best bait for pike fishing?

Hi Cameron. As we don't have shiners, suckers (or even Bassmasters) in the UK I'll tell you what works for me here.

In the summer I get best results with lures. Pike are often in relatively shallow water taking advantage of the warm (!) temperatures. That means you need lures that work in shallow water. Over the last few days I have been having great success with old fashioned mepps spinners (which have also been catching me a lot of really good perch). I absolutely love Savage Gear hard plastic 4-Play lures. I use the 5" slow sinking ones with no lip.

As summer wears on though I will go over to using baits. If using live bait then you must use fish caught in the locality where you are fishing. That can be roach, rudd, bream or any other silver fish that you think the pike are probably feeding on there. Try ringing the changes to find out what is best on the day, but a roach is always a good starting point.

If you don't like live baiting though use a freshly thawed sea dead bait (which you can always buy from your local angling shop). Oily fish are usually a good bet, so mackerel (joeys or mackerel tails about 6" long), sardines or lamprey can all work well on their day. Smelts (which have an odd cucumbery smell) also often work very well. You can also try frozen freshwater fish like roach; some days these beat the hell out of sea baits.

As to presentation, I usually ledger them on a paternoster rig or float fish them. I pop them up on weedy bottoms and I tend only to leave them for about 20 minutes between casts. I usually find that if I am going to get a take it is within a few minutes of making a cast. You can also suspend them off the bottom under a float. When doing that ry to rig them so they are suspended horizontally.

For a lot more information I strongly recommend that you have a look at the PACGB website. http://www.pacgb.co.uk/index.html

Best food for humans?

There is none. Enough said. If there was a best bait there wouldnt be any fish left and things like bassmasters wouldnt exist.

A live, or in some cases, a dead sucker.

Thumb up to Chris W and a pat on the head for fisherman andee... just for trying.

EDIT:

So what you're basically saying AC, is that you have no kind of baitfish whatsoever in the UK? Riiiight.

no, he didn't say. and you STILL spell my name wrong.

and in the UK, l would put my bait money in roach or bream (up to 8 or 10 inches long).

Live shiners work good for me

live shiners