Willoughby suckers ....

[TRT]

Buddy & I went up one last trip. We caught a nice laker before sunrise and had
3 other flags on "gulp".  I am tired of AK shiners and had a mix of nightcrawlers and
gulp spread out while jiggging.  Late morning we had a flag in
tight, a lot of line was off and running and after tug of war we had ourselves
a beautiful "sucker".  A  mink had been visiting couple of times,
nice healthy looking, fearless SOB. We took the sucker nice 4 pounder and left him 50 yards
from shore. I glanced back picking up the tipups and mink was dragging the sucker
to his hideout.
 
See ya next year...

[fishingidjit]

Lakers on gulp, LMAO 

[mempfree]

Ha, ha, ha.  Got to love them mink.  Not alot of people who trap them anymore, as the prices of all pelts, are low.  They are a dime a dozen, now a day.

[pocrain]

 Those mink are only cute when they are outside of your shack. This season one got inside mine and chewed a hole in the floor to get back out, then had his own semi heated home with inside toilet!!!  Stinky, Stinky , Stinky!!!
  Since then I have heard that my evicting this critter was not his first time getting booted. Believe me that critter did not want to leave.

[tench]

Set some conibears over your holes.

[TRT]

Yep lakers on "Gulp", same buddy couple years ago did not show with bait and all I had
was Gulp - jigging.   Trick is to be right on that flag when it pops as the fish do not hold on for
long.   

[camo ninja]

are you talking like the gulp rubber smelt ?

[pikeaddict]

Yep lakers on "Gulp", same buddy couple years ago did not show with bait and all I had
was Gulp - jigging.   Trick is to be right on that flag when it pops as the fish do not hold on for
long.   

Sounds like a good application for the rubber band hookset method.

[fishingidjit]

Yep lakers on "Gulp", same buddy couple years ago did not show with bait and all I had
was Gulp - jigging.   Trick is to be right on that flag when it pops as the fish do not hold on for
long.   

Good info to know in a emergency !

[thebigwiggle]

Sounds like a good application for the rubber band hookset method.

Whats the rubber band hook set method ?? this is new to me???

[pikeaddict]

Whats the rubber band hook set method ?? this is new to me???

You mark the line to the depth want to fish.   Then take off maybe an additional 15-20ft?, and attach a rubber band to the line in a manor that leaves a loop in the rubber band.  Put the loop over the spool, and wind the line back up to the line marker. The idea is when a fish takes the line the rubber band will set the hook, and then break so the fish can take line out until you get to the tip up.  I would imagine that you would have to play with rubber band sizes to find the right one for this application.

[tench]

I got a few small Seymour lakers on gulp this year by using two #14 treble hooks to hang the bait horizontally. Missed two of the 6 hits I had... More points = more chances you'll get a solid stick.

[thebigwiggle]

You mark the line to the depth want to fish.   Then take off maybe an additional 15-20ft?, and attach a rubber band to the line in a manor that leaves a loop in the rubber band.  Put the loop over the spool, and wind the line back up to the line marker. The idea is when a fish takes the line the rubber band will set the hook, and then break so the fish can take line out until you get to the tip up.  I would imagine that you would have to play with rubber band sizes to find the right one for this application.

You know what i have heard of this before. Don't you have to wind the line back in the opposite direction to make this work?

[pikeaddict]

I wouldn't think so.  I would think you might be setting yourself up for some backlash.

[flagfishon]

Make sure you get the weakest rubber bands that you can.  I got the some small ones at Staples and they are still too strong.  I just bit a piece when setting them. 

If you're fishing with large perch or something else that trips you flags, this can help as well.  Just don't unwind the extra line first and let the perch bounce around on the band.