Treble hooks?????

[pike doctor]

I had a fairly reliable source tell me the other night that it is now illegal to fish a trebele hook on a tip up even if you have a spinner on it. He said that the DNR is starting to bust people on Red. I told him that I havent heard anything about it.

Can anyone tell me if this is true? I have all of my tip ups rigged with trebles and spinners for after christmas. I havent had a chance to call the DNR cause I am working in the day so I thought i would start hear to see what you guys think.

[Random guy]

My personal take and opinion on this is you have to have more then a micro size spinner or one little lonely bead on it. I truly believe it ends up with the CO as to what is or is not considered a lure. Still going to need to talk to them if you have questionable tackle.

Now in my opinion I want a big old spinner of something flashy on it anyways. My own quick strikes have a #8 and some even big as a #10 Colarado spinner above the bait. Red is dirty stained water, that big color and big blade clanking around will only help.

Now you may also find all sorts of info in the Muskie /Pike forums abut this. Just search "quick strike" and you wil get about twenty seperate threas discussing this.

[pike doctor]

Jon,

How are u putting the big blades on the line?? Do you peg a little sinker on there so it can only get so close to the hook? Or, do you just let it slide freely up and down the line? I have some big gold willow blades (replacements for spinnerbaits) that I wanted to try, but since that guy told me it was illegal I wasnt going to fool with changing them.

Another thing, what size treble hooks are you guys using on Red? I think most of mine are rigged with red #2 hooks that I put through a live suckers nasal passages with about a 3" small stinger hook going back to the dorsal fin.

[Slabby]

that's about the size of the hooks on my quickstrike rig except bronze hooks instead of red. Red is probably better but I don't think I'm set up with the color.

[Random guy]

Ok this is a old secret but i'll put it on the world wide web...I use a bobber stop. I make my rigs out of 150lb florocarbon Marlin leader.I just add a bobber stop above the one I placed on the line to adjust the sinker height to stop the spinner from going to far.

As for hooks I use MONGO sized hooks, remember a 40" inch pike can easily consume a 3lb sucker so go for good hook-up.

[pike doctor]

Ok, so where do I find these "mongo suckers?" Every time I am up there I cant find them at a bait store, and people always say you dont need them. I would like to fish with huge suckers, but i can never find them, and when i bring them up from down here they ALWAYS die on me.

[Random guy]

Check with Dr. Tackle in Kelliher. Timberline in Blackduck, River Rat in Grand Rapids (I know he will have them).

[CaptJohnWI]

I have seen the big live suckers for sale at the Spur station between Orr & International Falls. They were sold as "Decoys" so I guess the pike spearers use them around there. Good luck trying to use them on a tip up - they will be tripping the flag a lot!

[Slabby]

Yes they do CAPT'

[deano]

Did anyone see the outdoors show this weekend where they were fishing tipups with suckers and they actually bit the tails off the suckers so they would be less active and not trip the tipups. It was somewhere in Wisconson.

[pike doctor]

Yeah, it was Wisconson Waters and Woods with John Gillespe. I wouldnt really agree with that in dirty staind water, but maybe in clear water. I want mine to be active putting out some vibration.

Sometimes I will go way out from my tip ups and start drilling holes tring to chase fish toward my tip ups. Other times I will vertical jig with my HUGE rattle trap around all of my tip ups. I have never been bit, and I dont know if it makes a difference, but you can hear that thing from 30 ft away above the ice.

[Bobb-o]

cutting parts of the tails off of the suckers and then hooking them upside down does seem to work at times as they will be constantly struggling to right themselves.

[fishingchef41]

I have personally had great success on Red Lake using large dead baits instead of live ones. Many times the dead bait will out produce live bait 3 to 1. We have used 10 to 12 inch suckers or white fish purchased from a seafood store. Not smoked, just raw dead baits. I think the large profile of the baits help the northerns see them and the oil from the bait seals the deal. The size of the fish caught on the dead baits seem to be much bigger on average. It really works! I have always used quick srtrike rigs with treble hooks and a small spoon atached to the rig. I suppose that a large circle hook or J style hook could be used if the DNR are cracking down on the treble hooks. One other nice benefit to using dead baits is they will not trip your tip ups for no reason. If the flag goes up it will be a fish.