Trotting deadbaits for pike

[Dick Dastardly]

Ive caught plenty on static suspended deads on still waters and drains etc John.Just find that when trotting on a river with them it improves the amount of takes no end to keep the bait moving up (and more importantly) fluttering back down.

[The Flying Tench]

Ive caught plenty on static suspended deads on still waters and drains etc John.Just find that when trotting on a river with them it improves the amount of takes no end to keep the bait moving up (and more importantly) fluttering back down.

 

OK, so that's reality, but it's a bit puzzling why the pike are happy with suspended baits on stillwaters but, in the view of some posters, not on rivers (I realise you are not putting it quite as strongly as that).

 

The puzzle, in a way, is why they would accept suspended baits in stillwater as it's not really natural. Do you find there are certain conditions when they are more likely to accept suspended baits - eg when it's a bit choppy, which could give an appearance of life?

[Newt]

Some speculation:

 

Dead fish can suspend and pike enjoy an easy meal which a dead fish certainly is.

 

Pike are adapted to attack moving prey and given the limited capacity of a brain the size of a pea, there may not be enough allocated to vision to give them a really good view of something as fine as a wire leader that is not moving so they may not notice it.

 

Vola, they 'see' a dead fish in the water. On closer approach, even their very poor sense of 'smell' confirms that indeed, it is a dead fish.

 

Result, munch, crunch, Oh goodness, where did that hook come from???

[Neil G]

Never had any luck with supended deads under floats on any water

 

Livebait a different matter though....always seems to work

[Dick Dastardly]

Do you find there are certain conditions when they are more likely to accept suspended baits - eg when it's a bit choppy, which could give an appearance of life?

 

 

In reflection yes. Not a first choice method for me but it does work. Strangely enough though when I think even more about it small (5-6") coarse deads seem to work better for me on sunk pat rigs (I always carry a few dead roach to use on my pat rigs if I run out of lives on a good session) better than from a suspended (moving) float.But like I said I only use this combination on days that the pike are feeding that hard Ive run out of lives so it could be a bit miss leading.

[Steve Burke]

I've had most of my pike at Wingham this winter on suspended deads, including in a flat calm. They certainly don't have to be rigged so that they're horizontal. What's more most of them have been half baits! See http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/Grand-D...d33-t80704.html

 

Movement does help, but then it does with ledgered deadbaits as well. On many occasions my suspended half-baits have been taken when they've been completely still.

 

In fact it's a method I've used successfully for many years on several different waters.

 

At first sight it appears not to make sense, but results prove otherwise. Indeed it's one of my favourite and most successful methods.

 

As to why the method doesn't seem to work on rivers I'm not qualified to comment as I've rarely used it on running water.

[jamie dimery-seek]

Do the rivers you fish tend to have quite a decent flow on them even in normal conditions?

 

Only i trot deadbaits from the back of my boat quite a lot and do reasonably well.

 

The thing is my river in normal condition hasn't got much flow at all so baits aren't really trotted its more of a crawling speed .

 

Lives,presented the same way score better,but i would think that's down to the vibrations from the bait ,as the pike would then sense these, and so not be acting on sight alone?

 

I have also found like Steve that,they dont have to be whole baits,and the pike arent to worried how they hang in the water.i've have had some success using whole/half herrings mounted on the hooks, as a static deadbait would be.

 

I can then also set it over depth and leave it static if i want a bite to eat and a cuppa

Edited February 28, 2008 by jamie dimery-seek

[Steve Burke]

One thing I forgot to mention is that in one of his books Barrie Rickards reports that many times pike actually take suspended deadbaits in preference to suspended livebaits. He can be certain of this because on several occasions he's been fishing both in the same swim and more of less all the fish in a sizeable bag have come to the deadbaits.