As I was digging through my gear, getting ready for this season and I have come to a conclusion that I am a hoarder.
I noticed I have about nine tip-ups left that I hardly use anymore, unless I am heading over South Pass to fish Boysen or Seminole. Tip-ups have not really changed much in principle since the first wooden Beaver Dams I started using 30-plus years ago. Advancements are now that they are made of plastic and stainless steel. With sealed bearings, non-freezing lubricants, and telescoping flags, they are effective.
I really like the round bottom tip-ups. With the round bottom covering the hole, they are almost freeze and windproof. Then you add a small chemlight or snap-on strobe light to the flag, you are now ready for night fishing. What I didn’t like about tip-ups was hand lining fish in on bitter, cold days. Cold wet hands and fingers are no fun. But, when you are ice fishing waters that do not have the special ice fishing regulations, have a two-pole limit and no live bait, there is not much point in using a tip-up.
Wyoming does have lakes that fall under the special ice fishing regulations and some do allow the use of live bait. With the six-pole rule and live bait, I am setting up either a straight line, a circle, or a diamond pattern for my tip-ups depending on under water structure or the wind.
With lakes like the Flaming Gorge covered under the special ice fish regulations, but do not allow the use of live bait, I slowly moved over to using fishing pole holders instead of tip-ups.
Using a fishing pole with a night crawler, meal worm, or wax worm on the hook is called dead sticking. To combat the cold wind, and freezing of the top of my hole, I got five-gallon bucket lids. I cut a one-inch hole in the center of the lid, and then cut a single line out and through the outside edge for the fishing line of my pole.
So now I was set up with one to two jigging poles, and five to four dead sticks, with a setup of not more than six total poles.
The bad thing about dead sticking with a fishing pole is missing bites. Unlike tip-ups with their flags popping up when you got a hit, the only way to know if anything was going on with your dead stick was constantly watching it, or seeing your pole bobbing around.
That problem was solved for me two years ago when I got my hands on the new Jawjacker fishing pole holder. No more missing bites, and the hook always sets into the upper jaw. The Jawjacker is a fishing pole holder that has a plastic loop that goes through the support bracket of the end eye hole of your pole. You then bend your pole over and put the plastic loop through a catch. Now you have a ice fishing pole trap.
Be careful that your head is off to the side doing this, I have had the end of the fishing pole smack me a good one to my face a couple of times.
Having this setup has allowed me to concentrate more on my fish finder and jigging without missing hits to my other poles. And a big plus with the jawjacker is if you’re not getting hits, it’s time to move it to a new place.
That’s all for now, have fun and be safe!
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