pre baiting for pike

hi guys. i've been thinking of starting to bait up on a local canal. thought i would give it a go for a couple of weeks before fishing it, only thing is how much bait do i put in? any ideas guys?

M.B.A. I have pre baited only twice and both were successes, i dropped a couple of fish every other day in three spots for 8 days and then fished those spots catching at all three points. Unless the venue is very close to home it is surprising how time consuming this can be, and of course there is the added problem of some other angler dropping on your pre baited swim but its well worth a try, good luck

One thing you'll need to be careful of is being spotted by another angler who then takes advantage of the situation, knowing you've prebaited the swim(s).

Cue MBA walking the banks wearing an overcoat with elaborate bait dropping device concealed underneath You can just imagine the phone call to the police from the concerned senior citizen who spots him.

"Sorry to bother you officer, but there's a man acting suspiciously down near the canal wearing a large overcoat. I think he may be throwing a chopped up victim in there"

Bring on the Keystone Cops!

mba, prebaiting with something like sprat is a good way of gettin the bait in at a cheap price (fresh fish counter), chopped up frozen its amazing how much you can put in and if you hedge your bets and bait a few spots then even if someone on one of them you should (touch wood) have another area to empty the canal from

been doing myself gaz for a while ,but question,give us your views guys please,do you use full fish?would it be better cut up?eels might feed on cut up fish easyer or whole fish will take longer?how long do you prebait before fishing?do you leave it a couple of days [dont bait ]then fish?does that make the fish more eager to take your bait?

i've done it in the past nick, full pike pack in, left it for 4 days went back and had fish.
but that was in summer time, when it gets colder would you put less bait in ?.
i still think fishing into dark gets larger fish on the bank on small waters ?. we all think different, you wont know till you try .

its a fine line do you give it a few days so their hungry because they had a easy meal?

i,ve cut my bait up a bit. cut mac into 3" chunks and sardines and the such into half. think it will encourage the pike to move round more, and pick more bait up, also puts more oils into the water. what i have also done is to flavour the whole lot with lamprey oil, i will drop this though for later baiting only done it this time to try and draw a few fish in to start of with. as for the amount, well ive started of with 2 large mac cut into chunks 4 sardines. 4 trout, and about 20 sprats, will then bait up every other day for 10 days before fishing. had my eye on this area for a long time and never seen another pike angler anywhere near it, dont know if this means that there are no pike there or not but you never know will put the bait in in the morning after taking the kids to school to try and keep the bait going in at the same time as i will be fishing. will keep you posted on progress. tight lines guys.

MAD BAD ANGLER wrote:i,ve cut my bait up a bit. cut mac into 3" chunks and sardines and the such into half. think it will encourage the pike to move round more, and pick more bait up, also puts more oils into the water. what i have also done is to flavour the whole lot with lamprey oil, i will drop this though for later baiting only done it this time to try and draw a few fish in to start of with. as for the amount, well ive started of with 2 large mac cut into chunks 4 sardines. 4 trout, and about 20 sprats, will then bait up every other day for 10 days before fishing. had my eye on this area for a long time and never seen another pike angler anywhere near it, dont know if this means that there are no pike there or not but you never know will put the bait in in the morning after taking the kids to school to try and keep the bait going in at the same time as i will be fishing. will keep you posted on progress. tight lines guys.

thats just what ive been doing mate and its worked for me even useing baits that i havent been prebaiting with it just keeps am used to getting food in that area without getting caught! witch is a good thing hope ya catch a big un

On Mick Brown's / Fox's "The Fox Guide to Gravel Pit Piking" they cover pre-baiting. They chop Mackerel into chunks on a wooden tree stump & chuck it in off a scoop, 1-2 days before fishing. Both Mick & Max Cottis, his co presenter swear by it!

You won't overfeed the pike as long as you chop your feed into reasonably small chunks. Although Pike don't have to eat nearly as much as people they do, they will if it's there and if it's chopped into little, easily digestible chunks, they won't have to skulk off somewhere to digest their meal.

Make friends with your local fishmonger. Don't be buying good fresh fish. That stuff goes on the hooks. It's really not required. Rake about his waste bin for skin, bones, heads, tails, entrails and chop it up. Mix it up with some liquidised bread, which you've naturally obtained from the local shopkeeper who keeps all his outdated bread for you, add some oil and ball it in.

Heads from the fishmongers bin are excellent hookbaits by the way. Especially bass heads. They're just a nice size and pike love them.

Give it a whirl and feed on the same day too. I swear to the Sun God himself, it works a treat.

Oh yes, if you make up balls of bready/fishy mash and freeze them, remember to add a couple of chuckies (that's small stones for those who don't know) into each ball or you'll throw your lovely balls into your swim, just to watch them float away and feed some other noddies peg.

Works a treat mate....works a treat.....

Thanks for that info Andy, it's really interesting, as a beginner to piking I was wondering about groundbaiting for pike and how effective it might be .
You've also opened a whole can of worms concerning reciepes for home made groundbaits .
One Question.....is shop bought stuff available and is it effective ? well that's two questions actually
ATB

hi there fenman

If I remember correctly, Dynamite Baits do one but why not make your own up as Andy described?

This year I'm going to experiment by filling 35mm film canisters with mashed up/liquidised fish and freezing them. These will be placed in a feeder and fished inline serving 2 purposes: weight (for casting, holding bottom and legering) and for hopefully attracting pike into the swim.

Hi Lefty
yep thanks for that and for the good welcoming advice.
I'm definitely going to give home made ground bait a try .
Interested in your inline feeder idea ,sounds good, keep us posted .

Fenman22 wrote: Thanks for that info Andy, it's really interesting, as a beginner to piking I was wondering about groundbaiting for pike and how effective it might be .
You've also opened a whole can of worms concerning reciepes for home made groundbaits .
One Question.....is shop bought stuff available and is it effective ? well that's two questions actually
ATB

Lefty actually answered that perfectly for me so I won't repeat his advice.

In fact here's a picture of an 18lber I caught using liquidised bread/fish mash.



You can also try using swimfeeders filled with cotton wool, which are then injected or soaked with fish oil, in place of your normal weight. Just re-inject your feeder before each cast and at the end of your session, put the feeder in a little plastic grip-seal bag and just refresh it on each session. After a few sessions, the cotton wool filled feeder will just become a smelly, fishy, jammy, sticky weight that absolutely hums to high heaven.

I find Kalium Aniseed oil and Baitbox Salmon oil are the two best oils to have.

Have fun mate....