Quick Strike Your Way to More Winter Pike
It is no secret; when you’re on the ice, tip-ups are the way to go to get hooked-up, time and time again, from Northern Pike. But, what isn’t well known is that the use of quick strike rigs associated with your tip-up fishing is the way to go to make sure your landing fish hand over fist instead of just visiting empty flags.
Total Solutions Technique
The historic business end of a Northern Pike tip-up has always been a simple treble hook placed into the back of any bait, live or dead. But, just as our thinking goes for open water fishing, two hooks are better than one, right? I totally agree, and have now adopted quick strikes to all my tip-up rigs. Clear the thoughts of a big gaudy harness surrounding your bait and huge hooks sticking out the side. For winter time use, we use thin diameter wire and at times even fluorocarbon where we team them with small hooks that we can hide onto the bait to still leave a natural look, just as you would get with one hook.
Total Solutions Equipment
We start with our main line, one that we want to shed, not hold water due to freezing conditions, so we spool with 30lb waterproof Ice Tip-Up Line. For our quick strike rigs, I use two different types, an adjustable or fluorocarbon.
The most used is an adjustable quick strike rig using 20 to 40 lb Berkley Steelon Nylon Coated Wire. To accomplish an adjustable quick strike you need to have the following items; 2 feet of the wire, 2 Berkley Connector Sleeves, 1 size 10 Berkley McMahon Swivel, 2 small beads and 2 – #6 or #8 (smaller if smaller bait) treble hooks. To make the rig, crimp the swivel to make the top. Now add a connector sleeve a bead a treble and the other bead and take the bottom end of the wire and thread it back through the connector sleeve, entering through the end closest to the swivel and back out, forming a loop with the two beads on either side of the treble. Now, crimp the other treble to the open end to complete the rig. To adjust, push the wire back or forth to either shorten or lengthen the distance between the trebles for the size of bait your using. Add beads or even spinner blades (blades must be added to make legal in MN) for added attraction.
For a fluorocarbon quick strike, I use 25lb Trilene Fluorocarbon Leader Material associated with a size 10 Berkley McMahon Swivel and 2 #6 or #8 trebles. To make the rig, use the same concept you would for tieing a crawler harness for walleyes. Thread one hook and use a snell knot to cinch it to make the end and then slide the next hook, trebles facing the other hook, approximately 3 to 4 inches up from the other hook and then snell that hook as well. Add the swivel with a Palomar knot and your read to fish. Remember to moisten all knot connections on fluorocarbon before cinching tight.
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Berkley McMahon Swivel |
Berkley Steelon Nylon Coated Wire |
