connected directltly to the trace and retrieved through the water.
Why is deadbaiting such an effective way of catching pike?
Pike eat fish, so using dead fish is a natural way of fishing for the toothy predators. Pike don’t seem to mind what kind of fish you use on the hooks, even sea fish and species that are not normally resident in the place that you are fishing, work well.
Deadbaiting Season
Pike Fishing with Deadbaits: The traditional start of the pike deadbaiting season in the UK is 1st October (check your local regulations and club rules). Pike fishing typically runs through until mid-March.
Pike fishing using deadbaits throughout the cooler months of the year helps to avoid problems associated with deep hooked pike. Pike are more aggressive feeders in warmer water conditions and can devour the bait, resulting in them being deep hooked (hooks taken down into the stomach area). Pike, in cooler water have a lower metabolism and are generally less active. Therefore, deep hooked pike are less of an issue.
Pike are also sensitive to low levels of dissolved oxygen in water. In warmer water, dissolved oxygen levels tend to be lower than in cooler water. Pike caught during summer (warmer water conditions) can struggle to recover, especially after extended fights.
Best Locations for Pike Fishing with Deadbaits
For your first deadbaiting sessions, choose an area where you can set up your gear on a level area with plenty of space. Stillwaters such as canals and lakes or rivers without much flow are the easiest kinds of waters to start out, rather than faster flowing rivers.
Get Organised
It is important to be organised and everything that you need to hand when pike fishing. make sure that you have your landing net set up ready and your unhooking mat, together with your unhooking tools, scales, weigh sling etc, laid out ready for action.
If you have a camera and tripod. Set these up ready to take photographs quickly and efficiently.
The aim is to be prepared to quickly unhook your pike and return it to the water with the minimum of fuss.
Strike Quickly!
When pike fishing with deadbaits, in order to avoid deeply hooked pike, it is important to watch your float or bite indicator closely and be always next to your rods. You should hit bites quickly. A pike missed is preferable to a deep-hooked one.
Strike as soon as you are sure that the pike has the bait in its jaws – if the float is moving, or the line is running out if fishing without a float.
Striking Technique
Engage your reel first, then point the rod at the fish and start winding in smoothly and quickly until you feel the weight of the fish. Pull the rod back forcefully when you feel the weight of the fish to set the hooks. Maintain constant pressure on the rod.
Pike Fishing Equipment
Pike Fishing Rods for Deadbaiting
Deabaits can be heavy and need strong rods to cast them out. The bony jaws of pike mean than rods need to be able to exert enough force to sink hooks into them (especially when fishing at distance). Pike can also be large and strong and battle hard when hooked. Because of these factors rods need to be strong and beefy.
Ideally, look for rods that are specifically designed for deadbaiting. These are likely to have a test curve of between 2.5lb and 3.25lb. A 12ft rod is suitable for most types of deadbaiting. Strong carp rods or barbel rods can also be used, if you don’t yet own deadbaiting rods.
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High quality carbon blank.
Rods feature stylish ‘Elite’ cosmetics and an EVA handle
Reels for Pike Fishing
Reels need to have large capacity spools hold strong line and have enough ‘cranking power’ to retrieve heavy deadbaits and handle the fight of the pike.
Reels sizes over 4500 size are recommended (different brands have varied reel size options).
The 6000 size makes a great specimen and specialist fishing reel suitable for medium-sized carp, barbel, tench and predator bait fishing for pike and zander, whilst the larger 10000 size is more suitable for larger fish from both large and small glasses of water alike. Both reels have a powerful 4.6:1 gear ratio which delivers plenty of power when playing large fish.
Lines for Pike Fishing
A reliable, abrasion resistant monofilament or braid can be used for deadbaiting. Anglers have traditionally used mono lines but today, many anglers use braided line, which don’t stretch, and enable pike to be hooked more positively on the strike.
A main line of at least 15lb recommended if using nylon monofilament, or 30lb if using braided line.
Wire Traces
For pike fishing, wire traces are a must-have since even small pike have razor-sharp teeth that can sever through regular line.
Whether you are fishing with bait or lures, your trace needs to be at least 15 inches (40 cm) long for the pike’s safety. The current generation of ultra-thin trace wires eliminates the requirement to use strains less than 28lbs.
Hooks for Pike Fishing
Use of semi-barbless or crushed barbed hook rigs, doubles or trebles, no larger than a size 6. These are preferable to barbed hooks as they make unhooking easier and quicker.
Rubber Landing Nets
A large landing net is necessary for pike fishing. Look for nets with a gape of 36ins or more. Rubber mesh nets are perfect for pike fishing.
Treble hooks often get stuck in the mesh of landing nets. Hooks embedded in standard mesh can be difficult to remove. You won’t have these difficulties with rubber mesh.
The Savage Gear Rubber Mesh Landing Net is super strong, and is a lightweight collapsible net specifically designed from Savage Gear
Unhooking Mats for Pike
Unhooking mats are a must for pike fishing. Pike should never be put onto hard surface, which can injure the fish. A large unhooking mat ensures that pike remain safe.
Weigh Slings and Scales
Keep your weigh sling wet and zero scales using the empty net. Set them aside ready to weigh any fish that you land. You can zero them again, immediately before you weigh your fish.
- Large LCD Screen
- Displays in lbs and kg
- Auto shut off after 60 seconds
- Requires 2 x AAA batteries (not included)
- Size: 24.5 x 15.5cm
Pike Unhooking Tools
Proper unhooking tools are essential for pike fishing. These include long sturdy forceps and a wire-cutting tool.
Wire cutting tools can be used in ’emergency’ situations, where wire traces need to be cut from nets or hooks need to be cut in order to remove them.
Keep all your core tools secure and together with this easily stored, 4 tool wrap system.
Comes loaded with 4 Fox Rage tools: Forceps, Saw Tooth Cutters, Slide Cutters and Power Grip Pliers
Elasticated handle holder to keep tools in place
Unhooking and Handling Pike
Keep your pike in the landing net and in the water until you are ready to unhook it.
A handy tip is to use a swivel clip above your wire trace, which enables you to detach your main line (and float or ledger) from the trace, allowing you to set aside your rod.
When using this technique, a long trace makes unhooking the pike easier as you have a longer length of trace to hold on to, when unhooking your pike.
Take your net containing the pike over to your ready prepared unhooking mat (your unhooking tools should be next to your mat).
For your own safety, observe where the hooks are. Watch out for any lose hooks that might have stuck into the mesh of your landing net or are flailing about.
If the pike starts thrashing about, put your hand over the fish’s flank to prevent it from flipping out of the net.
Confidence is the key.
Place the pike on its back. Look where the hooks are in or around the fish’s mouth. Pick up your forceps. If the hooks are located on the outside of the mouth, you should be able to unhook these easily. Barbless hooks make this much easier.
If hooks are located on the inside of the fish’s mouth or in the throat area, slip your hand up into the gill cover area and slide your hand up into the ‘V’ of the cover (towards the front of the mouth). Be observant where the hooks are located and keep your hand away from the hooks.
Now, gently, pull the bottom jaw of the pike towards you. The pike’s mouth will open. Do this gently but confidently.
Use your forceps to unhook the pike. If two sets of hooks are hooked into the pike’s mouth, unhook the ones down the throat first, then move on to the hooks closest to the front of the mouth.
Put the removed treble hooks and wire trace in a safe place so that you don’t inadvertently hook yourself.
Keep the pike out of the water for the minimum amount of time.
If you want to weigh your fish or take photographs, do this quickly (being organised, you will already have your weigh sling and scales ready, and your camera set up ready).
Rest your pike thoroughly so that it recovers before releasing.
Unhooking Problems
If you are having difficulty unhooking a pike, keep it securely in the water in your landing net, and ask another angler to assist you.
Float Fished Deadbaits
Watching a pike float sail away is an exciting event. Float fishing with deadbaits is a versatile way of fishing for pike. Rigs can be adjusted to fish a range of depths. A sliding float set up allows you to do this easily. Float rig sets, containing all the components that you need can be purchased and are inexpensive (links below).
Here is a simple rig for float fishing with deadbaits.
Contains: 1 x in-line Pike float 1 x egg weight 1 x accessories pack including hard beads, buffer bead and float stops 1 x 30Lb supple wire 2 hook rig – Semi barbed 15G.
Ledgered Deadbaits
Ledgering with deabaits can be very effective. A low resistance running rig is a simple and effective way of ledgering for pike. Only a few components are needed. Here is a simple diagram showing how to set this up.
You will need some form of bite indication when ledgering for pike. We cover this below.
Wobbled Deadbaits
The simplest way of fishing with deadbaits is by attaching a deadbait to a wire trace, with nothing else on the line. This is a more active way of fishing with deadbaits and using this method you are able to explore much more water.
To use this method, cast out and slowly retrieve the deadbait, making it appear ‘alive’. You need to keep constant contact with your deadbait. You can cast into different parts of your swim to search for hungry pike. You can use this method as a ‘roving’ technique and investigate large stretches of water.
Bite Indication for Ledgering
When ledgering, it is important to use an effective bite indicator. Bites need to be spotted quickly. Bite alarms are the best kind of bite indicators. It is important to have a set-up, which indicates drop back bites (in order to prevent deep hooking). A drop-back bite is where the fish runs towards you after taking the bait. In such circumstances, the line could slacken and might not trigger the bite alarm.
Drop-off Indicators
Drop-off indicators are used to identify drop back bites. drop back bites can be seen visually and the weight of the drop-off indicator is also likely to trigger the bite alarm. Drop-off indicators can be used just behind the bite alarm, or (as in the example below) often are a rear drop off indicator.
- Fox Rage Predator Swinger bite indicators are extremely lightweight
- Provide minimal resistance to any Pike or other predator that picks up your bait
- Bright orange body helps spot bites
- Rear clip fits most banksticks
Baits for Deadbaiting
Pike will take a variety of deadbaits, including coarse, sea and trout species.
Frozen packs of bait can be bought from most tackle shops. Mixed species packs and single species packs are usually available.
You can also ‘harvest’ your own deadbaits when coarse fishing (check your local water and club rules before doing this).
Fresh sea and trout baits are available from fishmongers on the High Street or in supermarkets.
Coarse Baits such as Perch, Roach, Rudd and Bream are effective on most waters.
Trout species, including Brown Trout and Rainbow Trout,
Sea Baits are highly effective, too. They are typically more oily than coarse baits and are highly attractive. The most popular sea baits are Mackerel, Herring, Sprats and Smelt.
Mackerel can be used whole or cut in half and because of their tough skins and density can be cast a long way. Other baits are more fragile and need more care when casting.
It is worth taking a variety of deadbaits with you as swapping onto a different bait can trigger a bite on an otherwise uneventful session.
Bait Additives
Additives can be injected into deadbaits using specially designed hypodermic needles. Great care is needed when using hypodermic needles to do this. Some people believe that additives enhance the baits attractiveness, especially when the water is highly coloured.
Bait sprays can also be used to add flavour to your deadbait, without resorting to using medical equipment! These can also be used to dye the bait.
Summary
Pike fishing is an exciting and enjoyable type of fishing. When you first start fishing for pike, it feels a little daunting.
Having the right equipment and being well prepared and organised makes pike fishing easier and less stressful, and importantly, it ensures that pike are properly looked after and safely returned to the water.
Striking early and fishing for pike during the cooler months greatly reduces the chances of deep-hooked fish.
Deadbaiting is an effective way of fishing for pike. Float fishing, ledgering and wobbling are all ways of catching pike using deadbaits.
There are lots of species of fish that you can use for deadbaiting and these can be obtained yourself, bought from fishmongers or from your local tackle shop.
Give deadbaiting for pike a go, you’ll enjoy it.
Tight lines.
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Photo credit: Stuart Bartlett. Unsplash.
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