Preserving/Toughening your Pike bait....

[Neptune]

Does anyone have an easy method for making your smelt or sardines a little tougher for use when dead baiting Pike?

I have purchased some sardines that seemed to hold up much better than smelt, but the last batch just fell apart after one or two casts to set the lines....


Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Good Fishing!

[Scientist]

Salting them will firm up the flesh but be careful not to salt them for too long because the salting also removes some of the fish’s natural oil. I tend to salt my bait in Kosher salt for 1 hour before freezing them. As for bait that is frozen already, you are out of luck. I tried salting them after they were thawed and the results were not good. For bait that is already frozen and was not salted then I just insert a larger hook through the mouth of the fish and have the point of the hook exit behind the head. You want the hook’s barb to exit the skull of the baitfish. It won’t fall off even with repeated casts.