Grizz

Yes the wider elastic bands! I was tying deer hair mice a number of years back and when I cut the elastics and tied them in with the inside of the natural curl of the rubber facing forward, every time I stripped it the curl would unfold as if the legs were swimming and then coming forward for another stroke. I think it got as much attention from entertaining myself as it did from the pike!

Carpet fibers latex condom (latex caddis & such) Wife's "curly hair" matchbox toy axle tube guitar string wire about 4 bazillion different types of foam cat's whiskers dental floss damn near anything that works really!

I've landed countless very large pike with a 6 weight rod. Regardless of the context - the old adage still applies - it's not the size/weight of your rod, it's how you use it. The down side to the lighter rod is that you can tend to overly wear out a fish since you don't have enough backbone to land him quickly. A buddy of mine used to use a 3 wt rod for trout fishing large rainbows and browns on a particular river. After a day of that I berated him after watching him struggle for waaaay to long to land fish. I'm thinking a few of them died due to the long fight. That being said, if you are in a maneuverable boat it's not so bad as you can shorten the fight and still enjoy using the lighter tackle. Bitch lake used to have some nice pike in it many moons ago - I don't know how it is now though.. **I'd go with much heavier mono for your leader, especially with a light rig. I used to use 40lb test maxima for my main leader with an 18" nylon coated steel leader for the teeth. Since you lack a heavier rod weight, 8 lbs is going likely be a big "snappo!" if you get something bigger than hammer handles.