Dead Sticking, How, for what and where ?

[surflizard]

As dead stick presentations have become more popular, I was wondering what other ice fisherman think of this system and how often do they use it ? Myself personally, I have found that it really works well when I've encountered heavily pressured Lake Trout. After watching these spooky Lakers on the camera, I noticed a lot of times, the lakers will come in and circle the jig or lure, then swim off. I also noticed that if I dump Sucker meat chum on the bottom with my chum pot, more often then not, they seem to come in and simply pick it up off the bottom. Granted, there are days when it really doesn't matter what you send down the hole, they are so Aggressive that they will smash anything you offer them ! Then there are those days when no matter what you offer them, you can't even buy a strike !  For me, it is the before mentioned No strike days that Dead sticking really shines for me ! I tend to downsize my fluorocarbon leaders and hooks and lower a good sized chunk of sucker meat fillet down into the bait pile. The Lake trout seem to act like they can't pass up an easy meal and 9 times out of 10, this tactic works for me when nothing else will !  What do you think of Dead Sticking ?

[onebadc20]

All last season I would stick out a dead stick.  Didn't matter if I was walleye, perch, crappie, or gill fishing.  Almost always catch a few of it, but it seams to work best on finicky crappie.  Dead stick on a tip down with a minnow is hard to beat.

[ICE WANDERER]

   
            I dead stick all the time. 1st it gives you an extra line in the water. It definitely works sometimes lake trout seem to go after the easy meal than the one thats moving all around. Good luck in the coming season.

[jammer icecube]

With 5 tipups in and useing 1 jig pole it isnt a regular occurance. My group dead sticks when takeing a lunch break. It is fun getting a pike on jig rod though.

[DasRottweiler]

I occasionally deadstick a lil minnow when pannie fishing. The trick is to keep it close to you -20 ft is too far, ya wanna be close like , 5-10ft away from the hole you are presently working. A couple of steps and set the hook!

[ice dawg]

I usually use a noodle rod as a dead stick and another rod for jigging. When fishing for eyes and Perch I jig a lure to attract the fish and when they come in to the bait they will take the minnow on the dead stick a lot of the time instead of the lure. When the fishing is hot there are times you can't keep up when using two rods. I would like to see a few more of those days.

[Rebelss]

I would like to see a few more of those days.

I'd like to see ANY of those days...

[Guinea]

Can someone explain what this 'dead sticking" is? I never heard of it.   

[Rebelss]

Pretty much what it implies. If the fishies aren't actively biting, you take your jig and lower it to touch bottom, then just raise it a tad, and....leave it there. No movement or jigging, just leave the rod "dead". I usually stick a minnow, dead or alive, on the hook.  Sometimes this will produce a bite when nothing else does. 

[DasRottweiler]

Rods built for deadsticking specifically, usually have a very limber tip, with a fast taper to a stout butt. The tip is too loose for jigging, but allows the deadsticked minnow to pull it and then the tip returns to flex again on the next minnow pull. Typical deadstickers will simply lay the rod on a bucket top over the hole and allow the tip to prod action from the bait. I suppose the use of tipdowns would be a form of deadsticking but not true deadsticking.

[surflizard]

Some lakes here, the lakers respond better to a piece of sucker meat simply laying on bottom, I dead stick with my tip ups too ! Lakers can be Lazy Gluttons, dead bait on bottom can make all the difference in the world some days !!

[slammin slabs]

i want to purchase a dead stick rod this year who makes a good 1 without breaking the bank?

[Guinea]

ooooOOOoooh! It's like a dead line. Never seen it done. Hmmmm.....something I could make? Say outta cherry? (When I  find a nice limb in the yard after Irene?  )

[filetandrelease]

or just use a foam bobber so it is almost under the water fish don't feel the resistance i use that method for perch and eyes ,works for me ,works on craps to ,just an ol buzzards .02

[mealworm]

i dead stick every time i fish for whatever i'm fishing for its an extra line in the water and it really helps on days that fish are being finicky, plus its nice to have a couple different presentations going at once to see what the fish prefer on a given day

[dkfry]

With the fish being finicky pretty much all th etime in the lakes I fish I use a small float (just big enough to float bait) on my deadstick rod. I was getting too many swipes and misses with tightlining, even with a soft tipped DS rod. The float allows the fish a little time to suck the bait in.  I pretty much always use a small fathead on my deadstick rod and catch all species of fish.

[surflizard]

ooooOOOoooh! It's like a dead line. Never seen it done. Hmmmm.....something I could make? Say outta cherry? (When I  find a nice limb in the yard after Irene?  )

We could try this on lake X and see if we can't scare up a few more of these tasty critters! 

[Guinea]

Done. Lake X. You, me and LLT. December (1st, I'm hoping!  )

[surflizard]

Remember where we had the July Tip up barter at the Launch, The Furry eyeballs that we were getting from the Flatties still Cracks me up !! I walked out on the ice there, November 23rd last year. Only problem was the rain the following weekend and had to start all over again ! 

[surflizard]

i want to purchase a dead stick rod this year who makes a good 1 without breaking the bank?

Most of the med action Northland rods will do the job w/ combo reel for under 26 bucks ! the generic combos at wally world will work too, under 20 bucks !

[ICE WANDERER]

i want to purchase a dead stick rod this year who makes a good 1 without breaking the bank?

  I use Ice Blue 24" lights for panfish & 30" medium for lakers other large fish

[hoghammer]

I mostly walleye fish and up here you are allowed  2 rods so I jig one and the other is always a dead stick with frozen shinners. Have had a lot of days where the deadstick produced way better than jigging.

[PsychologicalPerch]

I dead stick for trout using a med/light rod in the current. What I do is I use a small size 2 swedish pimple and attach a minnow or a worm to it. The current allows the the swedish pimple to dance giving more attraction to the bait.

[Van_Cleaver]

I almost always have out a Schooley rig for a dead stick. I always drill out the handle and run a dowel or broken rod section through at a right angle to prevent it from going in the drink. There are days when it will flat out catch more fish than any jigging presentation I can come up with. Works well on crappie, if you stay within reach, as most times they will let go when the spring bobber bottoms out. I also use it for gills and perch; usually I use two jigs a foot apart. I like to set the drag light, and apply more with my glove as I set the hook. Then again, sometimes the fish do the work for you.

[dkfry]

i want to purchase a dead stick rod this year who makes a good 1 without breaking the bank?

I use a Frabill 27" Quick Tip Bro rod, perfect action and th equality is good. I prefer it over my Jason Mitchell Meat Stick. I bought the rod only, I never use the combo reals anyway. The Shimano Sienna 500 reel is a good match for the rod and is fairly inexpensive at $30. I used 2 of the new Sienna 500s last season and really like them.

[matt12]

i always dead stick.  keep 3 lines in, little slip bobbers prefferably the adjustable foam ones. minnows . and a few cans of beer.

i go around every few mins and pull the rod up a few feet and drop it back down. works great with the crappies. can set each one about 2 to 3 feet higher than the next to really see where the hot spot is!

sometimes more action is not the best answer. clip the tail on a few crappie minnows to make them look wounded and BAM!

[scmelik]

I love having at least one deadstick in the water when I am perch fishing.  I always use a minnow when I do it, my personal feeling is that even if they dont' want the minnow the flash of the minnow swimming around will keep more fish in the area so you can get your jig back  down and catch more fish.

[PsychologicalPerch]

i like that theory scmelik

[scmelik]

i like that theory scmelik

I don't know how much merit there is to it other than me sitting out on the ice one day thinking.  Think about how when the perch really turn on in an area and there get to be 20, 30, 40, 50 + shacks the perch seem to stay in that area and just keep bouncing around.  Then think about that guy out on his own (usually me).  For the first few hours, or even days of a hot bite the guy out on his own will catch his fish but they tend to be sparatic.  Now the guys in the big shanty towns will catch them fast and furious.  It made me start thinking about why that is and how can I recreate that.  Then I started watching videos of perch feeding and reading about how perch react with each other.  When you pull a fish out of a school the rest will scatter unless there is something to keep them in the area, a big shanty town does this because of all the jigs, spoons and minnows at the end of the lines causing a bunch of flash and commotion giving the fish something else in the immediate area to go feed on.  On the flip side of that when a single person is out on his own and he pulls in a fish if he doesn't get right back down into the school then the fish are going to go look for the next opportunity to feed, they won't stick around.

There have been many times where I have had two deadsticks in the water with minnows on them and had a school camp out underneath me for 10-15 min or more and been able to pick a half dozen fish out of a school.  Where as when I haven't had the deadsticks down I might get a couple of fish but then the school moves on, there is nothing to keep them in the area.

[DasRottweiler]

I don't know how much merit there is to it other than me sitting out on the ice one day thinking.  Think about how when the perch really turn on in an area and there get to be 20, 30, 40, 50 + shacks the perch seem to stay in that area and just keep bouncing around.  Then think about that guy out on his own (usually me).  For the first few hours, or even days of a hot bite the guy out on his own will catch his fish but they tend to be sparatic.  Now the guys in the big shanty towns will catch them fast and furious.  It made me start thinking about why that is and how can I recreate that.  Then I started watching videos of perch feeding and reading about how perch react with each other.  When you pull a fish out of a school the rest will scatter unless there is something to keep them in the area, a big shanty town does this because of all the jigs, spoons and minnows at the end of the lines causing a bunch of flash and commotion giving the fish something else in the immediate area to go feed on.  On the flip side of that when a single person is out on his own and he pulls in a fish if he doesn't get right back down into the school then the fish are going to go look for the next opportunity to feed, they won't stick around.

There have been many times where I have had two deadsticks in the water with minnows on them and had a school camp out underneath me for 10-15 min or more and been able to pick a half dozen fish out of a school.  Where as when I haven't had the deadsticks down I might get a couple of fish but then the school moves on, there is nothing to keep them in the area.

Lotta validity to that theory. Allows you to capitalize on active schools, by keeping them in your immediate area. Basically, why deadsticking came upon the scene,to take advantage of extra lines when  predatory prowlers cruise through and to keep actively feeding fish in the area. Kudos scmelik.

As far as rods for deadsticking specifically- Thorne makes a deadstick-pricey, Frabill makes several models, I would lean towards the Bro deadstick myself.--->http://www.frabill.com/all-ice-fishing/bro-series-28-deadstick-icerod.html