Favorite Northern Bait?

[tsande00]

Whats the best bait to catch dink northerns?

[magic_minnow]

Terminator spinnerbait on a tip up. JUST AS GOOD AS HOT DOG W/ h'ROID CREAM LOL!

[magic_minnow]

Who brings hemmroid cream to an ice fishing tournament? unless............

[Chode2235]

... you're sitting on a bucket all day...

[Steve Foss]

In order of preference after fishing many lakes in N.D., Minn., Wis.:

1. cisco (tulibee)

2. smelt

3. live bait

[CrowRiverRat83]

I've never fished pike with anything other than suckers or shiners. Where would I be able to get smelt or tullibees? Do you guys just catch your own tullies or do they sell them somewhere?

[pikestabber]

Several lakes around me are loaded with tullibees, so I just catch my own. Not sure if I have ever seen anyone sell them? They are not the easiest to keep alive, whereas suckers are, so I guess bait shops avoid them (they have enough to do to keep their shiners alive!).

[Steve Foss]

I've never fished pike with anything other than suckers or shiners. Where would I be able to get smelt or tullibees? Do you guys just catch your own tullies or do they sell them somewhere?

First off, just to be clear, I'm talking dead bait, not live.

Frozen cisco or smelt are available at most bait stores up north and quite a few around the Twin Cities area.

[Dusty]

I always use sucker minnows 4" mostly because they keep better than shiners and seem to just as well.

[dragonflag]

I like shiners also. Hook them upside down, through the vent along the spine and out toward tail. If you don't use steel leaders thats good in this case because the shiner is always working and swiming to keep "rite". They are swiming up over the sinker a lot of the time. I allways ice a few even on the deadest days doing this.

Fred Bear, interesting to here mention of the spearing Dec's used for fishing. I get the double diget gators once in a while doing this. I wonder why I cant PM on here, forbiden.

I have an intelectual property delema. Can you PM ME?

[thedeadsea]

I don't have any facts about fish's sense of smell, but you would think some of the cisco's success comes from the fact that they are so greasy. Sort of like you or I smelling a fast food restaurant from half way across town and not stopping until we bite into a greasy burger.

[catchphoto_filet]

golden shiner bigger the better! Big bait = Big fish

[pikestabber]

I like shiners also. Hook them upside down, through the vent along the spine and out toward tail. If you don't use steel leaders thats good in this case because the shiner is always working and swiming to keep "rite".

That's a great tip, dragonflag, I hadn't thought about that. Will have to give it a try.

[MJ1657]

I think it depends on the area you're fishing and will differ from lake to lake.

It seems the dead smelt/cisco works better on lakes further north, and live suckers or shiners work better from central MN and south.

The biggest pike I see taken on tip-ups always come on live decoy suckers. You have to tweak the tip-up so the flag doesn't keep tripping and you won't get very many flags, but when you do it's always a pig (I'm talking at least 15 lbs).

How do you tweak the tip up for this?

[eyehead]

I always just cut off part of the suckers back fin off.....that way he is still squirmin around but cant set the flag off...

[pikestabber]

In terms of tweaking a tip-up, it depends on the model to some degree... Some have wing-nuts or regular nuts that you can tighten to increase spool tension. Other models may not have a tension nut, but you can set the top of the spool (aka, the trip lever over the flag) to either go off after a 1/4 turn (for less tension), or set it so that the spool has to spin 3/4 of the way to trip the flag for larger baits. No tip I have used is as precise as I would like, but perhaps other models handle this better. I usually use the insulated igloo (thermal) tip ups, the round orange ones, and I have been able to use fairly large baits by setting the spool to go off with a 3/4 turn.

[bloc004]

When using dead bait, and depending on depth, where are you suspending in the water column? A couple feet under the ice, or towards the bottom?

I only use live shiners and suckers, as i have no experience with dead bait.

[Jmnhunter]

always like using big golden shiners for pike

[deadeye]

I guess the Ely crew got me hooked on frozen ciscos. I never thought they would work but I bet I have gotten more northerns this winter with them than the 3 previous ones.

[Beast26]

I just picked up 3 dozen smelt at Vado's this morning. Have them thawing out a bit now.

Someone asked about how far off the bottom to set them earlier and from my experience you do NOT want the bait too close to the bottom. Northerns, feed up, their eyes are basically on the top of their heads so they look up. If I am fishing in under 6 feet I will only set the line a foot under the ice. If I am deeper I will make sure the bait is at least 3-4 feet off the bottom. I personally would rather have the bait too high in the water column than too close to the bottom.

A few years back we were fishing a small lake where we could see the bottom in 25 feet. In 25 feet of water we had the baits set at about 8 feet....the northerns were there because of the crappies.

[Steve Foss]

I run one about a foot off the bottom and the other about half way up the water column. I'm usually fishing somewhere around 8-10 FOW. There are some days the fish are neutral/negative and won't rise for a higher bait. Most days the suspended bait gets almost all the action, but I always start out with one bait close to bottom because you don't know what the fish want that day until they tell you.

[pikestabber]

I run one about a foot off the bottom and the other about half way up the water column.

Ditto here... Granted, pike do feed by looking up, and generally higher is better, but many days in the dark house have taught me that some days, especially late winter, there are some bottom hugging pike that will not rise to a decoy or sucker. Run one of each and see what works on a given day.

[dragonflag]

mj1657 No prior art tip-up will do this (ancor a spearing Dec)

Thats why I developed one that will. It works in conjunction with the user's own rod and reel combo, Insulates the hole cut in the ice in insane temps. user friendly rite down to kids.

What are the dues to be able to PM on here. I'm up in Cambridge.

[Gordie]

smelt and the biggest golden shinner that I can find

[dragonflag]

Anyone who can teach me to PM on here (disabled)

Cant even message rick or waldo