Had a nice amount of Northern action on tip-ups yesterday(Sunday), right around 20 flags .. the guys took ten nice fish home… We fished the outside weed edges and on top of a spring in goose island area. Large and medium shiners worked equally well, the 65 lb braid with non colored hook,(no leader) and the lighter line with leaders and red hook worked about the same with only a 3-5 flag advantage to the leaderless line.
Still get most of the fish with the shiner about 8 inches below the spool. The longer drops seemed to just set there. 10:00 to 1:30 is still by far the busiest time this past week, with a spurt at daybreak and a spurt some nights.
As was mentioned on another post it is best to set the hook with them running out line. Sometimes they take a ton of line and just sit there so the second poster that mentioned work the slack up and lightly feel for the fish seems to work if the T just doesn’t spin for a while of patient watching. It almost seems like they lurch when they feel the pressure and set the hook themselves. But you still stand the chance of ripping it away from them. Happy Hook-ups Lawrence