An introduction to dead baiting for pike from Blackwood Bait and Tackle | Fishing in Ireland

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Transition Year students Nikita Greidans and Jack Keenahan are working together at Blackwood Bait and Tackle. As part of this school programme they are supplying reports to the Irish Angling Update…

Introduction:

Deadbaiting in my opinion is one of the most effective methods of fishing for pike. There are many different ways of deadbaiting but my favourite is possibly the simplest. When I go deadbaiting 9 times out of 10 I use a standard dead bait float. I find it’s the most effective way to catch pike on dead bait at the venues I fish most which are the canal and some lakes. I decided to write this blog to help people who are new to deadbaiting and to share my experiences with it.

The setup I use and how to set it up:

When I go deadbaiting I always use a heavy pike or carp rod, mine has a 2.5lb test curve. I like to use a 20g bullet or cigar float. To start thread your line through the eyes of your rod and leave yourself a little under a rod length of extra line to work with. Then put your first float stop on the line, next put on your float of choice followed by your second float stop, finally put on your snap tackle and the setup is ready, all that’s left to do is put on your chosen bait. When putting on your bait I put one barb of each of the two hooks into the back of the bait fish, I make sure to present the bait with the head down as when pike attack a bait fish its either head on or from the side, then I wrap the hooked fish with bait elastic, this ensures the bait won’t fall off while casting.

Bait selection:

Choosing a bait can be tricky, personally I look for a smaller bait about 4 inches long. As for species, each one has pros and cons, I use a wide variety of species of bait fish, such as: roach, perch, mackerel, herring. At the minute my favourite bait to use is herring fillets as they’re a good bait that lasts a while and has caught some decent fish including a 14lb pike. When I go deadbaiting, I usually like to have more than one option for bait, so usually I bring herring fillets and some perch or smelt.

My personal experience:

I’ve had some really good days fishing while using dead bait, I caught an 8lb 12oz pike while deadbaiting on the Shannon. I was fishing with my friend at a spot we hadn’t tried before when I caught it, and we were just starting to pack up when I noticed my rod tip bend around and I had to shout at him to come back with the net because I had hooked into a good fish.

Another one of my favourite fishing experiences while deadbaiting was at my local competition. There was 15 minutes left in the match and I was starting to pack up and the man I was fishing with advised me to cast my rod back in for 5 more minutes. Not long after I casted in I had hooked a small pike at 1lb 9oz which led to me winning the junior category prize.

My advice:

Some advice I would give to people just starting out and experienced fishermen is not to be afraid to change tactics and bait. I always say don’t be afraid to try a bait people don’t often use because the fish in the area might be used to common bait fish and be wary of this, but if you try an uncommon bait, they might be more likely to take a bite. My other piece of advice is to always pack up the rod last, make sure you leave your rod in the water for as long as possible so pack up all the rest of the gear, then wind in the rod.