Tip-up line: What's heavy enough?

[Steve Foss]

Hey all:

Had a monster pike break me off on Birch Lake near Babbitt today.

Had on a 12-inch sucker with the tail fin cut off under a Polar HT tip-up over 10 feet of water.Tip was spooled with fresh 30 lb Trilene Big Game, with no nicks or abrasions.

Flag popped and I knew it had to be big enough to take a foot-long sucker.

Biggest tip-up pike I've taken to date was 13 pounds. This one took it slow then speeded up. Walked over to watch the spindle, and it spun so fast it was a blur for 15 seconds with no end in sight. I have the large spool on that HT.

I tipped over the tip-up and grabbed the line to stop the fish. Not to set the hook, just to stop it. Felt like my line was attached to a tractor in road gear. Felt the line tighten, stretch, stretch some more and just as I was about to let it start sliding through my fingers, PING!

Quick-strike rig was 30-lb sevenstrand wire, swivel was 50-lb Berkley.

Sheesh, how heavy do you all go on your tip-up line/tackle? I've always liked mono because of its stretch and give while handlining a fish. Now I'm looking at 80-lb Power Pro.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Guest]

Wow, Tuff loss. Kinda sounds like somethings I have have done.

On my tip ups I use 30lb black dacron line. That line is nice because it is easy to grab and bring in. I havent had any problems yet.

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Fish ON!

[Try Too Fish]

Stcatfish
I use 50# poly coated ice free dacron with a seven strand steal leader!I have never been broke off,i check the line frequently and retie as necessary but hardly ever need too.
Last winter when i was tipup fishing for pike,i had on the same as you (a big sucker with the tail trimmed) a deadly combo.The flag popped and by the time i got to the tipup (not far) the pike had me spooled(always have a good knot at the spool) and had set his own hook. it took 4 tries to get him to the hole as he would reverse and take all the line back down the hole with me applying lot of drag as he went!(he was wild)finally on the fifth try i got him to the hole and proceeded to get his big head to come up an 8 in hole.after a few attempts he was on top of the ice! 40 in and 20 in girth
Ah! life was good that day!
Give that poly coated dacron a try i think you will like it! It takes up more space on the spool,But you can pull a truck with it and it don'T freeze!
Ht and Mason are the only 2 companys that I have seen selling it, so far!
Good fishing!

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Try Too Fish
Forced Too Work!!

[Steve Foss]

Try To Fish:

Thanks for the input. I've got one HT spooled with 50-lb Fireline Fusion, which is fused and does not soak up water and freeze.

Should've had that one out, I guess, although none of my quick-strike rigs are heavier than 30-lb sevenstrand wire. Guess it's time to get some 50- or 80-lb wire if I go with 50-lb line.

I have the coated line you recommend on one of my tips, and I like everything about it but the price. I like big spools with a lot of line for the reason you mentioned, so it's a bit spendy.

These things sure keep life interesting, don't they?

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[can it be luck?]

Steve, your equipment is fine. Your tactics seem fine. You just had some bad luck. A northerns teeth are razor sharp. Who knows, the fish could've had your leader swallowed too. A huge fish like that.....anything is possible. Big fish like that leaves you wondering exactly "how big" it really was. Motivation to keep you fishing. To steal a line from Arnie, "I'll be back!"

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http://groups.msn.com/canitbeluck

[Try Too Fish]

I may be wrong but so far out of many many fish i have never had a fish swallow a quick strike rig! that is what i like about them!

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Try Too Fish
Forced Too Work!!

[EBass]

So that's the biggun that got a way. Do you think you horsed it too much? Blame it on Lighty

[Steve Foss]

Lighty wasn't there. It was on Sunday. As for horsing, didn't even get a chance to horse it.

can it be luck: Thanks for the kind words. Hope that fish shook the quick-strike rig, 'cause I want another shot at it.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[EBass]

Oh whoops, Lighty was telling me about another biggun that got off by the hole.

Well, maybe it was a nick in the line? That does seem odd though. Better luck next time.
Later Steve,
Eric

[DUCKJ]

I re-spool all my reels and tip-ups every year. What i do is take the line off my reels and put it on my tip-ups, 80 lb Tuff Line. Ive never had a problem.

Happy Hunting
Duck

[Steve Foss]

DUCKJ:

Wow, with 80 lb Tuffline I bet you wouldn't have a problem hauling in a steer!

Cost is an issue, still, since I like the bigger tip-up spools. But I reckon I'll either invest in some more 50-lb Fireline Fusion or some of the old-fashioned braided dacron 30 or 35 lb. One problem with mono, as Ebass mentioned, is it'll nick when you don't realize it.

I'm after that same 'gator this weekend with the Fusion. We'll see.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Steve Foss]

Well, might've been the same fish. Might not.

Dead cisco and a 38-inch pike earlier today, and fat too. Figured 17 pounds. Same spot. Biggest pike yet through the ice.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Try Too Fish]

Stcatfish
Nice fish.Those high 30's and up pike are a blast!!

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Try Too Fish
Forced Too Work!!

[hanson]

Aaah…Yes. Pike talk. I never used to give a darn about Northerns. They were always that fish that you thought was a nice walleye until ole Mr. snaky northern decided to make his appearance by the boat. Boy have things changed for me.

It took one fish. 40” 18lb Northern that I got through the ice up on Lake of the Woods a couple years ago. We were out on 16 mile reef fishing off the reef in about 30 some feet of water. We were pretty much having the slowest day of walleye fishing in a long time when this monster bit later in the afternoon. I got a little Thorne Bros. Rod that was spooled up with 4lb Fireline. After about a 10 minute fight with what I thought was the biggest Eelpout in the lake, I finally got it through the hole.

That was it, I was hooked. Went out and bought a bunch of tip-ups and tried to find every bit of info on FM.com that I could about pike. Biggest fish since that day has been a 37” 14 pounder, also a LOW fish. Hopefully that girl put some weight on since last year, I’m ready to catch it again.

Anyway I’ve been using 30 lb braided nylon, dacron, whatever that tip-up line stuff is made out of. It’s worked great. Haven’t had any problems. Also a couple of my tip-ups have the plastic coated stuff. The plastic coated stuff is real nice for pulling fish in but it has memory and likes to spring off the spool. I’m not sure if I’d spool up with that again.

Got to use a Quick Strike rig also. Can’t say enough things about it.

Here’s a question. Any of you use a rig called a JimmyRig. I think that’s what its called. Was down at the ice fishing show and the guy that makes them had his booth set up with a big sucker minnow swimming in an aquarium with the rig hooked up to it. Its very similar to a QS rig but it seemed to hold the sucker very naturally in the water. I picked one up and figured I’d give it a try this winter but was wondering if any one else had experience with this rig.

[Steve Foss]

Don't know the Jimmy Rig specifically, but the QS rigs I tie allow the bait a natural swim, if it's live bait.

Got specifics on how it differs from the typical store-bought QS rig?

By the way, dead bait on average, I've found, outproduces live bait for pike on tips about 75 percent of the time. QS rig with bottom hook in head and top (sliding) hook behind dorsal fin keeps dead bait head-down in water, and seems to make for better immediate hooksets.

Anyone want to weigh in on any of this?

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[hanson]

There is a HSOforum for the JimmyRig. It was JimmyRigdotcom. (Sorry if I can't post that) There is a pretty good picture of the rig. Rather than both trebles being on the same leader. They are each on there own and go up to a swivel. Figured I'd give it a shot. I always like playing around with new stuff. Nothing against the QS rig though, they work great.

I love to fish deadbait too. We get some real nice smelly ciscoes at Denny's in Roseau on the way up to LOW. Throw 'em up on the dash and crank the defrost all the way up to unthaw them.

The thought last year on the LOW forum was that the big heavy females in the spring would rather take an easy meal then chase after a lively one. My bigger fish have seemed to have come on deadbait.

[jimh874]

40# dacron teflon coated line with 30# invisible steel leader line with 30#rated swivel worked just fine to land my brothers fiftyone and a half inch 37 pound muskie this past first ice.
typical of what is riged for eyes, but for pike i tie the line straight to the hook.

jim

[Doop]

I don't think it matters how thick your line is....if a northern turns just the right way, he'll break you off every time! I've seem them snap a steel leader....that's power!