Meat Bait Pike

The less-than-peachy disposition of the bait shop owner might have driven away customers, but he ran the only bait shop in town and knew it.

- Phil Goes

"How's the fishing been?" I inquired. I knew how it had been, but it felt awkward to just sit there as he silently counted and then recounted exactly one dozen shiners.

"Any big ones lately?" "No," he replied. "Ten dollars and twenty-five cents."

I gritted my teeth remembering when a dozen big shiners cost $3, and the dozen was always closer to two dozen. At $10.25 a dozen with an accurate head count, I needed to find something more affordable before my wife discovered how much our weekend trips were costing. My young boys and I run tip-ups on lakes full of hungry pike and other fish. Live shiners all but assure plenty of action and catches, but now that comes at a steep price.

An alternative came to light as I was cleaning a mess of pike with the boys, who were standing on chairs at the kitchen counter picking through the stomach contents in hopes of finding something "cool." I slipped the fillet knife into another extended stomach. Instead of a half-digested baitfish, a pallid hot dog slid out.

There it was, indisputable proof that pike under ice eat hot dogs. I had heard they made good bait, but fishermen are notorious storytellers.

I didn't drive straight to the grocery.

I kept paying top dollar for shiners and dead smelt, the old standby for bigger pike.

It wasn't until a year later that I finally skewered a frankfurter on a treble hook and gave it a try.

The pike were biting like crazy that day and we emptied the bait bucket in record time. Reluctant to pack everything up to make a bait run with only an hour of daylight remaining, I asked a nearby angler if he could spare a little bait, counting on the cute-kid effect.

He gestured toward the biggest pack of hot dogs I had ever seen and said, "Take half a dozen."