01-03-2003, 04:47 PM
[cool] Big trout, walleyes, northerns and muskies all have dental equipment that can result in a sudden weight loss program if you don't handle them right. In states where it is legal, I attach a large saltwater hook to a piece of broken rod handle and use it as a gaff for the lower lip. Where gaffs are prohibited, you need to use some kind of mechanical gripper...like Roland Martin's "Boca Grip" Berkeley sells one too. You can find them in the new [url "http://www.basspro-shops.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=42517&amp;hvarDept=100&amp;hvarEvent=&amp;hvarClassCode=11&amp;hvarSubCode=1&amp;hvarTarget=browse "]Bass Pro Shop lineup [/url][#ff0000]<-- Link[/#ff0000]
They ain't cheap, but they can help you put a big fish on the ice before it tears loose or breaks you off.
If you are fishing exclusively for northerns or tigers, you can use a short length of wire leader in front of your jigging spoon. You can also grab onto that (with gloves) to help get the fish's head started up into the hole. That's often the hardest proposition of all is getting a big strong fish to decide it wants to come up through the hole and visit you. This becomes compounded, the deeper the ice is.
I've probably lost more big fish just because I couldn't get their heads in the hole than for any other reason. But, if you can play them out until they are tired, you can let them think they are swimming downward and then turn them around and put the pressure on them to pull them straight back up into the hole. You risk popping the line, but you will never make it if you let them swim just beneath the ice, in circles. Even the best fusion lines can only take so much of that.
But, like they say about "other things"..."Better to have fished and lost than to never have fished at all."
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They ain't cheap, but they can help you put a big fish on the ice before it tears loose or breaks you off.
If you are fishing exclusively for northerns or tigers, you can use a short length of wire leader in front of your jigging spoon. You can also grab onto that (with gloves) to help get the fish's head started up into the hole. That's often the hardest proposition of all is getting a big strong fish to decide it wants to come up through the hole and visit you. This becomes compounded, the deeper the ice is.
I've probably lost more big fish just because I couldn't get their heads in the hole than for any other reason. But, if you can play them out until they are tired, you can let them think they are swimming downward and then turn them around and put the pressure on them to pull them straight back up into the hole. You risk popping the line, but you will never make it if you let them swim just beneath the ice, in circles. Even the best fusion lines can only take so much of that.
But, like they say about "other things"..."Better to have fished and lost than to never have fished at all."
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