tip ups

[crabshack]

what's your tip up set up like for winter pike? (line? hook? leader?)

just wondering how others are doing it. I seem to have a tendency to get bit off rather frequently it seems.

[Steve Foss]

There have been a few pike tip-up rigging threads in the main ice fishing board where folks have explained how they rig.

Here's one of them, and here's another.

What rigs do you use? And are you getting bitten off or broken off? Wire can get kinked and twisted, which weakens it well beyond its initial test strength, leading to breakoffs. I've never had a wire rig bitten through by a pike. Or rather, I've never had one I was sure was a bite-through. The times I've had them broken, the break came at a twisted/kinked spot, so I attribute that to broken rather then bitten off.

[reinhard1]

thin wire leaders for pike if you dont want to get bit off. florocabon mono leaders leaders as well. a lake i fish has both pike and rainbow,brown, and lake trout in. in this lake i use a 12 lb. test line atached to a single colored hook and take my chances. good luck.

[FishLocker]

Changed to circle hooks. Helped a TON with bite-offs.

[reinhard1]

that is something i have never tried. i will get some. i'm pretty traditional however i am not afraid to try something new, although i know circle hooks have been around. little stuborn i guess. thanks and good luck.

[Steve Foss]

I used circle hooks all the time for catfishing and they worked perfectly once you learn not to set the hook but just to tighten the line steadily. I've got a few wire leader/circle hook rigs tied up for pike but haven't used them yet, though I plan to yet this winter.

[crabshack]

I typically go with a floro leader and a circle hook (but I'm usually fishing walleyes). I've got bitten off on the same set up when going after pike.

do I want to go with a steel leader? does that deter fish any from biting?

[Jaspernuts]

I have used a thin black steel leader for years on my rigs. I catch plenty of pike on the tip-ups and even bass. I don't think they deter that many of them and I don't get broken off!

[Nick Kuhn]

You can get a pre-made quick strike rig for like a buck. Shouldn't have any problem with bite-offs on those. Should help with hook-ups as well.

[mainbutter]

I like to use 12-25lb fluorocarbon leaders when fishing pike over soft water, and I have yet to have a bite off after a couple hundred pike.

I have to imagine it would work well below the ice as well.

[FishLocker]

I got tie-able steel leader material in my Christmas stocking last year. Have not tried it...has anyone tried it with tipups for pike. Seems to be thinner diameter than regular leader material for the same poundage. Like reinhard1, I like what I do now, and am hardpressed to switch. Input?

[Steve Foss]

FishLocker, not sure if it's the same stuff I use, but mine is stranded wire in 50# strength. I've thought about using heavy flouro, but the wire works really, really well for me, and the first several inches of leader material often spends several seconds in a pike's mouth during a run from a tip-up. I think I might get some bite-offs as those inches of line slide through the teeth on hookset, so I'm reluctant to try it.

Given the success I've had with wire, I doubt very much pike care one way or another. Also, pike are used to getting their mouths and throats poked with dorsal fins from many of the fish they eat. While a lot of pike prey is soft finned like suckers and ciscos, they also eat many walleyes, perch and panfish, all of which have sharp hard dorsal spines. No way, in my mind, will a pike give a tinker's damm about the feel of wire, hooks, or a bit of loose end from twisted wire.

With my wire, it's technically able to be hand tied, but also has a lot of memory, so I tend to twist it hard back up the leader after threading it through the hook, and the same through the swivel. I use a forceps clamped on the last bit of the tag end and twirl it around and around the leader shaft until it's done.

You can see how it looks in the pic.

I think for most folks most of the time, quick-strike rigs are the best way to go overall. It's very easy to change the rig shown in the pic into a quick-strike by adding wire to the existing hook eye and adding another hook to the end of the wire. I have some of those, as well. When I'm out with clients and we have a lot of tip-ups going, I put all QS rigs on, since you can get several flags a flying all at once, and with people shuffling over in all directions to popped flags, quick-strikes take out the guesswork. Tip over the tip-up and set the hook right away. No waiting and wondering if the bait is far enough down the pike's mouth like with a single treble rig.

I put two of the hooks from each treble into the deadbait, with one barb left sticking out. That really secures the bait to the rig, and one hook at each end of the bait is plenty. If you can still find the old double hooks, they are the all-time best for quick-strike rigs. Two hooks fused on the same shank, one hook smaller than the other. I prefer them hands down over trebles. I used to be able to buy the quick-strike rigs pretied with those hooks, and then couldn't find the rigs anymore. But I was able to buy a bunch of the hooks in bulk, and that lasted me a few years.

When I'm by myself, I just stick with the lone treble rigs, because I have them dialed in. I have gut-hooked one pike the last three winters when fishing the lone trebles on two tip-ups.

One thing you can't tell from the pic is that I run the wire through the hook eye and the swivel eye twice, so there's less pressure on the tight bends created where they mate with the eyes.

[FishLocker]

Thanks for the pic Steve. I have 2 kinds, one is Sevalon nylon coated wire that is 7 strand tie-able leader meaterial and very thin for 40#. I do not have the other here with me so cannot tell you the brand, but it is a higher strand count and very limp and easy to tie. I tried it with a jig for practice and worked well. It also says you can just use a lighter to melt the nylon together after twisting if you do not want to tie it...don't know if I would trust that with a decent pike on the other end.

Is your leader in the picture nylon coated too?

[Steve Foss]

It also says you can just use a lighter to melt the nylon together after twisting if you do not want to tie it...don't know if I would trust that with a decent pike on the other end.

Is your leader in the picture nylon coated too?

Yeah, I'm with you on that. No way would I trust a plastic melt/bond with a heavy pike.

No nylon coating at all on my leader material. It's wasted, IMO. I used to use it, but quit because there are no advantages.

Steel stranded wire does rust, even if it's stainless, but as soon as a wire rig gets really twisted/kinked up, it goes in a junk pile so I can reclaim the hardware, toss the wire, and use the hardware for more rigs later. That means I go through wire faster than it can rust. So plastic coated doesn't buy you anything, as far as I'm concerned. It gets twisted up just as much as bare wire, and it's weak wire that leads to break-offs. And the coated wire is a lot thicker, which I don't like.

Here's a pic of the double hook I was talking about. Easy to see how to thread the wire through the eye and then down the plastic sleeve so it's easy to adjust the spacing between the top and the terminal hooks. When I tie QS rigs with trebles, I tend to prefer trebles on the smaller size. I like short shank and wide gap. The narrower the hook, the easier you get penetration, and a wider gap helps with hooking and holding as well.

For wire, I'm now using Berkley 7-strand uncoated wire in 60#. I get 30 feet for about $4, and 30 feet will easily tie you 15-20 rigs. I strongly recommend nothing less than 50# for wire. The break strength drops pretty quickly after a few fish because of slight kinks and bends in the wire, and if you start with 30#, for example, you'll get a lot of break-offs unless you keep swapping them out. With 50#+, you swap them out less often, the cost isn't any higher, and it's still very, very thin.

[FishLocker]

Hey Steve, I checked with a buddy in Brooklyn Park and he says there are quite a number of odd hooks and lures at a bait outlet store up there. It is just north of Fleet Farm by a couple blocks on the road that runs north and south just in front of FF. I do not know the name of the outlet store nor what the new name of the road is that it is on. It is where they changed the route of 169 and added on/off ramps etc. Anyway he said that would be a good place to check. In the mean time, I want to try these hooks and have no reference to hook size with your photo. It looks like it is one wire that makes both hooks like a frog hook? I spent a couple minutes in the shop with hooks, fine strand copper and my soldering iron and came up with these. Do any of them look like the size you use? The squares are 1 inch square.

[Steve Foss]

The hook in the pic is about an inch long. I think the bottom ones pictured should work fine. It looks like the top two are actually circle hooks, which I've never seen on a quick-strike rig, so can't really say how effective they'd be in that situation.

[Muskiefool]

I think it just makes sense to go to circle hooks for live bait; especially when you have the tip up away from your shack or if its cold as H^!! and you have the top down. They work so much better for releasing unwanted fish and they hook up as well or better. Quick strikes are another one I like if those lines are your main focus.

The gut hooking and releasing fish is not something I'm real comfortable with considering the research done on gut hooked Muskie is 100% mortality, I cant see Pike being better off no matter the hook size.

As anglers we need to start getting ahead of regulations because the DNR will simply not move fast enough to protect Big Pike overall. Just MHO

[masterpuppet]

do you put the bait just under ice or a foot off bottom

[Steve Foss]

do you put the bait just under ice or a foot off bottom

With two tip-ups out, I run one about half way down and the other a foot or two off bottom. I don't worry about putting one just under the ice until we can get 4+ tip-ups out.

[FishLocker]

Steve, my son-in-law came to the rescue! QuickRig company online sells them.

He found their link. Check the Double Trouble hooks tab and the Stealth Armor hooks tab.

I do not think I can put the link to their site on a post so you will have to use a search engine to find them. If I am wrong on this policy let me know and I will add it to the next post.

Please let me know the size you prefer to use, as I will be ordering them as well, and would like to start out catching instead of missing them.

Thanks,

the FishLocker

[Steve Foss]

FishLocker, those hooks are too big IMO. Even the 3/0, the smallest available if I'm seeing things right, is over 3 inches long. None of mine were ever even 2 inches long, and those were too big for my taste. In my opinion, you'd be better off buying standard trebles and nipping off one of the hooks with a linesman's pliers or side cutter to get a double hook. Try a No. 2 treble with a short shank and wider gap. Pretty sure Gamakatsu has some that I've used. Mine are red, but color won't matter. Then just trim off one of the hooks on each treble, and on your quick-strike you'll have one hook in each of the doctored trebles holding the bait and the other sticking out.

With my QS rigs and trebles, because I don't use really big trebles, I can leave them alone and easily bury two of the three hooks on each treble in the bait. leaving one sticking out.

The bigger/heavier your hook, the harder it is to drive it all the way through on the hookset.

[FishLocker]

Steve, I emailed QuickRig with your photo and some ouf our conversation to see if they did make smaller versions and this is what he sent back. I cannot buy enough on my own but would at least like some to start trying them out. LEt me know if you will order and I will add to that.

.

Hello Scott. We make circle hooks the size you want. We haven't seen that arrangement for circle hooks but find it a good idea. We support catch and release. This week we are closed and so are the factories we deal with. The samples you show in the pictures fall under or Double trouble hook design so having them made should be possible. The big hurdle is that all of are hooks are handmade and much more expensive than Mustad or Eagle Claw. How many sizes would you use? What quantities can you buy? Have a Happy New Year and I look forward to working with you next year.

HOWARD ROSENBERG, DIRECTOR OF

MARKETING

QUICK RIG CORPORATION

3661 WEST STATE ROAD 84

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL. 33312-4809

954-791-4094 FAX 954-791-0422

TOLL FREE 1-877-687-3471

SKYPE howard.rosenberg

[Dropshot1983]

Hi- Has anyone tried those new I Fish Pro tip up's??

[Steve Foss]

Hey FL, I'm not really interested in buying hooks from them. They are likely too expensive, and I don't need that style. Since my trebles are fairly small, I can use them on quick-strikes, and I have a dozen circle hooks right now, which is all I need.

The double hooks look pretty sexy and work well, but they don't work better on QS rigs than the smallish trebles. For the circle hooks, I don't see a QS rig application. Circle hooks shine when you let a fish take the bait long enough that it goes deep into its mouth or down to the gullet, while QS rigs work best because you can set the hook as soon as you get to it, knowing it's likely the fish has one of the hooks in its mouth.

For me, it'd be circle hooks on a single hook rig and trebles on the QS rigs.

But thanks for thinking of me!

[dmichaelm]

Need some advice.

Set out our tips today, within easy range of the shack. Fishing some pannies, looking out the window and I see the flag pop. Go running, get there and she's spinning fast. Tip the rig, grab the line, give a short firm set.

Bring the hog up through the hole after three nice long thrilling runs to find the back half of the bait, with hook, lodged down through the gullet.

I was fishing a TB 'Y' quick strike on a piece of the local shops dead bait.

I am a CPR guy and have always sent the big boys back to fight another day. It was 32 1/2 and had to go 5lbs, probably over. Really nice gator that I wanted to let go. Did everything I could to try and get the hooks out, but it was no use. You know when you see it, its just over. It'll make lunch for a few of us tomorrow, but shucks...

Really want to avoid this in the future. Thoughts?