Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought a Jack Hammer, aka Pike Donation. I was fortunate to go bass fishing at Lake Couer d Alene a few weeks ago and saw the differences between a regular chatterbait and also saw some big bass choke this thing. I know many people throw this on glass or moderate action rods and fluoro. I throw all of my treble bait lures on the same set up, but I'm reluctant to throw a jack hammer on this set up for fear of getting bit off. It's the same reason I tend to stay away from pricier lures when throwing fluoro-too many pike in our lakes. My question is this, do you guys roll the dice and throw chatterbaits on fluoro or do you throw them on braid, knowing you might suffer lower hook up ratio but won't donate as many to pike. For those of you that do throw your chatterbaits on braid, maybe you haven't even noticed a difference in hook up ratio? I know the current thinking on throwing the jack hammer is a glass rod/20# fluoro but something tells me Brett Hite might not do this if he lived in Michigan and also didn't get free jack hammers!

I've had plenty of pike bite through braid. I even had a pike last year bite through a 15 pound test hand-tied steel leader! If I'm fishing certain lakes with lots of pike there are lures I'm not going to throw. When I do throw something on one of those lake I don't want to lose I throw it on a tie-able steel leader.

Throw it on fluoro. If you spent the money on the bait, optimize the action by complementing it with equipment proven to do so. If you get bit off, you get bit off.

I have had more losses on braid then floro. When I buy lures I buy extra to offset the pike factor.