minnow threading

[perkhunter]

yeah I think my hooks are too big.  I feel like when a walleye clamps down on my minnow, they clamp down so hard that when i set the hook, i am moving the whole fish, and the hook is not penitrating. I have had a lot of fish come off right at the hole, when they freak out and open their mouth. I think your best best is to have the fish take it deep no matter what method you use.  I may be doing something wrong though, when a walleye hit my minnow, it has guts and everything poring out of it, i rarely get to reuse a minnow.

[badsparky]

I run the needle starting from the back of the head just under the skin to just behind the dorsel fin. Usually after two fish on the same minnow the skin on the back gets a little beat up, but I have never had guts come out of one.

[perkhunter]

hmm...thats what i do too, i suppose its just has to do with different fish.  I am able to reuse minnows when the fish spits the hook before i get there, but it seems like when i hook a fish, the minnow stays in there mouth, and they get munched.  with big minnows i think that it makes it hard to hook them as well.

[badsparky]

Some of the realy big minnow that I got from the Country Store in Lovell, I have to use a #6 hook so enough barb is showing on the top of the minnow.  Sometimes the minnow stays in the mouth but I think the minnow size has alot to do with how much they get munched on. The minnows that I have gotten in Lovell are 4" or larger some are so big that we joke we could fillet them up if we didn't catch anything.  I would like to see if I could find some 2" to 3" minnows they would work alot better for perch at Harrington and Wardell.

[perkhunter]

yeah those are the minnows i speak of as well I think they are so big that the fish have a mouth full of minnow and its hard to set the hook. I give the the hercujerk and they still seem to spit the hook up near the hole quite a bit.  I seem to have better luck with small trebles even on the big minnows, just because they swallow them easier.  Some of those minnows could darn near set off a tipup on there own.

[badsparky]

My buddy had that happen to him last week.  He has some of those wood tip ups that are at walmart which are very sensitive.  I would see him run over to this one tip up ever once in a while, so I went over to see what was going on. The minnow would  just burried itself in the weeds and was completely intacked.  It was one of them 5" minnows that would work really well for pike.  So I suggest not using anything over 3.5" if you are using the wood tip ups.

[perkhunter]

i love the wooden tip ups, some go off with every pop of the ice, but most the ones i have had won't go off, sit there all day with no flags and then pick up the tip ups  and catch a few that are just sitting on them.  That's the bad thing about polars, if a fish hits it they go up, so you don't get many of the bonus fish at the end of the day.

[wygeargeek]

I've threaded minnows for tip-up use for years.  Make my own threading needles by buying darning needles at the store and cutting a side out of the eye with my dremel tool. That way you have smaller ones for the little minnows and bigger for the big ones.  Use double hooks rather than trebles on short leaders.  Hook the leader in the eye and pull it through front to back just under the skin.  The shank of the hook keeps the barbs laying right.  It really helps with catching the fish when the expert minnow stealing perch are hanging around.

[perkhunter]

so you thread it so the two hooks are sticking up?

[WYeyes]

Look like this fcso1019 ?
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=137496.msg1354934#msg1354934

[pokefan1]

I have been threading minnows for a few years, last year at Fort Peck I thought I would try threading dead smelt that were roughly 6-8 inches in length. I attached a second hook a where the needle comes out by the dorsal fin ( maybe not needed). Kinda of a cheap quick strike rig
It took a little practice but I was able to get the smelt to balance (level) in the water. Out of 5 flags I had using this method for pike I was 100% on hook up. Threading takes a little extra time but is well worth the effort and the minnows always seem live longer.

PF1