smelt

[Guest]

has anyone ever used frozen smelt before? was going to give it a try this weekend if the wind doesn't blow me off the lake.

[Muskeez]

Back in the late 80's when I would come to SD we would set tipups for pike with Fozen Smelt. We used a long shanked "smelt hook" that you pushed into their hind end and out the mouth and then clipped the hook to your leader. It had 2 hooks that stradled the smelt toward the back. I always suspended the bait, maybe some guys lay it on the bottom? Any way, one trick I found was I would also clip on a treble hook onto the head end so that you put both hooks on the leader snap. Then I would push one of the treble barbs into the smelt head and hook two lively minnows on the other two barbs for flash. The ones with minnows usually outproduced ones without. also thaw them out a bit first so they are easier to push the hook through. GOOD LUCK
-Clay

[Guest]

Thats all I use for PIKE!! Set it right on the bottom. Seems like the smelt float a bit, so use enough weight.

[JJJ]

My Dad caught his biggest Pike 41" using smelt in the spring. Fish it near the bottom.

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JJJ

[Scott Steil]

I try to use smelt all the time for Pike(hard to get sometimes). Usually I will run livebait on 1 or 2 tip-ups but I believe you get bigger fish on smelt or dead bait. I like to find the really big smelt, that way when the flag goes up you know you've got something!