How to Fish For Pike and Other Predators By Jack Beatson Platinum Quality Author

There are various pike fishing techniques that really depend on the type of water you are fishing. I really focus on lake fishing, and as the season for Pike Fishing draws closely I'm looking at the various techniques I use to my advantage in the coming months.

Firstly, I need to mention "Dead-Baiting" which involves simply attaching a dead fish to a metal wire. Usually the 'trace' is made up of two treble hooks attached to a metal wire, however there is a growing tendency of using just one treble and and a large single hook. This is due to the reduction in damage to the Pike's mouth as well as making unhooking easier. I should also say that using semi-barbless and barbless hooks make unhooking easier as well.

So what kind of fish should you use on your trace? Well the most popular are Mackerel, Smelt and other sea fish. This is due to the fact that sea-fish have a lot of oil and so the smell of the fish can spread quickly to the nearest pike! There are alot of other fish that make suitable candidates if your fishery is quite heavily fished. You could use eel, perch, roach or bream it just depends on what the 'natural' fish population is. I find that using these natural fish can increase my results. There is also the point that using bigger bait will result in bigger Pike, since the smaller ones can't swallow it!

Of course dead-baiting is the main method of pike fishing, but there are alternatives. Lure fishing is one, which involves attaching an imitation of a fish to a wire trace (so when the Pike attacks the lure the line is not cut).

One of the main aspects of lure fishing is the retrieve. It is important to vary your retrieve speed, sometimes stopping to let the lure sink down. Personally I think it is the vibration caused by the lure that attracts the Pike, since if the water is murky; the colour is not going to be obvious anyway. In recent years one particular lure that has been very successful is the 'Bull Dawg' and its little brother the 'Spring Dawg'.

Very recently a new variant on Dead Baiting is the 'Kebab'. This technique involves hair-rigging chunks of fish onto a single hook (much like in carp fishing). Although of course since the fish is chopped up, in theory there is a lot more 'juices' leaking out and so should attack Pike quicker.

Learn more about pike fishing techniques. You can learn more and improve your fishing skills with the "fishing blog".

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Jack Beatson - EzineArticles Expert Author