hooking baits
the way we hook our baits is all dependant on the style of fishing you are planning on doing. in keeping with the "keep it simple" aspect of this site, i am only going to show you how to hook a dead bait and a live bait, using a standard wire trace that most pike anglers use. the only difference between a live bait hooked fish and a dead bait is the number of hooks required!
when hooking a live bait you will only require one set of treble hooks compared to two sets when hooking a dead bait. the pictures below will show this quite clearly.
hooking a live bait.
as you can see i have used one set of treble hooks only and hooked the fish through the top lid. using a set of semi-barbed hooks is usefull with this type of fishing as the barb does help to stop the bait from slipping off the hooks. remember to strike into the bite very quickly as pike always swallow their food head first and failure to do so will almost certainly result in a deep hooked pike - NOT GOOD!
hooking a dead bait.
with a dead bait you use two sets of trebles and hook the top treble (the one furthest from the rod tip) into the flank of the bait. the second treble is pushed into the boney area in the tail, which can prove difficult sometimes but worth getting right as this gives a seriously good hold to the hooks. for added security you can always secure the tail hooks by tieing some fine line or rubber round the trace, which will help stop the bait from falling off in mid cast. with a dead bait, the pike has time to attack head first and won't need to "turn" the fish which is why the hooks can be set further back from the head of the bait. still strike immedietly though to avoid deep hooking. better to lose you pike and let it live than have to spend avoidable minutes trying to remove two sets of trebles from the gut of the pike and risk it dieing on the bank.