Going to fish Pineview and Causey tomorrow. Anyone heard any recent news? I have hooked a few musky through the ice but have yet to get one through the hole. What is the secret on that. They are pretty toothy, and I have been a little nervous about putting a hand in that mouth of death to pull them through.
tightline
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[unsure] what ever you do, do not put your hand in there mouth dude you will pull back a bloody stump.. this i have learned from pike fishing.. a gaf is the best but you cant use one in utah i think. so try some long pliers..good luck dude --from the fuzzyfisher
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[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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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Ditto...[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Buy a Berkley lip gripper. They'll handle fairly large fish with big teeth; I use one for macks. The only di
vantage is the fish has to (1) open it's mouth and (2) hold still long enough to get it clamped on the lower jaw. Be careful you don't go too deep and hit the gills.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3] Most of all take your time, breath through your nose, and tire the fish out so the thrashing at the hole is minimal. loosen the drag a little more and let him make a few additional runs. Only di
vantage to this is that if you plan on releasing them, you can stress a fish from a long fight making it hard to revive them plus it's hard to revive a fish through an ice hole. I have a friend that attaches a stringer to large lake trout and makes sure the fish are fine before shoving them back down an ice hole. You can punch a hole through the skin on the lower lip and loop it around the bottom jaw bone in the front of the mouth and never come close to the gills.[/size][/font]
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You're right on with the gill thing, BLM. Since the gills are essentially lungs for the fish, they are highly vascularized, i.e. lots of blood coursing through there to oxygenate them lil buggers. The hole near the "chin" of the fish will actually heal over in time and will, as Hipocrates would say, "do no harm." The most critical release strategy is to not handle the fish, if possible, as we are all aware. If your hands or gloves are wet, go for it. Just don't remove too much of the slime layer on the skin/scales.
I will now stop preaching.[angelic]
MrLipripper
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I'm glad you're preachin'! I should of said the same exact thing! Wet hands make all the difference when handling a fish. That slime coat is one of the most essential shields to keeping a fish healthy. Thanks for the follow up![/size][/font]
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