Tip-up Fishing Pike for Pickerel by Carl Haensel and photo-Dave Kaneski If you’re looking for wintertime ice fishing excitement, look no further than your local lake or pond. The large predatory northern pike and pickerel that lurk there are active during the winter and are more than willing to take a well-rigged minnow swimming below a tip-up. Once that happens, the fight is on. There are many different types of tip-ups on the market. Use one that can hold a fair amount of line and is well greased to function in extremely cold weather. Spool the tip-up with line designed for fishing on a tip-up. A variety of braided Dacron tip-up lines or “ice lines” are available. Fill your spool to within ¼ inch of the edge of the rim with PFBC website: www.fishandboat.com Choosing and preparing a tip-up this line. Then, attach a black snap swivel to the end. Next, attach a 3-foot long piece of monofilament fishing line of your preferred strength. For most situations, 10-poundtest line works well. At the end, add a leader of 20- to 50-pound-test nylon monofilament or fluorocarbon. This will be the bite leader. Pike and pickerel have very sharp teeth that can easily cut line. While summertime anglers usually use wire leaders when fishing lures, ice fishing anglers often use monofilament to avoid scaring wary fish. Attach a wide-gape hook of your preferred size to the end of the leader. This should be sized to your quarry and can vary from size 4 to size 3/0. A size 1 or 1/0 hook will cover many situations. Place a medium-sized splitshot such as a #5 a short distance above the hook to control the Pennsylvania Angler & Boater • January/February 2013 17http://www.fishandboat.com