Quick Strike Rigging

[flyfish]

Have finally returned to MN after 30. Military and all. In the past I have used the single treble hook and spinner rigs with tip ups. In fisherman recently had an article on quick strike rigs. Have purchased a couple at Nancy's near gray Eagle. Not sure how to rig. Your help is appreciated. I will provide email if necessary.

JOHN HACKER

The forum is super

[subzero]

How I rig trhem is to use frozen smelt and hook the small hooks into the smelt, first in the lips and the othere back by the dorsal fin or tail. Then I let the smelt lay on the bottom. Other may have other ways of using them though.

[lenny4077]

I like to do the same thing only with a lively sucker minnow early and use smelt during late ice. What I do is experiment with how you hook the bait though, sometimes I have it head up (bottom/small hook in the tail or back, and top/larger hook in the snout) and sometimes like subzero mentioned and the bait will hang head down.

I also vary my depth depending on where I am fishing and the time of year. My best luck for early ice is to find the largest weed bed on the lake. Then find the steepest dropoff to the deepest water adjacent to the weed bed. Depending on how many people you have with you, I put out some tip ups on top of the flat (usually in the top 1/3 of the water column, in 10ft of water I put the bait 3-4 feet deep). Move to the middle of the dropoff and place some baits in the middle 2/3 of the water column (in 20ft of water I put the bait 10-15 feet deep). Then place some tip ups at the base of the dropoff and have the baits in the bottom 1/3 of the water column (30ft of water I have the baits within 5ft of the bottom). If the base of the dropoff is deeper than 40ft I will put my deep baits at 40ft and keep moving up until I find some fish. Like I said this depends on how many people you have out with you. When I go out fishing by myself I usually will put down one tip up (in any of the above mentioned places) and then move around with a large jigging spoon and a piece of belly skin from a sucker minnow until I find some active fish.