How to Catch Pike: Spinnerbaits, Livebait, and Zherlitsa Rigs Explained

You catch pike on a zherlitsa by setting a baited livebait near weed beds, pools, or sunken cover and letting the predator take it on its own — no constant casting required. This live-bait method is one of the oldest ways to target pike and works year-round, including through the ice in winter.

What kind of fish is the pike?

The pike is a voracious predatory fish that can grow to over a metre in length and lives in clear-water bodies, both standing and flowing. It favours areas overgrown with aquatic vegetation, pools and whirlpools, and stretches of bottom cluttered with rhizomes and sunken trees.

These cover-rich spots serve the pike as an ambush from which it strikes the smaller fish it feeds on. Unlike most fish, the pike does not settle into one place for the winter; it keeps moving in search of prey all year.

Because the pike feeds year-round and stays on the move, you can catch it in every season using live fish as bait. For more on choosing and preparing live bait, see Bait for fish.

How do you catch pike on a zherlitsa (live-bait rig)?

A zherlitsa is a passive live-bait rig anchored in one spot, baited with a small fish so the pike hooks itself when it strikes. Sometimes an angler fishing for non-predatory species suddenly pulls out a pike — this happens when a pike grabs a small fish that has already taken the hook. The zherlitsa turns that accident into a deliberate method, using a livebait such as gudgeon, ruffe, or bleak.

Setting up a zherlitsa follows a few clear steps:

• Prepare several rigs, each baited with a livebait on a steel leash carrying double hooks, the points turned toward the head of the bait fish.
• Connect the leash to the fishing line or cord with a swivel snap, so the line can rotate freely.
• Tie the rig above the water — less often in the water — to a willow bush, an overhanging tree, or a peg driven into the bottom of the pond.
• Set the bait so it floats 25–50 cm below the surface.

Choose the right water for the set: place zherlitsas at the edges of aquatic-vegetation thickets and around pools, and avoid setting them on the current. The pike grabs the livebait by the head and tries to swim off, swallowing it gradually as it goes. For this reason the cord must pay out freely — if the line is fixed, the pike feels the resistance and spits the bait out.

How do you fish a zherlitsa through the ice in winter?

In winter you fish the zherlitsa by cutting a hole in the ice and laying a stick across it to which the rig is tied. Lower the bait into the water to a depth of up to half a metre below the surface.

The principle is the same as in open water: the bait must hang freely and the line must run out without resistance when a pike takes, so the predator can swallow the livebait before the strike is felt.

How do you catch pike on spinning tackle?

Spinning is the active counterpart to the stationary zherlitsa, where the angler casts and retrieves a lure to provoke a strike. Amateur anglers fit spinning tackle with a range of factory and home-made blades, plus artificial, live, and dead fish.

Match the lure to the water:

• On lakes, use standard oscillating (spoon) blades.
• On rivers, use rotating (spinner) blades.

Detect the bite by watching the line pull from the reel: when the pike takes, let the line go slightly, then strike sharply to set the hook. After hooking, work the pike in the water — letting it run, then drawing it back — and bring it to you before lifting it out with a landing net.

Remove the hook from the pike's mouth with a special forked stick, and stun the fish first with a blow to the head, since a pike's teeth make unhooking by hand dangerous. Catching pike on spinning tackle and on live-bait line rigs is very common among amateur fishermen, and many anglers use both methods through the year depending on the season and water.