Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Quick strike rigs for pike?

Anyone use them? I was using dead smelt on a single hook for pike a couple weeks ago and just couldn't hook up on any. I know they take it and run then stop and swallow it and you then set the hook but I am either too impatient or they let go and don't eat it. So today I bought some 30# coated steel leader, crimp tubes, swivels, and #1 eagle claw trebles and made up some like these but without the spinner blade...

http://matsuanglers.org/wp-content/uploads/Quick-Strike-Rigs-for-Pike.pdf

The top hook goes in the baits nose/head and the bottom one goes around the dorsal fin or tail.

Quick strike rigs are supposed to enable you to set the hook as soon as the fish grabs the bait. No waiting for them to run and eat it. I'm planning on tryin them out this weekend. Last time we were out I almost lost my shimano curado reel when I wasn't paying attention. A big pike took my bait and ran and pulled my rod a couple feet out in the water. Luckily he let go of the smelt before I lost a $350 setup!

I have been making my own for many years, check your regs on the spinner blade. I believe we actually need a blade on ours in MN to be legal, I can't remember the reason why but I think we need some sort of dangler on ours to be legal, it could have to do with the multiple hooks, I'm not certain.

Personally I do like the trebles but you can also get a single hook that has a small spur hook on the back side of the single hook shank. You use the small hook to secure to your bait.

I like to leave the mid hook as a slider, and since I do most of my pike fishing through the ice, I like to make my rigs a minimum of 36" so I can get a hand on the leader as I'm trying to bring the fish up through the hole.

You said top hook in the bait's nose.... by "top" do you mean the hook at the end of the rig? We put the end hook through the nose and set the mid hook (the slider in my case) through the back of the bait so that the bait is balanced horizontally in it's presentation.

99% of the time the pike take the bait head on.

Sorry for this, but your post has brought many fond memories of pike fishing to the surface for me.

I think the funnest pike I ever landed was about an 18 pounder hand over hand from a rocky outcropping on the shore of a boundary waters lake in Minnesota.

We were unpacking our camp gear at the campsite when my then very young son pointed to a spool and large bobber I had pulled out of a pack. Nathan says "What's that for, dad?"

I think I told him it was a "meal kit" or something like that. I explained that it was for catching us a fantastic meal.

It was a spool of white and green braided Dacron with a large single hook, and a baseball sized red and white plastic bobber.

I grabbed a dead smelt from a zip lock bag, baited it up, set the bobber at about 3 feet. I spooled off a pile of loose line onto the ground at my feet and cupped the bobber, bait and hook in one hand and carefully lobbed it out from shore underhanded, a careful toss as to not tear the soft smelt off the hook.

I stripped off a little more line and let the breeze take the bobber out further from shore. Then I peeled off more line from the spool and tied a quick release knot to a springy cedar branch at shore. We went back to setting up camp and I instructed the boys to keep an eye on that rig.

Not 10 minutes later...

We had this guy on a stringer.



hand over hand from shore, that was a hoot!



Yep, we ate him.



That is one fish inside those 3 foil packs. 2 adults and 2 boys, we feasted on that pike all day. It was awesome.



Before anybody hates on me for eating a big mama fish, I knew the lake well, and I knew that although it was a large pike, it was not large for this lake.

this fish head by my boot represents a "big pike"