The Pikers Pit

ive recently started doing abit of lure fishing for pike, not got many "pike" lures at the moment but ive got a fair few bass lures.

my question here really is are dedicated pike lures different to bass lures or are they just the same and will what i have work for pike?

was thinking maybe with the pike having such nasty gnasher the soft plastics for pike may be made abit more durable than the average bass lure, i can imagine the hard plastics are pretty much the same.

thanks in advance for any advice

lots of "pike lures" sold in Europe today are just rebranded lures originaly designed for the bass fishing industry in North America or Japan.

If you are confident in your current lure selection, do not overthink and go fish with it.

The only thing that I would do is check the terminal tackle and maybe beef up the split rings and hooks of the lures.

If you are still uncertain, post some pictures of your lure collection so that the group members here can have a look and give your more specific advice on when/where/how to use them for pike.

Don't worry about the durability of the bass lures, they'll be fine. The hardbaits will get scratched by the teeth, but that's it, and no soft plastic is durable enough to avoid being shredded eventually by the teeth of pike.

If they run at the right depth for the pike waters you're fishing, with an action that attracts bass, they'll catch pike

they certainly will catch pike
the delta sand-eel pattern has caught me plenty of pike and some of the mackerel patterns work well

Bass softies/SP's can live longer if you fish them on a release rig.
Teach yourself how to bend a suitable wire and all you will need to buy are the hooks.

And welcome aboard

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In general a lure is a lure. Fish that eat other fish might try to eat it. When it comes to specificity of what lure is good for what species, it would be useful to know what type of bass (lures) you mean.
The lures intended for our coastal bass are somewhat different from the lures intended for the various N. American bass species, themselves varying quite a bit.

You will get by as long as the lure suits the venue (e.g. depth.....no point using something that flutters quickly down the water column in a 2' park lake etc).
In terms of how effective the ones you have are....why not show us them? We all love pictures of lures ha.

The guy who asked the question is the reason why I have sometimes wondered if responding to new members is really worth the effort.

Five replies, all good advice and in return....





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I would say any lure can be good. Bass lures are pretty tough as they have to deal with being dragged through rocky weedy ground. If they are in similar colours to the forage base in your pike water then they’ll work. People troll mackerel for pike so I suspect any colour will work at some point.

Cheers
Ben

Mike J wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01 2023 09:19 -

The guy who asked the question is the reason why I have sometimes wondered if responding to new members is really worth the effort.

Five replies, all good advice and in return....





.

Mike, is this a common occurrence?
I know I’m not on here that often myself but I’m not online at all that often.
Hope you are well.

Cheers
Ben

Noblest savage wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01 2023 13:01 -

Mike J wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01 2023 09:19 -

The guy who asked the question is the reason why I have sometimes wondered if responding to new members is really worth the effort.

Five replies, all good advice and in return....





.

Mike, is this a common occurrence?
I know I’m not on here that often myself but I’m not online at all that often.
Hope you are well.

Cheers
Ben

Hi Ben, yes Im fine thanks.

Its not common but it certainly does happen.

All I know is that when someone responds to your thread or post you receive an email so there isn't an excuse for not knowing.

Cheers, Mike


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Mike J wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02 2023 11:36 -

Noblest savage wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01 2023 13:01 -

Mike J wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01 2023 09:19 -

The guy who asked the question is the reason why I have sometimes wondered if responding to new members is really worth the effort.

Five replies, all good advice and in return....





.

Mike, is this a common occurrence?
I know I’m not on here that often myself but I’m not online at all that often.
Hope you are well.

Cheers
Ben

Hi Ben, yes Im fine thanks.

Its not common but it certainly does happen.

All I know is that when someone responds to your thread or post you receive an email so there isn't an excuse for not knowing.

Cheers, Mike


.

I don’t Mike !
Didn’t even know that was an option ???
I’ve never received an email about anything on here except crimbo raffle tickets and Merch !?!
How do I set up notifications ???

Flipflopjoe wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02 2023 12:06 -

Mike J wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02 2023 11:36 -

Noblest savage wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01 2023 13:01 -

Mike J wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01 2023 09:19 -

The guy who asked the question is the reason why I have sometimes wondered if responding to new members is really worth the effort.

Five replies, all good advice and in return....





.

Mike, is this a common occurrence?
I know I’m not on here that often myself but I’m not online at all that often.
Hope you are well.

Cheers
Ben

Hi Ben, yes Im fine thanks.

Its not common but it certainly does happen.

All I know is that when someone responds to your thread or post you receive an email so there isn't an excuse for not knowing.

Cheers, Mike


.

I don’t Mike !
Didn’t even know that was an option ???
I’ve never received an email about anything on here except crimbo raffle tickets and Merch !?!
How do I set up notifications ???

Email notifications are off by default. Turn them on in User Control Panel.

Cheers Dave

Nobody replies to your posts Joe, that's why you're not getting any notifications

JoeNickel wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02 2023 20:45 -

Nobody replies to your posts Joe, that's why you're not getting any notifications

JoeNickel wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02 2023 20:45 -

Nobody replies to your posts Joe, that's why you're not getting any notifications

To answer the OP's question tho.
I'm 100% sure bass lures would work for pike but the size difference between the lures I throw for pike and bass is quite big, I stick to smaller cranks snd soft for the bass so they'd be jack magnets in the places I fish.
I know some throw quite big lures for bass but I've had better success on moderately sized lures for them and the smallest lure I throw gor pike these days is probably 8 inches.

I have hundreds of (sea) bass lures and TBH I’ve never really tried them for pike. Firstly, they’re a bit too small (typically 4-6”) for big pike and secondly most are designed to be fished very shallow (either topwater, very shallow diving, weightless almost topwater softies…..but alternatively bottom bouncing jigs can be very successful for bass). I’m sure they’d catch plenty of pike (probably mainly jacks with maybe a few bigguns) if you perservered but there are far better pike specific lures.