I've always said it is better to be "lucky" than
"good", which was the case again yesterday afternoon, when I ventured
down Lake of the Woods. I was ice fishing for walleyes and my
deadstick rod, perched across the top of a pail, with the tip hung over the
hole, out-fished me two to one!
Hey, I'll take it any way I can get it.
It was like the prior evening when my wife came home and
went to park her car in the garage. For
some strange reason, the automatic garage door wouldn't open for her. So, out I went to troubleshoot the
problem.
Hey, what do I know about garage door openers?
Anyway, I did what any self-respecting husband would do
under the circumstances. I looked at the
door, scratched my head and pressed the up-down button. Of course, nothing happened. So I again did what any normal male would do:
I kicked the door and went back inside the house.
Next morning, when I went back out in the daylight, I
pressed the up-down button again, and wouldn't you know it, voila, the door
worked perfectly. I have no idea what
happened, although my wife is happy now because she thinks I fixed it!
Like I said, I'll take "good luck" any day.
Which brings us back to the deadstick rods. Like the garage door, many days they will
make you look much better than you really are.
It is why I rarely go ice fishing for walleye, sauger and perch without
plunking a deadstick rod over a second hole.
Indeed, every jurisdiction I can think of, allows you to ice
fish with two lines in the winter, so you need to take advantage of the second opportunity. And don't get in the rut of thinking your
deadstick rod is a "lost cause" or "hail Mary" pass. As happened last evening, it often accounts
for the majority of fish.
As a matter of fact, I routinely expect to catch as many, or
more, fish on my "deadstick line", as I do my primary presentation.
In fact, I can recall many times when our deadstick rods
have produced so many fish, that we've stopped jigging and worked all our holes
that way. Generally, though, it produces
two or three extra bonus fish that you wouldn't otherwise have caught.
(Deadstick rods are great for kids, because they can play on the ice and reel in the fish)
There are, however, some key deadsticking details that most ice
anglers have never learned, or, totally overlook. For starters, for walleye, sauger and perch, at
least, the best deadstick bait you can use is a light jig tipped with a lively
minnow. No surprise there.
How light a jig do you use?
It depends on the size of your minnow, but here is the
secret: it should be light enough so that when you hook the minnow just under
the skin alongside the dorsal fin - so the hook point is always facing the head
- the minnow can easily struggle to swim away, wear itself out, and be pulled right
back under the hole by the weight of the light jig.
For the life of me, I do not know why 99.9-percent of
would-be-deadstickers hook their minnows through the lips. When you do that, you're asking your minnow
to "push" the jig, which is much harder for it to do, than to swim
away "pulling" it. Plus, when
the minnow gets to the end of its leash, when you skin hook it alongside the
dorsal fin, the jig drags it smoothly back into place. That doesn't happen when you lip hook the minnow.
Anyway, prove it to yourself sometime. Take two identical deadstick outfits and hook
the minnow on one, lightly under the skin on the back beside the dorsal fin,
with the hook point facing forward,
Hook the other minnow through the lips.
The former will out-fish the latter, at least two or three to one. And on a tough bite day, the results will be even
greater.
(Here is an evil thought: try this experiment the next time
you go ice fishing with your buddy, only don't tell him or her what you're
doing. Hook all your minnows lightly
through the back and all of theirs through the lip. They'll thank you for setting out their lines,
but they won't like the final results at the end of the day, and will have no
idea why you caught so many more fish.)
A quick note about your deadsticking rod: It needs to have a
super flimsy, light, parabolic tip. The
best rods are specifically designated as "deadstick" rods.
But, what works almost as well - and what I prefer to do - is
take your favourite walleye ice fishing rod and attach a 15-inch or so long, spring
tip or spring bobber. The best I have
found for this application are HT Enterprise's Big Eye Spring Bobber. They come two to a pack, cost only a couple
of dollars and feature a florescent orange tip for easy viewing. They also come with a snap-on/snap-off gizmo
that I throw away, preferring to permanently epoxy the spring to the end of my
rod.
Now, place your bait down a hole, stopping the jig and
minnow a foot or so off the bottom and lay your rod across a pail so that the
flimsy tip - or spring bobber - is directly over the hole. When a walleye, sauger or perch takes the
bait, you'll see the tip bend like a wet noodle, signalling a bite. And since the tip offers no resistance, you
can run over to the hole, gently pick up the rod, and lightly sweep set the
hook into the fish.
It is that easy.
Something else to consider about deadsticking. When I am first starting out on a spot and
prospecting, I'll often set my deadstick
rod a considerable distance away, so it is covering a different patch of
water. But, once I start catching fish
by jigging, I'll routinely drill another hole quite close by and set the
deadstick rod in it.
That way, I'll often attract and trigger the aggressive
walleye by jigging, but also catch the cautious 'eyes that veer off, as soon as
they spot the deadsticked struggling minnow.
What I find so interesting about this approach, is that you
will often go through an hour long stretch when every walleye you catch whacks your
jigging bait, like a Rapala Clackin' Rap or Live Target Shad, and then for no
apparent reason, the next half dozen fish inhale the deadsticked presentation.
Just don't be surprised, at the end of the day, however, if
your deadstick rod catches more fish than you.
