I picked up some circle hooks and was just wondering what the best way to rig the frozen anchovy is...I found it was kind of hard with them being frozen and tried going through the head a few times and pretty much ripped the head off. On the bright side, I caught my first catfish yesterday! He was probably about 8 pounds!

Frozen baitfish can be pretty tough to rig. You can either use a smaller hook that doesn't tear the fish up as bad or you can get some thing mesh like spawn bags or pantyhose and wrap them in that and put the hook through the mesh material. 

let your bait thaw, its going to thaw once it hits the water anyways...

Alright...should I be using a steel leader? There are pike and catfish in there, but I feel like there is too much hardware when I have the steel leader on, maybe scaring the fish away. Some guy showed my a way of going through the tail and bringing the line through the body and then hooking back into the front of the fish and it seemed to work well but the steel leader snap is right there on the fish and I feel like it might be scaring them away

Alright...should I be using a steel leader? There are pike and catfish in there, but I feel like there is too much hardware when I have the steel leader on, maybe scaring the fish away. Some guy showed my a way of going through the tail and bringing the line through the body and then hooking back into the front of the fish and it seemed to work well but the steel leader snap is right there on the fish and I feel like it might be scaring them away

I wouldn't worry about a steel leader. I've never had a pike eat a cutbait fished on the bottom for catfish and I couldn't see many eating a frozen anchovie off the bottom either. 

Hmm..interesting...I know one of my friends just uses a steel leader with a 4/0 hook and an anchovie while he is throwing out his baitcaster and has A LOT of success with pike and a few catfish

We only have a couple lakes with pike so I don't have a ton of time fishing around them but if I was truly targeting catfish I would't use a leader because you'll cut down on the number of catfish you'll catch. Maybe a stout floro or mono leader if you're really worried about the pike. 

Hmm..interesting...I know one of my friends just uses a steel leader with a 4/0 hook and an anchovie while he is throwing out his baitcaster and has A LOT of success with pike and a few catfish

Pike will eat a bottle cap if you rig it up and throw it out there.  Fast moving, flashy, vibrating lures work best with pike because that's what they like.  I wouldn't be too concerned with pike while fishing with dead bait on the bottom. Will a pike eat it...perhaps but I'd venture to guess you'll have more activity from cats or bullhead.  If you're really concerned, switch to stink bait or chicken liver.  Chicken liver in my little catfishing experiences has always been the best producer.

Pike will eat a bottle cap if you rig it up and throw it out there.  Fast moving, flashy, vibrating lures work best with pike because that's what they like.  I wouldn't be too concerned with pike while fishing with dead bait on the bottom. Will a pike eat it...perhaps but I'd venture to guess you'll have more activity from cats or bullhead.  If you're really concerned, switch to stink bait or chicken liver.  Chicken liver in my little catfishing experiences has always been the best producer.

 

Yea I will try chicken liver for catfish. As far as anchovies for pike, they are actually really good where I live, especially because the water is cold right now. My buddy caught 18 pike a few weekends ago with 12 of those being from anchovies. Now if it was summer, I would just be sticking to the fast stuff for when the water is warm. Anyways, I will try chicken liver if I am going for catfish specifically

Yea I will try chicken liver for catfish. As far as anchovies for pike, they are actually really good where I live, especially because the water is cold right now. My buddy caught 18 pike a few weekends ago with 12 of those being from anchovies. Now if it was summer, I would just be sticking to the fast stuff for when the water is warm. Anyways, I will try chicken liver if I am going for catfish specifically

Get cheese cloth and wrap it in there. Don't attempt to just rig liver to a treble or single hook. They'll slurp it right off.  Cheese cloth is inexpensive and you can wrap it up on a weight treble and just cut it off as you need to replace when rebaiting it. Good luck and post some pictures when you catch a few!

Hmm..interesting...I know one of my friends just uses a steel leader with a 4/0 hook and an anchovie while he is throwing out his baitcaster and has A LOT of success with pike and a few catfish

 

Fishing with deadbait on the bottom is a very productive pike technique in cold water. I would expect you to catch pike that way. I would get the bets of both worlds and use a leader of heavier mono. This should prevent most bite offs and probably get you a few more bites.

 

If fishing for channels the advice on chicken livers is good and will keep away the pike if you so desire. 

you could also use shrimp for catfish. but dont do like me vietnamese friend and go pay 9 dollars a pound for shrimp that he uses to fish with. i go to the frozen food section at the grocery store and buy a bag of frozen shrimp for like $5-7

 

with chicken livers, i put them on the hook then wrap a piece of elastic thread around them, they hold pretty well

Thanks guys