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Throughout the theme of the Pike Online site we have been extolling the virtues of correct positioning of the hooks in your baits, hopefully via this diagram we can explain why.

Here in this diagram you can see the typical position of a bait that has been picked up by the pike. For the bait to be in this position several things have occured since the pike actual made the first move to eat you bait. The bait here is pointing down the pikes throat head first, which is the 'easy' way for the pike to swallow it, minimum resistance from the fins, something of a natural instinct that evolution of the species has generated. This manifests itself in the action of first seizing the bait and clamping on it to kill what it might expect to be a live fish. Once satisfied that the bait is 'dead' or 'crippled' the pike having seized the bait across the flank will eject it briefly before seizing it again head first prior to attempting to swallow it. This may only take a couple of seconds or may in the case of a large live bait several minutes.

However long it takes though there are tell tales signs, the float rocks side to side, bobs up and down, or the indicator bleeps and rises and falls slightly each of which should alert the angler to the attention being given to his bait. Provided the attention is there and even if the bait is swallowed a correctly hooked bait should not get much further than illustrated here. On striking the bait should normally be expected to dislodge from the throat and the hooks should take hold on one side of the mouth or the other lodging in the 'scissors'.

Please consider these observations and mount your hooks sympathetically for the prevention of deep hooking and the risks of injuring your quarry!

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