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[Majja]

I have read where a bunch of my fellow anglers here use a kastmaster as an attractor through the ice. What i waswondering are you removing the hook and just tying on to a split ring? Or how do you rig that?

Thanks
Majja
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[UintaIce]

I know everyone does it slightly differently. What I do is remove the hook, attach the top to a swivel tied to my line, and drop a leader 12 to 14 inches attached to the other end of the Kastmaster. On this I tie my choice of jig or ice fly. A lot of the time I also tie a very short piece of leader to the swivel above, and tie on a tiny tear drop jig with a waxie for those fish who come in directly to the Kastmaster. If they're interested enough, they take that one immediately. Otherwise you have to hope for them to drop down and check out the jig below.
Works great for me.
Good luck!
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[lavaman]

Thanks Uintaice!
I used a kastmaster about a foot above my jig, but I left the hook on the kastmaster and tipped it with a waxie. I'm just wondering if it matters if I take the treble off or just leave it on?
Thanks for member suggestions!
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[trollboy8]

I'm no expert, but I would just leave the hook on just in case a fish decides that it wants to take a bite. There is plenty of room on the split ring to tie on line or a swivel.
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[Igottabigone]

I leave the hook on the the kastmaster or change it to a smaller single prong hook. I have caught tons of fish on the kastmaster as well as the jig about a foot or so below. I have even caught fish on both the jig and kastmaster at the same time. Its pretty cool. You could tie your leader to the small ring or directly to the hook.

[Majja]

Thanks for the info. Uintaice i like that idea. the reason i ask i was using a swedish pimple like that with no hook and i think it was getting hits.
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[FishingIsLife]

If you leave the hook, wouldn't the kastmaster eventually get tangled up with the leader and/or the line? It does in my case when I jig...

[UintaIce]

Exactly. That's the problem I saw with it. And for me, dropping a small verticle jig that hangs to the side of the Kastmaster does not cause the tangles the bigger treble does. Yet it offers you the bait and hook you need for those who do want to hit. Plus, as light as a lot of bites are, even with larger trout, those trebles when ice fishing just aren't as productive for me.
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[lavaman]

I'm wondering if changing out the treble for a smaller treble or J-hook would help the 'line tangling' problem. I've always thought that the less knots or links in the line, the better.
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[UintaIce]

True. But that's why I tie that "dropper" directly to the swivel. If a fish breaks me off, that's all I've lost, instead of the whole rig. Because in my experience it's the leader that usually goes. I check them often if into fish pretty good. Those teeth will really chafe a line after a while.
Plus, again in support of the dropper, winter fish will often just barely open their mouths to take, and a tiny jig & waxie is easy for them to suck in.
Just my preference.
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[lavaman]

Thanks for sharing that technique...it's cool to see all the new suggestions. It helps the novices like me learn a thing or two!
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]There are two purposes for using a spoon or larger lure when ice fishing...in tandem with a smaller jig. First is the weight, to get your "money jig" down faster. It takes forever to get a bitty bug down in deep water.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Second is to provide flash or a larger "profile"...to attract fish from a few feet away...and to bring them in close enough to hit the money jig.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you leave the trebles on your Kastmaster, Pimple or casting spoon, you will get lots of tangles if you use a dropper below it. Better to fish a short dropper above the spoon or heavier jig, especially if the fish are suspending above the bottom.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you want to fish a short dropper below a heavier lure, then remove the trebles and fish a dropper both above and below the weightier lure. It is legal and often effective at covering more of the water column when fish are moving through at different depths.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A couple of years ago I started playing around with making my own "depth chargers"...colorful or shiny weights to get the rig down quickly and to provide some glow/color/flash for attraction too. I used to make hammered sinker jigs and paint them different colors, and adding hooks for bait. Got plenty of fish on just the sinker lures. Now the fish come in to see the "bling" and hit the money hook. Sometimes a big fish will smack the hookless -baitless plunger. You miss a few.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The attached pic was taken over a year ago. Since then I have been making them in whites and other colors, including some bodacious glow. I have watched the fish on a flasher when they zoom in to check out the bright plunger and then immediately go up or down to hit the baited money hook.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I bought a grundle of the long sinkers a long time ago, and I had a bunch of lead spinner bodies I wasn't using for spinners. So, I ran them through my paint room and I have a bunch of cheap but effective weights/attractors. By the way, when I fish the spinner bodies, I run the line down through the hole through the middle and tie on a small swivel or split ring. Then I add a short length of leader and the small jig.[/#0000ff]
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[N.E.T.O.]

Last Saturday at Jordanelle, I had two rigs set up and was using both. One was a standard egg sinker next to a swivel, with about 18 inches of leader and a ratso, the other was exactly the same except that I used a kastmaster/without the hook in place of the sinker and swivel.
Maybe it is concidence, but I did't get any bites at all on the one with the sinker and swivel, but I if I reeled in and dropped the one with the kastmaster, it would sometimes get hit almost immediately.

I think it serves two purposes: Gets the rig down there, and attracts them in (visually) and then once they get close enough they can smell the waxworm on the money jig.

I always remove the hook. It is heavier than your ratso, so when lowering it down it will almost always get tangled if you leave the hook on.

Randy
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[Kent]

When I fish with an attractor and if I want the dropper below it, I leave the hook on the attractor (I also bait this hook) and tie the dropper to the bottom curved part of the hook on the attractor. The dropper rarely tangles. I have found that tangles resulted when I just let everything free fall to the bottom of the lake. Now I watch my jig drop on my fish finder and stop it just before it hits the bottom. I typically catch at least 1/3 of my fish on the attractor. If one wants to even further decrease the chances of tangles use a bait-casting reel rather than a spinning reel. Lures will drop more slowly with a bait-casting reel.
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