Will DEET bug spray hurt my pike lures, line and leaders — what repellent should pike anglers buy?

Buy 20 % picaridin lotion or wipes — mainly to protect your tackle. DEET is a plasticizer: it softens and hazes monofilament, soft plastics and lure paint, and Keith Jones's Berkley research found bass strongly repelled by it at about one part per million. Picaridin does not attack plastics. Treat clothing with permethrin at home and let it dry — never at the water, because it is highly toxic to fish while wet. In black-fly country a head net and a Thermacell-type unit keep repellent off the hands entirely. For pike on moving lures the scent cost is probably small, since the strike is visual. The gear cost is real: painted spoons and jerkbaits, big soft swimbaits, and the mono or fluorocarbon leader you trust against teeth. Wire shrugs DEET off; the line tied to it does not. Dead-bait anglers should treat DEET as they would fuel.

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