One of my neighbors does some tournament fishing (regional level) and he has some of the Coike urchin baits - he mostly uses the larger ones so he was willing to sell me a 17mm version - the first time I threw it - bang, a nice 17 inch LMB - I thought, wow, this thing works great, first cast and an immediate catch - so I cast it out again - bang, then zip, the line was screaming off of the reel - I was using a ML spinning rod with 20lb/6lb braid as the Coike is a light bait (I had a 1/16 weight in the bait and a treble hook) - I could not see what I had on the line as it had dove and darted in to the reeds - I slowly tightened the drag, but whatever was on the line was fighting hard and kept darting and diving - as I got it closer to the boat the rod was really bending - so it became a long battle - well, it was a big Northern Pike (thankfully I had a steel leader on the line) - big enough that it was a task to lift it into the boat (I kept it in the net as it was angry and slashing around) - I did my best to place the net onto my 32 inch measuring board (see picture) - it was clearly longer than the board, my best guess is it was 35/36 inches long and it was healthy/strong/heavy - he had inhaled the Coike - as in it was so deep in his crusher that I could barely see any of the tentacles from the bait and I could not see the treble hook (I could see where the treble hook was by following the steel leader, but I could not see the treble hook itself) - I used my 10 inch hemostats but just could not get the treble to come back up/come out of his crusher - I dunked the net back in the water a few times to keep him alive as I tried to get the treble hook out - but in the end I felt I had two choices - either cut the pike open and get the bait/treble out or use my wire cutters to cut the steel leader and let the pike go - my thought was that this pike is an absolute giant size for this lake, it has to be over 10 years old, it looks really healthy - but I want my Coike back !!! - in the end I cut the steel leader as close to the treble as I could, put the net back in the water and watched as he slowly moved away - then he turned towards me and darted in to the depths, with my Coike......

Edited yesterday at 01:49 AM1 day by WaskaCrank12
spelling

@WaskaCrank12 I truly believe in Karma and my hope for you is it repays you 10 fold 👊🏻

Saved a beast of a Pike. Very nice.

With the price and scarcity of genuine Coike baits and groceries, that fish would have given the Coike back and filled my belly.

7 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Saved a beast of a Pike. Very nice.

I'm not so sure that fish didn't die later. The words "inhaled" and "deep" and "crusher" and "treble hook" describes to me what has resulted in delayed mortality.

What the heck is a crusher anyways? Can't say I've ever heard that referred to in the fish world.

So what am I missing? What’s a coike?

58 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

So what am I missing? What’s a coike?

ha!

Fuzzy ball urchin bait. Looks like a Koosh ball from the 90's and 2000's. Winning all the tournaments right now.

For all the above reasons - my urchin fishing in Minnesota are the cheaper $7.99 Prickly Pears and a single Reneau Trigger hook or Core Tackle Dice Rig to remove easier if inhaled.

1 hour ago, gim said:

I'm not so sure that fish didn't die later. The words "inhaled" and "deep" and "crusher" and "treble hook" describes to me what has resulted in delayed mortality.

What the heck is a crusher anyways? Can't say I've ever heard that referred to in the fish world.

Google is your friend. Bass have crushers too.

1 hour ago, gim said:

What the heck is a crusher anyways? Can't say I've ever heard that referred to in the fish world.

Basically throat teeth

And why is a treble hook being used with this thing?

39 minutes ago, gim said:

And why is a treble hook being used with this thing?

That's the best way to rig them, although some people like them on a swing head jig.

That being said, Coike's are expensive. Since the fish is likely to die with the bait and hook in there, I would have retrieved the bait.

It might actually be against the regs here to use it with a treble hook.

Treble hooks here must be a built-in part of an artificial lure, such as a crank bait, jerk bait, topwater, etc. Simply attaching a treble hook to a plastic is not permitted.

@gim - as @Kev-mo stated, basically throat teeth - near the entrance to the esophagus -

I stated it as "crushers" as I have heard it described this way by marine biologists - in several videos and articles on "deeply hooked fish" and "fish mortality rates" that I have watched/read a deeply hooked fish was referenced to as "having the hooks in it's crusher" or "the hook was imbedded in the fishes crusher area" - I have read/watched a lot of information on fish mortality/delayed mortality due to deep hooking - what the data shows in regard to LMB vs. SMB who have been deeply hooked is interesting - I have not seen/read about Northern Pike in this regard (deeply hooked) - as stated I got to a point where I had to make a choice to either keep the fish and cut it open to get the bait back or go in thru the gill plate and cut the steel leader as close as possible to the hook eye as I could get and then let the fish go (because the treble hooks pointed up towards the fishes mouth so even when I pushed the treble hook away from the mouth, because the hooks were in the "crusher", when I went to move the hook back towards the fishes mouth to remove it the hooks just became imbedded again, the only way I could have gotten it out would have been to invert the treble hook so the points of the hook were facing down away from the fishes mouth, but that was not possible due to the fact they were attached to the bait and the "crusher" area was small relative to the hooks/bait, and I don't have X-ray vision :) - I chose to cut the steel leader - you are correct that leaving the treble hook/bait in the fish could result in delayed mortality -- or, as has been shown in some long term research by marine biologists, fish have been known to expel the hook/bait as it degrades over time (a complicating factor in this case is the Coike is made of elastomer material that does not break down easily) - I spoke with one of the local DNR marine biologists stationed here and he said a Northern of that size in this lake was "in the top tier percentile of pike in the lake and the growth rate data would suggest that it is over 10 years old" - I did my best, my sincere hope is the Coike Thief lives on

@gim *****Using a treble hook was suggested as "the best hook up ratio" rig - as you can put one of the hooks into the bait and have two hooks available to pin the fish - but due to this experience I will go with a single hook rig in the future if I use a bait like this again (specifically with Coike's in the 17mm/13mm/10mm sizes)

@casts_by_fly gotcha! Us shallow river rats don’t play with that tomfoolery 😂

If it was legal I would have just harvested the fish took the meat and my bait. Ultimately is a sad reality in our sport that happens at times.

Latest "fad" to the lure arsenal. The verdict is not in yet but the i-gen youth has adopted it. They are way expensive for what you get, like most things since Johnny stamped out competition. I did catch a spot on one the other day "trying" some types out. It's the new kid on the block so everyone is rushing to add to their product lines. I wish I had a dollar for every 'hottest lure" to hit the market over the past decades. I find about the time you figure out to catch them on it, they change. So stock up while U can and kept your old stuff that works day in/day out as eventually they'll change those too. Colors seem limited but when they're only biting certain colors, as long as they offer yours, no issue.

I was up on Champlain a numbers of years ago, on the "shelf" across/below from the pulp mill below Ty. I was floating a 10" power worm with the current through the weeds and into the trough and hooked up early. A pike had come from behind in the weeds and swallered the whole length of the rig. The hook was in the gullet/sphincter, only line showing. I removed the hook and pulled out the worm, whole, from it's stomach. So a small morsel like this is no match for the toothy ones. Would have cut the line had it not been leadered up. I would suspect the action was hampered but these things don't do much. There more or less designed to be thrown in a fish's face on the live scope to get a bite.

After I bought a fancy pair of nippers to cut the hook shafts before I would release, I've just went to fish'n barbless the last many years since I quit competing. No sense harming the fish or letting them struggle trying to deal with a gut hook deal. Nothing new to us trout, etc. guys, but not adopted for basses much. It makes it quite easy to release a gut hooked bass without bleeding, if you have forceps. Less post release mortality expected when there's no blood. I drop shot a lot more as I age and some just inhale it and by the time you reel 'em, they got it digested. I was pulling TX rigged mag lizards out of spots this spring and they were still trying to digest them as I was removing the hook. So be kind to the finny friends as best we can, regardless of specie, they give us pleasure for a few seconds, but they have to deal with the scars pof just being hungry. As the catch and release pressure and water pollution out there is enormous now and the sportsmanship is declining with all the competition and electronics. I see more floaters than I'd like to as I travel lakes. I don't care to see these "pros" flopping fish on the carpet or EVA foam with braid, heavy line, etc. monkey see... They lose skin slime, they need to prevent bacteria. I see lots of infected fish these days. Anything above about 3 # needs to be lifted carefully to not damage the mouth/jaw also. Fish are designed to be supported 360 by water, air doesn't provide skeletal support. It's just my view that since B.A.S.S. was taken over/changed direction several times and the competitive aspect launched to the youth, the first "S" or even the periods are no longer spoken. Even conservation only gets a small 3" article out of a whole issue. We can always do better...

Greetings All,

@WaskaCrank12 Wow! What a story. Thanks for sharing that experience.
Based on information available, I respect your call on the situation.

Doing what you think is best at the moment.

I've only got a limited amount of pike experience. There are a few of them in AZ too. Always better to be careful and minimize injury.

It is my understanding the TPE is better able to breakdown when compared to plastisol materials.

Be well, Cheers!

22 hours ago, gim said:

It might actually be against the regs here to use it with a treble hook.

Treble hooks here must be a built-in part of an artificial lure, such as a crank bait, jerk bait, topwater, etc. Simply attaching a treble hook to a plastic is not permitted.

I'm pretty sure they removed that requirement.

I've found treble hooks on these baits to have terrible hookup ratios. Zero problems with a big octopus hook. I want to try to Reneau. I've successfully used big EWGs too. Not really sure why some pros went to trebles and caused others to follow. Sometimes I think it's a prank they played on everyone.