IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Northern Pike => Topic started by: Hellraiser on Jan 09, 2020, 09:05 PM
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Well I live in Wyoming and not much like. However there are more and tiger muskie being stocked. And guess what thas on my son's (11 yes 😀)bucket list this year. And not sure how to go about them. Most are small reservoirs some weeds and not too deep. There is perch and bluegill in there also. Any help would be great. We have tip ups jawjackers and large arsenal of jigs.
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Well, being a pike/muskie cross I would think your usual pike setup would work just fine. Personally, I like coated braid, wire leader, #8 treble and large sucker minnows on my tipups. I don't jig much.
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Tigers tend to hang out deeper than pike, I catch most of mine off deep weed edges in 12-25’ of water. I have caught them as shallow as 3’ though. Both live and dead baits work, I like baits around 10-12”, suckers, golden shiners and fallfish seem to work the best. For the big live baits you’ll need to mount rubber bands or downrigger clips to your tipups so you don’t get bait flags. For the leader use steel or 60lb floro and I suggest using single hooks because big fish often swallow your bait by the time you get to the flag, I use 5/0 octopus hooks.
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Well we went out and gave it a shot. Had only 2 1/2. 3 inch minnows. Freah dead ones. Not allowed to use live bait there. On tipups and jawjacker. And jigging .Lost a few just couldn't land them. Learning this small reservoir for sure. Drilled 50 holes and found it's only 14 feet deep with good weed lines. So it was fun for my boy and I to start learning this place. No fish but it was a blast just us 2 out enjoying the day. This is new the tiger muskies for us so used to trout and perch and cats and ling. Thank you for the tips all are appreciated and will be tried if allow on this reservoir
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Could you elaborate on the downrigger clips or rubber bands on tip ups? Thanks in advance
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The rubber band trick: https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=266318.msg2743241#msg2743241 (https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=266318.msg2743241#msg2743241)
If you don't have large dead bait and you're allowed treble or multiple hooks it is effective to hook more than one bait in effect of creating your own "mini-school". Since we can use live here I've also had success hooking one live with one larger dead. The motion of the smaller struggler attracts from farther than a simple static dead bait.
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Could you elaborate on the downrigger clips or rubber bands on tip ups? Thanks in advance
Heritage laker style tipups work the best for this, just wrap a rubber band around the post below the spool or use a downrigger clip on hair tie or tipup line hanging below the spool. Run a loop of line into the downrigger clip or rubber band so your bait doesn’t set off your flag but the muskie can pull the loop out and trip the flag. I’ve seen people use clothespins too. If you use 10” plus sized live baits you’ll get bait flags all day if you don’t use a clip.