Deep Water Tip Up Rigging Question

[bmeier]

I just bought a Frabill Bigfoot Tip up and need to rig it for Lake Trout fishing in NW Ontario fishing 90 - 100 feet deep. What type of line do people reccomend using?

[wolfboy630]

trout fishing ? i dont know about line, but i hope there is room for one more!

[Bob_D]

I use 36# braided line, barrel swivel, then a floro leader. If you want more line capacity, you can use flyline backing material. I'm not familiar with that tip-up, so I don't know how much line it will hold.

[Steve Foss]

I fish laker tip-ups every winter. I'm usually only down 50 feet or so, but I use 20-lb clear mono with a 10-foot 14-lb fluorocarbon leader. Lakers aren't line shy, but I like the fluorocarbon just in case. The 20 lb mono (instead of 14 to match the fluoro) is because the wider diameter is a lot easier to hold and feel with cold fingers.

So I guess that's a combination of the traditional and the new.

I don't like no-stretch lines because, when you're out there in the biting wind and your hands are cold, it's too easy to tear hooks out with line that doesn't stretch. Narrow hard line also cuts your hands easier when you let it slide through as a laker runs.

I like the forgiving nature of mono, and there are darn few lakers I've failed to hook on a tip-up. When they're out there running like crazy, simply clamp down on the line until it starts to stretch, and you've got a hookset if it's in their mouth.

Other thing about mono is it doesn't absorb water and freeze up stiff as No. 9 wire, the way those braids do. That makes it a lot easier to get the whole thing put back together when your hands are cold from water, wiggling bait and laker slime.

And when you say you're rigging it to fish 90-100 feet deep, does that mean just that, or that you're fishing in 90-100 FOW. I fish over water that deep a lot, but usually set the bait about half way down in the water column. Lakers will come up a LONG ways to hit a bait, especially a wounded live bait. I use the standard Polar tip-ups, but with the oversize spool and the gray soft-foam hole covers. The spool is so big I've never been stripped by a screaming laker, and the hole covers weigh nothing and keep me from having to chip out holes every hour or so.

[bmeier]

Thanks for the info. I usually am fishing oin that deep of water and keeping my lines a varied depths like you say. I have a few tip ups that I use for Northerns and when I pouled those out last yeat I was concerned about the amount of line that I had available on the spool which is why I got the big Foot which has a 500' line capacity on it. I think I will go with the 20 lb mono and a leader. Do you use a barrel swivel to connect the two? What type of hooks do you use or are you using quick strike rigs?

[Steve Foss]

I don't use a swivel. I just tie them together with a blood knot.

I use a smallish, stout treble (with a little plastic spinner blade like those you get with swedish pimples that slides along the line to make it into a "lure," and a legal treble in Minnesota). I hook the bait behind the dorsal. On really strong baits, I'll clip off the tail fins so it can't trip the flag.

Most commonly, I'll use golden shiners. I prefer live bait over dead for lakers, because they like to chase so much. Suckers also are good. If I have to use dead bait, I'll use smelt or cisco, depending on which of them lives in the water I'm fishing.

Generally, the bait is far enough in their mouths by the time I get over to the tip-up, I'm ready to set the hook.

[hogsucker]

You're gonna need the extra line for deepwater lakers, trust me. I use heavy black dacron, maybe 40 pound test or so, and have found that most of the time tying a hook straight to the dacron will work for lakers. No room for error on large bruiser lakers in deep water. I agree with stf catfish that ther aren't very line-shy. My hook of choice is a large circle, I like the Demon Circle in particular. Large, up to 15" dead ciscoes are usually hanging horizontally from a few inches to five feet off bottom as a presentation, sometimes live smelt as well. ~hogsucker

[Steve Foss]

Yep, I agree with hogsucker, dead baits close to the bottom. I fish live baits a lot higher up, but lakers will work the bottom too, and vaccum up dead fish, and that's where a dead cisco should be.

I have a lot more success with the live bait fished high in the water column, though I haven't caught any whoppers that way. I'm told by the old-timers that you don't get as many flags with dead bait on bottom, but when you do, they tend to be larger fish.

[ScottO]

I use braided dacron with a swivel and mono leader. I frequently fish lakers in 100-125 ft and have gone as deep as 180 feet. I bought a couple of the deepwater Polar tip-ups with the really big spools. They make winding up the line a lot faster. I can put 100 yards of 30 lb dacron on easy. My brother uses Beaver Dams, but put a braided superline on to get enough capacity out of the small spool. He brings along a cordless drill and chucks the top of the tip up to wind up his lines in a hurry.

ScottO