Pelagic fishing for Pike. It is a hot item these days. There aren’t many tactics so successful as catching large fish somewhere half in the water column. Neither is any technique besides sidescan so effective at localizing fish, and knowing or partially knowing their exact size with live sonar. In this article, I will give you a deeper insight into what material to use, or above all, which baits to use and how to rig them with the perfect baits, to ensure your maximum effectiveness on the water, and get the most out of short feeding windows on the water, at day or nighttime!
”The Finest of them all, Revolution Tackle Hel Shads with Darkmoonbaits DMB Balls”
Fishing at half water, near the bottom, or on top, can be a tricky game. No other style of predator fishing demands so many details as pelagic fishing does. And for a good reason, everything happens directly right in front of the fish its nose, and you might understand that an error is quickly made. Softbaits that are not doing their job properly in the water, unbalanced rigs, or uneven rigs that hold the hook on top of the bait can make it swim unnatural in the water, and hence the reason why a proper approach is so important. The hook placement, the way the hook is held onto the soft bait, the weights, but also colors and vibration in the water play a key role here. It has to look as natural as possible, and keeping everything balanced is the way to go!
”Tiny details on the rig make the difference”
In the picture above you can clearly see a great example of how details can make a difference. These baits are called Hel Shads and they’re made by the German brand Revolution Tackle. I have chosen to combine them with the finest weights in the industry, namely DMB Balls from Darkmoonbaits which is another brand from Belgium. These two companies have already combined their forces in making both products available to their audience so it is really the best of both worlds! The Hel Shad has a slim body profile, and less resistance in the water when going down. Yet they have a unique whale tail profile that makes them push a lot of water down into the abyss with little effort. Because these baits are so slim the hook placement needs to be absolutely perfect.
”A Big Pike inspecting the bait on Garmin Livescope”
Pike fishing pelagic can really be a game of trial and error, and error will arise when things are not balanced. Often when you will find fish suspended they are on the hunt, but the slightest wrong movement in the water, or from your rod can instantly turn them from feeding mode positively into negative non-feeding mode. Remember that exceptions are there but usually, the bigger fish have experience and can be very finicky when it comes to taking your bait. So the presentation has to be absolutely right from the very beginning.
”The Revolution Tackle Dag Shad 16 ready to go together with the DMB Balls”
Pikecraft Fishing delivers with The Quick Pin Big and this does is enable any hook to be placed on top in the best way possible. It is basically a pin or spike that you can insert into your soft baits, you can choose to glue it with superglue tightly and firm it into the body of the softbait, and then later place the hook shank into the open slot. Any hook up to 4/0 can be placed inside but I recommend not going beyond 3/0 for the best user experience. From 30 cm or should I say above 12 inches or more 3/0 can be used best. Most baits have a wider body and the hook points on this size hook get past that with ease. The Dag Shad 16cm for example has a 1/0 because this fits the bait best. It is always a key thing to try to use the biggest treble possible, but without the bait being unbalanced. So the rule that I mostly use is that on the head of most pelagic baits, where the body is the thickest, I will need the wideness of the hook gape to be sticking out, just about so that it is balanced.
”Pelagic heads with a twist, these are actually the Newest Revolution Tackle heads”
You can see that there can be many variations when it comes to hook placement judging from the picture above. This specific Pelagic Head by Revolution Tackle has been designed with two eyelets. One to attach a snap to on top, and a secondary eye that supports a pelagic rig. This is especially handy on larger baits, where usually the terminal tackle components are a bit heavier for larger fish. Again The Quickpin Big from Pikecraft Fishing and The Pelagic Stinger is used. The double eyes on this pelagic head give total freedom for the stinger rig to move around. Plus it also keeps the fish hooked longer especially on larger baits because there is much more room to move around, and less room to free the hooks.
”A Giant in the Dark, when all details become one”
All in all, there are many different variations of baits you can combine with one another, but always keep in mind that you balance the details described above. There are hundreds of baits on the market, but the baits shown above are one of the absolute best. I’m not saying that all you have to use is this, but the rigs that I showed you with the products included can really make or break your day or should I say night on the water. These rigs will serve any soft bait out there, for any pelagic style of fishing you want to do, and I hope with this article that I’ve been able to give you a big more insight on how to make the Perfect Pelagic rig yourself!
