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I've been trying heavy flourocarbon leaders, with pretty good success. the clear leader makes for a better presentation. sometimes pike are hesitant, and this has increased my flags so far. flourocarbon has good abrasion resistance, but I check for scuffs, and change the leader if I find any wear. its easy enough to tie a bunch of these up in advance to keep with you on the ice.
I usually get a dozen pike shiners to start but end up swithing all over to perch if I can. Pike can't turn them down especialy if you hang them right under the ice.
Do you find that it matters if the perch are alive? When I try this, they seem to die very shortly after hooking them. I spoke with someone last year that said dead perch still work fine. Do you fish them just under the ice regardless of water depth, or do you typically only fish pike in shallow water?
I'm headed up to Champlain in about a month (fingers crossed for ice) and I'm looking for some advice on rigs for Pike. This is my second time ice fishing, so I have don't have a lot of ice time (4 days total - although I'm an avid fisherman) and am looking for some tips and advice. I was thinking of running the following setup: - Heritage Laker Tip Up- Line: was considering 20 lb braided Dacron - too heavy / light?- Leader: line tied to a barrel swivel mated to a heavy wire leader- Hooks: any size recomendation? I was thinking circle hooks.- Bait: we plan to use live shiners Also, the tips ups are brand new. Should I spray paint a clear Polyurethane on the exposed wood (before I setup my line) or is this going a bit too far?Thx in advance for the tips.
I also use the flurocarbon leader and find it is much more productive that any steel leader. 80 lb tst is good (for the teeth) but kind of tough to tie a snell ( you'll get used to it). Have had more flags with fluro than steelies and use them all the time now
i crimp anything 80lb and up forget the knots!