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Suckers or Shiners for pike?


Phunnyfarm

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Both will work but like Sandman already alluded to suckers are a hardier minnow.

A big ol' fat, oily ciscoe is another good bait for pike. They are dead and packaged neatly so they work well for transporting if you have issues with space.

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Question on for you guys who use smelt or frozen/dead ciscos. Where do you position your bait relative to the bottom-on it-just off-a foor or two up? I've always used live bait on tip ups previously but after a week in BWCA this spring with some frozen ciscoes I think that is changing this year.

Usually fishing tip ups in shallower edges-6 to 12-15 ft.

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A foot off the bottom for pike works well. Ciscoes will also float up a little bit. You could have a sinke sitting right on the bottom and hve the ciscoe floating up about six inches and that would work too. Smelt or ciscoes, the pike seem to love those stinky and oily dead baits.

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I use suckers 90% of the time. Used to use golden shiners but as has been stated, they die quickly. I usually go with a 5 to 6 inch sucker. I don't drop them all the way to the bottom though, is that done mainly with dead bait?

I'd like to try the smelt or ciscoes sometime just to compare my catch success.

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90% suckers. Cause they last longer and I tend to catch more on them. I also cut off one of the side fins. I believe it gives them a more erratic swimming motion. As far as where to put them in the water, I tend to go in the middle of where I fish. Most of the time I fish from 10-15ft of water so I put it down 4-7ft.

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and you do not have to use a wind tipup to use dead bait. Northerns are scavengers as well as predators. They will oftentimes take dead bait over live because they do not expend any energy chasing down there meal when it is unable to swim away.

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