Hooking Dead Smelt??

[Reelinrolly]

hey i was just wondering how you guys hook your dead smelt...ive tryed to hook minde several way using treble hooks but can't seem to get them to stay in an upright postion...any tips....and should i slit teh bellys of the smelt...does that help at all?

[duketter]

I take the treble hook and put it right through the front middle section of the smelt.  You have to then hook your treble hook to your leader. You basically just push the top part of the treble hook up through the bottom of the smelt.  Make sense?   

[Reelinrolly]

i can never get mine to sit even,....

[turbo484]

i use sweetish hooks they seem to work the best..just thread the hook through the back (starting back by the tail fin ) until you get close to the head and push the hook up until you just feel the tip ..they sometimes seem to sit on these hooks facing up so i put a few small splitshot in the smelts mouth....works great.....good luck!!!

[Master Angler]

When using a quick strike rig, hook one hook on the treble into the top of the head, and the second, sliding hook under the dorsal fin, they usually sit nice and even for me. Also don't be afraid to try letting the smelt sit right on bottom, you then don't have to worry about how it sits. I've caught many big pike this way, some days it outfishes baits I have suspended off bottom.

[deadsmelthead]

I use circle hooks size 6 .. This is how I hook them, I take the circle hook and push it through the mid section of the smelt pulling a little line through the smelt also, then push it back through the oposite direction keeping the shank buried in the smelt with razor and barb part of the hook exposed.. Kinda of like threading them but not as much of a pain in the backside... I started doing this a few years ago and noticed that the number of fish I iced was a lot better Vs. trebble hooks..

[MeadowPikeman]

a couple compaines here in sask make a horizontal strike rig it is a wire bar with two or three trebles attached on the ends and one in the middle, either attach it too a snap or a wire leader for pike. i ahve them in different sizes and use them to hold dead perch, smelt, and tulibees horizontal it seems to generate more strikes if the bait is horizontal rather than hanging crooked or vertical.

[Polar]

one hook in the head other behind dorsal fin.(quick strike rig)

[MeadowPikeman]

when i set some baits horizontal and some otherwise on a set of tip ups and i seemed to always get more hookups on the horizontal baits for some reason.

[iceintheveins]

I would use a quick strike rig and nothing else. The fish that I have hooked on tip ups haven't gotten away but one time, and that was one that I didn't quick strike rig. Usually if the trip shaft is rotating and the fish has the bait, a moderately hard but sharp hookset will hook them every time. I heard pike really don't care if it's hanging horizontally or vertically, but then again pike are extremely difficult in Colorado through the ice so I wouldn't know.

Tyler

[MeadowPikeman]

i have heard it makes no difference as well but find you get more flags with the bait horizontal.

[lund94]

Hey guys your discussing something that has bothered me since I started ice fishing.  How do you get a good hook up on a tip up without a quick strike rig?
I used them for 2-3 years and rarely missed a fish, but then made the mistake of reading Wisconsins fishing regulations.  It states 3 hooks per fisherman maximum.  Guess I got lucky the DNR never asked to see how my tip ups were baited. Well now 2 tipups with a quick strike rig on each is out of the question and I can't tell you how many fish I've missed because of this.  Any suggestions would be helpfull

thanks

[Schrades]

can't you have 3 tip-ups all with quickstrik rigs??

I would think you can because you can be trolling with 3 big rapalas that have 3 sets of trebles each legally.

[lund94]

If I read the regulations correctly three seperate treble hooks are all that are allowed unless they come permanantly attached to a lure, then it's considered 1 hook.  I'm going to call the local game warden for sure and I'll post the response.

[lund94]

I called the DNR and a fisheries biologist ( there wasn't a warden in at the time ) told me that as long as the 2 treble hooks are inserted into one shiner it is considered 1 "rig" and only counts as 1 hook ( like a Rapala ).

[nodakbassmaster]

If they had told you that you can't use it I was going to have you build some quick strikes... once they are together it's 1 rig... but I guess it's all good now.......