live bait for pike

[pondmaster32]

I'm going on a little fishing trip this weekend and I'm mostly going for pike and bass.I going to have a pole for live bait and a i am picking some up at the local tackle store. what will work better bluegill, shiners, suckers or big minnows. all of these baitfish are in the river. bobbers or bottom fishing? what will work? and what time will the live bait be best?

[WanderLust]

Golden shiner is a great pike bait but suckers & big minnows under a float will produce as well.

[Scorcher214]

When i catch gobys instead of just killing them, i put them on a hook and throw them back into the canal. I take a bullet weight and tie on a leader, attach hook to leader. Throw em out. BUUUUUUUUUUUT since i dont think your allowed to sell invasive species i just use Berkly gulp alive gobys ;D

[Cire]

Golden shiner is a great pike bait but suckers & big minnows under a float will produce as well.

We mostly use big suckers under a float also. The size of the sucker is proportional to the size of the northern in my experience. As far as the time, I have heard that you can use this all day but we have mostly went out early in the morning and fished a creek inlet into the lake.

Eric

[nern]

I was fishing with my dad the other day and he threw out some foot long suckers hooked lightly through the back on a river rig.

He said he has caught nice bass on this setup, but this time he caught a nice fat 32 inch northern as well as some smaller ones.

I was using medium minnows, but only catfish were interested