Deadbait Strategies


As with all types of fishing, the first thing you need to do is to find the depth and make-up of your intended fishing area. For still waters, the best strategy to start off with is to try and intercept a patrol route or spot where the Pike are feeding.

The easiest way to do this is to fish both close and at distance. The margin bait should be a deadbait such as a Roach or small Herring attached to a float rig. This should be moved at regular intervals along the margins in an attempt to find feeding Pike by presenting a free and easy meal right in front of it.

The bait presented at distance will be on a legered rig and I would suggest you use either half a large Mackerel a whole Joey Mackerel or a part frozen Herring. This should be left in place longer than the margin bait (I would recommend about an hour). Instead of re-casting, just draw the bait back 2-4 meters then leave for another half hour, then repeat every half hour.

If this is unsuccessful then I would once again cast out the long distance bait following the method described above, the only change I would make would be to " pop " the bait up. I would completely change the margin set-up and instead of having a static bait I would rig up to "wobble" a bait to search the margins.

For locating Pike on a river, look for swims that offer as many features in one place as possible such as over hanging trees, bushes, bends, bridge supports, undercut banks and weirs. Once again the best method is to fish a legered dead bait as close as possible to the chosen feature.

River Pike are more used to taking moving baits, so you could try trotting a float-fished deadbait downstream in the current.

River Pikeing often requires you to move swims regularly until you can locate your quarry, so it's best to travel light, but please make sure that you have with you everything you would need to unhook and return the Pike safely.

I will cover all the techniques mentioned here in later articles.

When starting out is first go with someone who is an experienced Pike angler. Despite there fierce appearance and reputation Pike are easily damaged and killed. So either go with a friend or family member who is experienced, somebody like myself or get in touch with the PAC (Pike Anglers Club…www.pacgb.co.uk) who can put you in touch with your local branch

Tight Lines
Ian