How livebait is hooked

How the baitfish is hooked settles two things at once: how long it lives on the hook and how fast the predator swallows it. The method isn't chosen for looks, but for how much time it gives the predator.

Through the back

The hook runs under the skin along the base of the dorsal fin, missing the spine. The fish stays lively and holds itself level — this is the most common way for a tip-up. If the spine is caught, the fish dies almost at once.

Through the nostril

The hook goes through the nostril or through the upper lip. The fish breathes freely this way and stays lively for a long time, but it holds less securely on the hook: an aggressive predator often tears it off without hooking up.

Through both lips

The hook pierces both lips, and the fish can no longer open its mouth. In still water under the ice this weakens it fast, which is why it's hooked this way in current instead, where the water passes through the gills on its own.

Through the gill cover

The leader is threaded under the gill cover and out through the mouth, leaving the hook outside. This gives the surest hookup, but the fish lives the shortest time — it's used where bites come often and the baitfish doesn't have time to die.

Single, double, treble

A single hurts the fish less, a treble hooks up more surely. A double is often used under the gill cover. The general types are in the section on hooks; what matters here is only that the more metal on the fish, the shorter it lives.

What frost does while hooking it

A fish taken out of the water ices over in seconds in the frost, and the gills freeze up. So it's hooked quickly and over the bucket, not on the ice: a fish dropped onto the ice is never the same one that was in the bucket.

What changes about the timing of the hookset

When the hook is in the back, the predator doesn't swallow the fish right away, and a hasty hookset pulls the baitfish straight out of its jaws. When the hook is under the gill cover, the opposite is true — there's no need to wait long. How it's hooked and when to strike are one decision, not two.

When the fish is replaced

When it stops moving: a motionless baitfish no longer works through movement, only through scent and looks — a different kind of fishing and a different setup. The second case is after a bite, even a failed one: a bruised fish doesn't recover, however alive it may still look.