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Posts: 10
| How many use dead vs. live bait when using tip-ups for big Pike in the winter?
What is a good way to salt, or store frozen dead sucker minnows?
Thanks! |
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Posts: 216
| Yup I take my dead ones and freeze em for future use. If I don't use em for ice I save em till spring cat fishing comes around. I put one deade and one live on most times but I've used just all dead ones and caught pike all day. I throw them in a sandwich bag after I get off the ice and put em in the freezer next to your wife's favorite ice cream.
Edited by Brozz88 2/10/2014 8:59 AM
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Posts: 2015
| Big pike love dead bait, if your pike season is open the first 1-4 weeks after ice-out don't over look dead bait (cisco and smelt are the best if legal) for open water too... truly monster pike get fat and lazy.. often times the best way to catch the "queen" of the lake is dead bait, late ice / just after iceout. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | IAJustin - 2/10/2014 9:56 AM
Big pike love dead bait, if your pike season is open the first 1-4 weeks after ice-out don't over look dead bait (cisco and smelt are the best if legal) for open water too... truly monster pike get fat and lazy.. often times the best way to catch the "queen" of the lake is dead bait, late ice / just after iceout.
^yup |
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Posts: 1088
Location: Hayward, WI | What type of rig do you use with dead bait under the ice? How deep in the water do you normally set the bait? |
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Posts: 2325
Location: Chisholm, MN | Use a quickstrike rig under a tip up. I prefer Bigtooth Tackle and they have a new model out called the zero rig. Sounds like it's a pretty sweet rig, though I haven't tried it. Keep your bait high. Pike see it from further away and with eyes on the top of their head, it's only natural.
Edited by Kirby Budrow 2/10/2014 10:34 AM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/vhs/vhs_preservation.html
bait capture regulations are available on the fishing regulations. |
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| WINDLASS!! |
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Posts: 10
| Can a guy buy a few sucker minnows a few days before and let them die....freeze them for a day or 2......then let them thaw out the night before using them? Or is there a better way!?
Thanks! |
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Posts: 365
| had pretty good luck on pike with dead frozen smelt ( 8" to 9"s long) ,,,, put a small treble hook (#1) in the middle of their back to kinda keep them horizontal ---- jim
Edited by jimjimjim 2/10/2014 11:51 AM
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Posts: 1168
| It's rare that I use anything but dead-bait on tip-ups.
I track my own down through fish markets or grocery stores. The ones I've been able to find at bait shops are not big enough. I'm looking for stuff that's 9 inches or bigger and you can usually get them cheaper by going through a non-bait shop outlet. You just have to follow the guidelines on preserving them. One local bait shop was selling them for about 6 bucks for 3 smelt. I paid about 10 bucks for around 25 of them from a grocery store and they were bigger.
I actively work my dead bait sets more than live bait. Every 15-20 minutes or so I'm cleaning ice out of holes which moves those things ever so slightly. Pike will stare down their prey for along periods of time and dead bait could just hang there with a pike watching it for hours. It's quite common that flags fly very soon after that tip-up is raised a few inches and set back down. Dead bait is also a pretty nifty tool that lets you know if perch or other panfish are in the area. If the guts are being eaten out of them it's a good bet that there are perch schooling around. If I see that then the dead bait is pulled out and perch are targeted.
I use what is called a flagel rig which is the same presentation concept as a swedish hook except that the hooking device consists of a quickstrike rig. There's a wire that is run inside of the bait from the tail to the head and a 7 strand leader with hooks runs through an eye and the hooks are stuck into the bait. It's simpler for getting them balanced and with a piece of wire holding the bait straight giving them a backbone you don't go through as many....meaning that they won't be destroyed by one fish. |
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Posts: 243
Location: South Central Wisconsin | I've heard of guys using hotdogs. Just make sure they are hanging horizontal. |
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Posts: 76
Location: MPLS Metro | I mostly use dead bait hung on Waterbeast 80# Fluoro Rigs. I use frozen cisco that I get from Fishermen's Corner in Duluth, they are greasy and smelly and the pike eat them up like candy. |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | We caught all our Devils Lake Pike on frozen smelt, and when we ran out, caught one of the best on a 6" piece of venison sausage. |
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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | I go to school at UND, can't use any live bait besides fatheads in ND. Just like what sworrall said, smelt are a great choice. That's all we use on tip-ups and they love it. |
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Posts: 791
Location: WI | That's freakin awesome Steve! Snack stick or summer sausage? Lol |
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Posts: 1100
| Dead/frozen Mackrel, hering and lamprey, are also very popular baits here in Europe for big winter pike.
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Honey summer sausage, actually.
We tried herring, and did get a couple, but the smelt outproduced the herring 5 to 1. No idea why, the herring smelled really strong and should have been a killer tip-up bait. |
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Posts: 258
Location: Mayville, WI | ulbian - 2/10/2014 12:13 PM
It's rare that I use anything but dead-bait on tip-ups.
I track my own down through fish markets or grocery stores.
Care to indulge which chains will have them. Having a heck of time getting big ones here in Madison - used to pick them up from Schwarz in Sheboygan when I lived closer. Ones I've got I had to order from a place in Superior & even when stating I wanted big ones, all I got shipped were maybe 7" at the biggest. |
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Posts: 2378
| I have caught multiple over 40 on hot dogs. The cheapest ones you can find at Walmart.
I generally use smelt or sardines when fishing dead bait. |
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Posts: 285
Location: NE Wisconsin | I have a very good friend who uses raw brats for large pike in shallow water. Horizontal and close to bottom. He just didn't try them, they are what he successfully uses all the time. |
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Posts: 148
Location: Northwest Wi. | Why do you think that dead bait is more enticing to the pike than live bait? This last week I spent 2 days watching pike on Mille Lacs from my fishhouse and there are lots of pike who just come and look at 10" sucker minnows then swim away. Depth, Sucker size. or bait jigging made no differance. I did not try dead bait, but when the suckers were not moving there was the same non-action from the pike. Watching the the same area early in the season the pike almost always go after the bait. Kind of strange but most of the fish were were at a 25 deg. angle looking at the bottom of the bay..Any thoughts?? |
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Posts: 1416
Location: oconomowoc, wi | small 6-7 inch bloogs or crappies set on the bottom... obviously caught from the lake your fishing for pike. crappies will outfish the bloogs 3 to 1. |
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Dead bait for winter Tip-ups