Fish-Hawk.Net

If you can get smelts they are the best bait for fishing Pike through the ice.

sorry to sounds ignorant but smelts you would buy in a seafood department in a grocery store? It'll be my first year hard water fishing, so i'm still learning

Yup, that'l work.
You'll outfish anyone using minnows.
There usually used on a tip-up.

They're a little on the soft side for jigging, but I guess you could put a small piece of smelt on one of the hooks as scent.

I dunno, a lively 5'' golden shiner is kind of hard to resist too

works out good for me, i work in a seafood department lol,

yep smelt is good....

try it last year......

sardine is very good.....actualy,any baits that are real oily.that is what get the big fish wacko..... ...


there some local lake that you can go to catch smelt..in spring..... keep them for fishing.......usely i use them for lakers in spring,,but if i still have some in the fridge ,,,they will be on a hook ,,in the following winter,,, ..

but any good size bait...is usely good....

plus a little hint.put a spoon(no hook) a little higher to attract the pike around,,all the flashes frome the spoon is great to bring them ..
around...



joco

how do u put them on, treble or bait hook, the smelt that we get at work are headless, is that ok, what kind of wait on them?

The smelt specimen you use must be faultless.

Any deviation from the norm, will be rejected by the finicky Pike.
Every scale must be intact!

Of course I'm joking.

It doesn't matter. So long as you get the smelt to say on the hook. I would reccommend using ganged treble hooks (attach a second treble hook to the first with stranded wire about 3-4" apart, this will give support as well as a higher hooking percentage.
If you can get smelt in the 5"-7" lenght you will have the right stuff!
These guys are way better than live minnows. We are talking Pike here.

If you were targeting Walleye, Perch, Trout, then there are better baits, including minnows.

again my ignorance, whats stranded wire?

Try a picture framing store.

Stranded wire allows it to be more flexible while retaining it's strenght.
If you were to use solid wire, it would be too stiff.

Try this link:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Stranded%20wire

I should have known it was that easy! I'm in HVAC and was thinking to in depth of that being specific to fishing lol

Hey Guys,

I pick up my smelt/herring from Food Basics (Carling). You get a big bag for less than $10 if I remember correctly. Was there last week - they had two sizes. 4-6" and 8 or 9"...

Works for me..

Good Fishing,
Justin

which size do u go with Justin?
Do u guys prefer fresh or frozen, at the sobeys i work at we always have the frozen, not always the fresh but i can get em

Hmmmmmmmm so smelt when there is a slight breeze should be a killer on my windlass tip-ups ........ sounds interesting

Hey Matcolecat,

I usually go with a bait between 6 and 7-inches. I always buy the frozen, but I'm sure the fresh works just as well...

Good Fishing,
Justin