Got my rat in the mail yesterday and was about ready to go throw her at a good spot but then realized there was definitely a possibility of getting hit by a Muskie.

 

That ended that plan real quick as I wasn’t about to risk losing it on day 1.

 

I don’t mind throwing cheap baits naked, but expensive lures is a different story.

 

For those that throw swimbaits in “shark” infested water, what do you do?

 

This could be glide baits, wake baits, any kind of what I call a swimbait.

 

THANKS!

Add a short length of tieable wire. 

Good quality abrasion resistant fluorocarbon or CXX. It's really the small pike you have to worry about.

 

Wire is a good option if you're not willing to risk the loss.

afw tieable wire, i use the 26# and use a modified alberto to secure the leader to my line.

50 lb wire leader with snaps and swivels. About 12”. It’s not perfect but I have them and it should protect me for most all scenarios. And if I’m throwing a 7” hard bait, that leader isn’t putting off a bass. 

3 hours ago, Dogface said:

Add a short length of tieable wire. 

This.

 

AFW coated, tieable wire readily available from Amazon.

 

I also use Berkeley Big Game mono as a leader. It does an admirable job..but it's nowhere near as tooth proof as AFW.

I have some non kinking, tieable wire, but cannot remember the brand. I haven’t used it much because I’m stubborn and iffy about it. I’ve been bit off a whole bunch this season, well over 20x. Casting jigs, creature baits(like CRAZY!), senkos a bunch, paddle tails early and even 3.5-4” tubes for early smallies. They’re native, belong and are simply part of the game for me. Good ol’ northerns man…good grief 

27 minutes ago, JonB2 said:

I have some non kinking, tieable wire, but cannot remember the brand. I haven’t used it much because I’m stubborn and iffy about it. I’ve been bit off a whole bunch this season, well over 20x. Casting jigs, creature baits(like CRAZY!), senkos a bunch, paddle tails early and even 3.5-4” tubes for early smallies. They’re native, belong and are simply part of the game for me. Good ol’ northerns man…good grief 

I have been using this for several years.

My local waters are home to both pike and musky.

Some of them are rather sizeable.

Admittedly, I don't always add it to my baits, and when I don't,

at some point I get bitten off.

When I have this wire in place, I NEVER get bitten off.

AFW routinely goes in front of any horizontal moving bait.

More importantly, I still catch plenty of bass.

Good luck.

A-Jay

I use Seaguar Blue Label. Tie my own in 12-15 inch leaders for certain moving lures.

 

Pike are an endless assault on my tackle. They are abundant and aggressive. There’s no way to avoid them. The only thing you can is minimize the damage.

https://tacklebrosus.com/collections/leaders

These are pretty highly regarded.