We fished just north of Red Lake for pike and did pretty well. There were several guys using dead bait. The standard setup was heavy leaders a few feet under a float, lots of guys used small ballons as floats to keep it on the cheap. Generally you be using the dead baits in less the 5 feet of water. A heave mono or fluro leader is your best bet (at least 80lb) I'd say the leaders doesnt need to be too long - 4 feet max. Make sure you have some big strong hooks too!
We stuck to lures and Im pretty sure we outfished the deadbait guys. I used an 80lb fluro leader that was about 12 inches long, never had a fish break off teh whole trip.
I'd take a bunch of spinner baits if I were you, #5 Mepps or larger work like gold. If you are there at the right time and place the pike will hit any lure though.
Some big plastics that you can fish weedless in really shallow water is good aswell. Some of our largest fish came in less then a foot of water.
Silver was my top colour for spinners. This spinner that I made myself produced several 40+ inch pike
<--- You can see it in the mouth of the pike to the left.