by Bill Herian » Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:42 pm
Where to start? I would buy some beaver dam tip ups, spool them with 50 pound dacron or 80 pound fire line. The fireline is nice because it dosent absorb water and spools well when wet unlike dacron which freezes stiff. I still use dacron though. If you go with fireline DO NOT wrap it around your hand or fingers while fighting a fish. I dont know why you would anyway but if he decided to make a run and your finger is in a noose, bad news. Tie in a leader of 20-25 pound crystal fireline. I just starting using it and i like it. Fish dont see it and it holds up as long as you dont horse the fish too hard. Otherwise 60 pound flourocarbon has great abrasion resistance and is totally invisible too. I cant say ive used it but i know very good fisherman who use it. Tie on a #8 eagle claw treble. That hook will work for any minnow 8 inches or smaller. If you get into using big suckers, 10-13 inchers, go with the next size larger hook. A lot of guys tell me its a small hook but I swear by it. Pike dont feel it as they take the bait and dont see it before hand. Put a big split shot 8 inches from the hook and another near the top of the leader. I connect the leader to gthe dacron with a barrel swivel. If you see your minnow is really towing those sinkers add another. Its good to let him move around but you dont want him swimming up. My favorite northern bait is the biggest gold shiner you can find. 7-9 inchers are excellent. A pike would rather eat one large baitfish than chase down 4-5 small ones. This is true of all pike, no matter the size. Im not saying you cant catch them on smaller minnows. I concede, the biggest northern I ever caught took a 4 inch emerald shiner. But more often than not im catching them on big shiners or 10 inch suckers. As for where to fish, it just depends on the water. Northerns cover a lot of water though, its hard to be in a "bad spot". I like shallow water. To me it wouldnt make sense for a northern to be cruising the shallows if it isnt hunting. Put all you pike baits at least a foot off bottom. The old saying amoungst muskie fisherman is " a fish will come up 15 feet to take a bait but wont go down 15 inches", the same is true for northerns, who cant see down but they can see up because of the position of thie eyes. Its hard to fish too far above them but easy to fish too far below. Hope this helps.