Respecting
the Flag
By Noel Vick
Many
salute it and it makes them weep.
It’s occasionally lowered to half-staff in memory of
notables who pass away. A
few idiots opt to burn it while hiding behind the First Amendment.
And to the rest it hopefully, at the least, represents
freedom, liberty, and what it is to live in the greatest nation in
the world. I’m of
course speaking of the American flag.
There’s
another flag out there, which bears various levels of respect.
This flag isn’t a national treasure, nor does it
exemplify patriotism, heroism, or undaunted courage.
In fact, it’s rather silly to even cast reference to the
American flag in what’ll eventually transfigure into an
ice-fishing article. Let’s
cut to the chase. For
this discussion, the flag I’m concerned about is the one, which
signals strikes on a tip-up – that reddish to orange-ish square
of fabric or plastic that when unfurled, causes slight to moderate
palpitations.
The
modern era of ice fishing seems to be bidding farewell to setline
tactics. Our
infatuation with mobility, portable fish houses, and specialized
rods and reels has relegated fixed lines, especially tip-ups, to
secondary status, and in some cases, even accelerated extinction.
Tip-ups
have been part of my arsenal since the early days, and I can’t
imagine ever abandoning them.
Over the years, my techniques have modernized, and without
question, tip-ups play a lesser role, but I still keep them
around. I don’t
expect to ever again lay out a field of tip-ups and passively
watch for tripped flags. For
one, I’m too impatient. Secondly,
I’ve learned that proactive ice-fishing out produces reactive
ice-fishing at every opportunity.
So
in an effort to preserve tip-up schemes while continuing to play
the role of the millenium fisherman, I struck out to develop the
complete package. Build
a time honored tip-up approach into the modern slash and dash
jigging system. It
works, and if you adhere to the following suggestions, that bucket
of dust covered tip-ups in the back of the garage will again
become standard equipment:
Exploration
The
mobile mindset causes ice fishermen to efficiently cover lots of
water. Locate a
probable location, dissect its components, and commence blasting
holes over various depths and structures within the targeted area.
For
example, suppose you’re after walleyes relating to an offshore
rock hump. Imagine
that the 40’ X 60’ formation peaks at 8-feet and drops to
18-feet of water around its perimeter.
The plunge from 8 to 18-feet is consistent around three of
its sides, but one flank presents a nearly vertical wall.
The first thing you should notice is that the hump is of a
manageable size, meaning it’s possible to pick apart the whole
animal.
You’ll
need to plug a batch of holes.
Cut a few over the top, a couple leading down each of the
tapered breaks, some right over the sharp break, and a number of
holes around the hump’s base and several yards beyond.
Designate the likeliest holes as the primary jigging zone,
and in our illustration, holes across and at the base of the
sheerest break are most desirable.
Now
classical mobile mentality tells you to jig the sharp break, and
walk over to the other holes as necessary.
But a far more efficient means is to immediately set flags
across the entire spectrum. Before
ever lowering a spoon, it’s wise to first place tip-ups deeper
and shallower of the chief jigging area.
So in our example this means dropping flags over the
hump’s top, various spots leading down the less eventful breaks,
and beyond the structure – pay heed to what constitutes a legal
number of lines per angler, as well as legal distance a fishermen
can be from a setline.
In
a perfect world, jigging over the primary holes would produce fish
at a yeoman’s clip, and flags would be merely ornamental. But odds are that fish are scattered, or they simply prefer
depths away from your jigging holes.
Fortunately, you’ve implemented a support system (remote
tip-ups), and the unfurling of flags will direct you to more
prolific waters. And
if you pre-drilled enough holes near the active tip-ups, it’s
possible to sneak in and begin jigging in the hot zone.
Multi-Species
Application
The
merits of using tip-ups for exploratory means are profound.
But equally as meaningful is their use as a tool for
attacking secondary targets.
Who said that perch fishing is a one-dimensional activity?
Likewise, just because you’re after crappies or sunfish
doesn’t mean that intentionally hooking a pike is blasphemous…
Good
fish habitat is just that, good
fish habitat. The
perfect shoreline bar, deep weedline, or rock reef isn’t limited
to just a single inhabiting species.
For example, in a bowl-shaped lake with a defined weedline
and limited structure, most fish, regardless of species, will
traverse the weededge. So
a bluegill buster stands as good a chance of hooking a pike as he
does a meal of pans.
In
fact, the connection between panfish and northern pike is one of
the best examples of multi-species fishing.
Everyone knows that where there’s panfish, there’s
surely pike. Why
fight it? We’ve all been out there micro-jigging when suddenly you
feel that hollow “thunk”, followed by weightlessness – the
work of a northern pike. Offering
pike something more their size won’t insure against bite-offs,
but it certainly lessens the chances of getting clipped, while
affording the opportunity to nab the perpetrator.
I
like to fix a shiner minnow adorned tip-up about 20 or 30 yards
away from my panfish holes. As
a matter of fact, it’s a good idea to place one pike line for
every panfish jigger in the group.
The remote pike lines create somewhat of a force field
around your panfish holes. They also yield the opportunity to catch and release a giant
pike – quite a bonus.
Perch
jerkers can also profit from tip-up use.
As indicated, preferred fish habitat generally hosts a
variety of species – perch haunts are no different.
Walleyes and northern pike are frequent visitors to perch
country. Say you’re
standing and jigging perch over a sand flat or offshore bar, with
great success. It’s
obvious that perch like the area and you can bet walleyes and pike
also find it appealing. Rig
a tip-up with a shiner, fathead, or a small sucker minnow. Drop it away from your jigging holes and get ready for some
flag flying action.
Upsizing
and Diversifying Bait
Another
credible application of tip-ups is using them to present bigger or
different bait. For
the bigger argument let’s again focus on walleyes.
Predominately meat eaters, a walleye’s appetite varies
based on their relative aggressiveness, in addition to the size of
the fish at hand. Imagine
that you’re pumping swimming jigs and minnow heads with some
fruition, but most of the fish aren’t of tape measure quality.
It’s hard to say if there are any larger critters nearby
unless you experiment. Grab
a tip-up, juicy shiner minnow, and see what happens.
It’s possible that bigger, keener walleyes prefer a
hefty, but slow moving presentation versus the hyper swimming jig.
Bigger
bait also enters the fold when challenging jumbo perch.
On a number of past fishing expeditions it was a tip-up
that produced the chunkiest perch. Take an oversized fathead minnow or manageable shiner and
lower it beneath a tip-up. Big
perch like big eats. And
I’ve also found that true jumbos can sometimes be wary.
They’ll avoid the commotion around jigging holes and
elect to accept a remote offering.
As
ridiculous as it might sound, tip-ups are also effective for
taking slab crappies. Small
jigs and maggots or wax worms will dupe most of the fish, most of
the time. A crappie minnow and plain hook or tiny jig can also attract
crappies of all sizes. But
when you’re confronted with waters known for harboring huge
crappies, a tip-up is in order.
Crappies in that pound and a half range and up are quite
predacious. Large
baitfish aren’t out of the question. So
to feed the need, I call on tip-ups.
Send down a healthy fathead and shiner on a single hook –
suspend the presentation at or near the depth where crappies were
found while jigging. Hold
on for hubcaps!
Variety
is the spice of life. And
in the case of tip-ups, all this means is presenting options. For instance, say you’re fishing for northern pike or lake
trout with jigs and bobber lines – the jigging is aggressive and
the minnows are wily. A
reasonable test would be to tie up a quick-strike rig/tip-up and
garnish it with dead bait – possibly a smelt or cisco.
You’ve now combined a jigging tactic with a dead bait
presentation to create the ultimate hardwater package.
Tip-ups
aren’t to be taken lightly.
And worse yet, outright neglected.
Instead, grab that pile of overlooked boards.
Clean those babies off, re-spool them, and think about how
you can implement them into a modern ice-fishing program.
Revisiting tip-ups has its rewards.
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