From fish which merely resembled punk herrings to species that looked like something out of your worst nightmares, all will have at some time or another been attached to my treble hooks and hopefully cast out to await the pike’s verdict.

I do realise that a lot of pike anglers tend to be dismissive about the current craze for using exotic deadbaits. Claiming that they can catch just as many pike on the more traditional types. Certainly I would go along with the idea that simple baits like herrings and mackerel can still often account for many fish on even the most heavily-fished water. However, the fact remains that many of these bizarre baits have accounted for plenty of big pike over the years. Often in conditions where other more “normal” baits have seemed so signally to fail.

Of course it could be argued that these successes came about not because of the type of bait, but simply that it happened to have been in the proverbial right place at the right time. In short it was found by a hungry pike which would have picked it up regardless of whether it was a mackerel or a yellow croker.

Certainly, it doesn’t pay to jump too quickly to conclusions about new pike baits. I remember getting terribly excited about a bait whose name escapes me for the moment, actually it looked like that little creature which bursts out of John Hurt’s stomach in the film Alien... Anyway the first time I used that fish I caught a double on it, the trouble was that was the last time I caught anything on that particular bait. Try as I might I just couldn’t get another run on these “alien” fish, I think I eventually chucked them out as they were taking up valuable freezer space.

However, other exotics have proved to be much more consistently successful. After all, consistency is the measure of any good pike bait, whilst it is possible to get a few runs on practically anything with fins, I do think you will need to use a new pike bait for at least a couple of seasons on a variety of different waters to be able to gauge its true value for pike fishing.
This is perhaps the most significant finding I have made whilst using these more unusual baits. That over the years some, despite their novelty value on the water concerned, have proved to be rather indifferent as pike catchers whereas others have proved their worth time and time again. This might sound like a rather obvious point to some of you, but I do find that most pike anglers tend to lump these baits together, rather than try to examine each type on its own merits. Which is rather like saying that all particle baits for carp are equally attractive in all situations. Remember, at one time ‘even the now commonplace smelt was regarded as just another exotic, only it’s proven and repeated worth over the last few years has elevated it to the status it holds today as a consistent pike catcher.

Another interesting fact to emerge from my “experiments” with exotic baits over the years is that those which do prove to be good pike catchers, seemed to be just as effective on lightly-fished as they were on heavily-fished waters. This might be something of a surprise to many anglers who have tended to think that such baits really only have any use on waters which have seen a considerable amount of angling pressure. And where a different bait might just do the trick in tempting oft- caught and suspicious pike.

I really can’t begin to speculate as to why the pike in one water should continuously pick up a gurnard in preference to a mackerel tail. When it is likely that the resident pike had neither seen or been caught on either bait before. Again, I must stress that I am not just talking about one or two occasions, but a consistent and clear preference for a particular bait. In a case like that, the exotic bait is not proving superior simply because it is different, there must be some other reason. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere within the bait itself?

In short, something, some oil perhaps, contained within the bait which not only attracts pike to it, but perhaps more importantly, helps pike to locate the bait. A simplified example would be the way the oils in a mackerel disperse much better in some water temperatures than they do in others.
Taking this theory a stage further, might I suggest that different water temperatures allow the oils in some baits to dissipate better in to the surrounding water than others. After all, a lot of these exotics do come from warmer seas like the Mediterranean and the pacific. Which may mean that the oils and other substances within their bodies react in a different way when they are cast in to some bleak windswept northern reservoir.

I do realise that there are a lot of “perhap’s” in those last few paragraphs, and that we are also straying in to the area of pseudo science, something I normally tend to avoid like the plague. Some anglers may even laugh at such theories. I’m half inclined to dismiss them as a load of old bollocks myself. But then I keep remembering those occasions when pike have shown quite specific “preferences” not only for exotics but at times even very common baits. Even when other factors have been taken in to account, like fishing pressure or simply the fact that the bait was cast in to a certain area, I still have to come to the conclusion that certain baits work best in certain water conditions simply because pike can actually FIND THEM more easily in those conditions. To put the question at its most basic, can there really be such a thing as “cold water dead baits” and “warm water” dead baits?

Buggered if I know.
 

Now that I have mentioned usually deadbaits I suppose a brief run down of some of the more successful ones.

RED MULLET
As its name suggests a small bright red fish which can usually be obtained around five to six inches in length. Excellent fished whole at this size, though if you can only get bigger fish, they will work equally well with the head cut off. I’m not too sure that the red colour makes much of a difference under normal conditions, though I have found it doesn’t do any harm!

FLYING FISH 
This one always raises a laugh if nothing else! Shaped rather like a mackerel and with a nice oily flesh this is one of the more recent successful additions to my bait collection, where it has proved to be repeatedly productive on a number of venues.

RED SNAPPER 
Another delightfully coloured bait that works very well on a variety of venues. Though it is much tougher skinned than the red mullet, casts very well though.

GURNARD
I have mentioned this bait on a number of occasions and yet I have never seen another angler using them. They are an absolutely EXCELLENT bait, so much so that I would have to list them amongst my most essential baits. A bait I will take along to most waters. They really are that good. They are best fished completely skinned in fact, I suspect this might be one reason why they are so effective, not only can they be easily seen by the pike, the lack of skin also means that all the oils within the bait will be released in to the surrounding water. They also take and release flavours in to the water very well.

Small whole skinned MONKFISH also work well as does a fish called BULL HUSS which can be fished in chunks, when skinned they do look rather like eel sections.
Other exotic baits definitely worth a try include small TUNA FISH ... and moving even more in to the bizarre, SQUID has also been a consistent pike catcher.

As I have already said, you can take or leave my “theory” about why pike take unusual baits, but more certain is the fact that they do take them, often more readily than the supposed “normal” deadbaits like herrings and mackerel. Give them a whirl some time, you might be surprised at how effective they can be.
David Hall’s Coarse Fishing December 1990