ChefMick Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 A friend of mine ran into some Simcoe locals that were using a rig ive never heard of but sounds intriguing. Find your depth with a Vex, lets say 35 feet. Main line to a 3 way swivel with a 6" tag to hook and minnow, drop line down around 17' to a four hook spreader all with minnows. Drop your spreader down to the 34' depth so your tag minnow is up off the bottom 20'. he said the whitefish's bite is subtle and the tag minnow is meant to attract a laker, once the laker smashes the tag, it invertently sets the hooks on the whitefish below. Interesting rig, and appearently my buddy saw a video they took using this method, hand dragging the line out of the hole, up comes a laker 1st, and then 3 whitefish to follow all hooked on the spreader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordanl Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 id be really interested in seeing how they would set this up, sounds like it is really interesting to say the least Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadadude Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 A friend of mine ran into some Simcoe locals that were using a rig ive never heard of but sounds intriguing. Find your depth with a Vex, lets say 35 feet. Main line to a 3 way swivel with a 6" tag to hook and minnow, drop line down around 17' to a four hook spreader all with minnows. Drop your spreader down to the 34' depth so your tag minnow is up off the bottom 20'. he said the whitefish's bite is subtle and the tag minnow is meant to attract a laker, once the laker smashes the tag, it invertently sets the hooks on the whitefish below. Interesting rig, and appearently my buddy saw a video they took using this method, hand dragging the line out of the hole, up comes a laker 1st, and then 3 whitefish to follow all hooked on the spreader. They have been fishing this way on Simcoe for 100yrs on a ballanced tip-up. The thing is use a 3-way, or 2-way spreader or your breaking the law, max of 4 hooks per line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jesse Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 I think you would have to be pretty lucky to catch both at the same time on simcoe.I have seen people use a similar setup but it is targeting just a single bite at a time.The spreader method is not too effective on simcoe in my opinion,little green tube jig's do the trick though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 Ya, as said above, this rig has been used for years up there. Whitefish are notorious for coming up with the bait rather than pulling down, and using the spreader makes it easy to pick up on that. The lakers are often suspended off the bottom, and will pick up on that minnow above. Its a basic rig, and if you want to catch whities with it, you should upgrade your hooks and line on the spreaders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReelMenFish Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 Two way spreader 1 foot from bottom. Don't get the type that have the spring. Balanced tip up will "rattle" before popping up, it's the live minnows freaking out before they are sucked in. Check on number of hooks per line sounds wrong to me and a really lucky hook up. Some guys do very light jig head 1' from bottom second hook on 6" tail 4' up from that this allows a single line to fish for both species. Salted tubes also work well 1/2 black, 1/2 white. Jig it at different depths then reel up slow to the 10'/15' mark. In a hut hole you can watch the lakers follow the jig up from the depths, circle, then strike! Never personally seen it but I'm told its a very exciting technique Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReelMenFish Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 Correct! My post should say only an inch not a foot. Set your nails on the balance stick just off of centre (not sure actual % to offset) put the long part of stick away from the hole. Most guys add or remove thick elastic bands on the long portion of the stick depending on the weight of the spreader to get the balance perfect. Slide the band towards the stand to decrease weight or away to increase. The point is to float the spreader JUST off the bottom so the white doesn't feel the increase of weight when it picks up the minnow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staffman Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Interesting, I didn't realize that ice fishing was this complex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smerchly Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 I don't like spreaders unless the hole is BIG .....lost a few whities in an 8" hole when the other hook(s) caught under the ice . I like the 2 way & another gut hook up another foot or so up from the spreader . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadadude Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 A balanced stick is not only a good whitefish method but also is deadly on walleye when the bite is light, I've used it on Nippissing when nobody was hooking up and had double digit walleye days. It is truely unbeleivable how light the walleye bite can be and a well balanced stick will indicate when a fish is just touching the minnow, another trick I used to balance the stick is to use change slipped under the line at the rear , a dime, nickle or penny. The biggest draw back is when you retrieve your bait make sure everyone in the hut stays still there is nothing worse then everyone rushing towards you when you have up to 100' of line laying on the floor, you can get some wild mess going on, especially after a few cold ones hahahahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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