[Ristorapper]

Smelt, smelt, smelt and an occassional fathead once in a while.

We have literally pounded 5# average fish the last two years with dead smelt over our tip ups. We run a treble hook up the middle of the smelt and hook it onto the leader. We will sometimes use the smelt hooks, medium smelt hooks if the smelt available are somewhat small and large smelt hooks if larger smelt are available in the grocers frozen fish section. Trebles seem to have a higher percentage of hook-ups for us however.

Last year we experimented with 14 gauge copper wire (8-10") with a treble hook wired to the end of it. With the copper wire straight, we strung on the smelt head first down to the treble hook then bent the copper wire in the shape of a smelt hook. The bend coming at the tail end of the smelt. Outstanding hook-up percentages so we will monkey with this experiment more this year. BUT when setting the hook on this set-up the copper wire will straighten out so you need to set it hard to bury the hook as the wire straightens out.

And this year we have access to an underwater camera so it should be even more fun.

We also used jig rods with fathead minnows in the same waters to hook up with the perch in this lake. You know when a pike hits instead. They are fun to fight for a while but we usually can't get em turned up the hole. Heck they are so plentiful we just have fun with them.

One word of advice on the leader. We use steel leaders on out tip ups and will gradually lengthen the leader as the ice thickens. We feel that when you are trying to turn the pike up the hole, a steel leader dragging on the sharp bottom edge of the ice is great insurance in not losing many fish. Good fishing

BW(ND)