Spiny Water fleas

[Tank]

Hey guys, Last week on a 6 hour trip I had to re-tie all rigger rod leaders twice due to fleas buliding up too much to get off the line(easier to just cut an inch of main line ,connection knot and one inch of leader). Then I took a tip from the At The Oak site last Friday and I attached 150 ft. of 50 lb. Big Game to my main line of 30lb. Big game and added a 20ft. leader of 20# Segaur flouro to terminate. This setup worked amazingly well on Saturday. No fleas at all and we pulled 6 fish on those rods(short trip). Whoever experimented to obtain these results..Thanks! Tank

[Sean Youngblood]

I have been running 30lbs braided line it grabs a lot of fleas but if you hold tension on the line and slide the fleas back and forth a couple times it cuts them right off.I also keep 2 extra rods rigged up to put in the rotation if things get to out of control.

[recurve559]

We also run the flea flikr line. we tie it to the mono with a blood knot and spool up about 100 to 150 ft. on the reels. just enough to cover the line in the water. Works great. Now if they could come up with flikr wire.

[Grifter]

Has Been,

Has that 40lb mason been getting any fleas on it at all? I remember the days fondly when 30 lb mono didn't catch fleas and I only had to crank through them on my wires.

[Has Been]

When these things first showed up ,We did not know what they even were or how to eliminate the problem. Fished two days And delt with it. Noticed that the rod with 12 lb got way more than the one with 20 . So I went home & Spliced in the 40 lb i used for my squid leaders & no fleas. Fished 3 days in a row no probs. Remember seeing Buc a roo & a few others slapping their rods on the water. Heard them on the radio crying about it so I went on & told them I found a way out, they blew me off. Next morning at the launch subject came up & told a charter mate about what I did & he procceded to tell me how it would not work. Got on another trolling site & got about as much crap as I got for the three rod deal. Now it is a common solution to the flea problem a lot of anglers lakewide use . And I was the first to do it many years ago. I think hotter the summer , the worse the fleas IMO. Wait till August.

[ERABBIT]

IMHO there are two types of flea's the Spiny water fleas that 30# test will handle well and the fish-hook water flea that hangs on to 30# and causes the bigger problems.

[Reel Scream]

You got it exactly right. Two kinds of fleas. Spiny fleas are mostly in Lake Erie and one slap rod and they are gone. Fishhook fleas are causing all the problems this year in Ontario. I believe data points to them showing up around 1998 or so. Probably from a ship ballast. Both fleas are in the crustacean family and feed heavily on plankton. Hope this years overabundance of fleas doesn't lead to poor forage for the baitfish down the road. Here is an article on the pesky little buggers.

http://www.invadingspecies.com/Invaders ... age&PID=13

[bloodshot]

I also use 30# flicker and yes it is temper mental line. It will twist very bad if you do not take it off the stock reel the rite way. You must take it of with th line loading from the top and do not use yor fingers as tension. I have a made up tension devise that works great. Use the best quality bearing swivels and a section of 20 pound floro and u are all set. NO FLEAS NO PROBLEM. I run it on all rigger rods and my dipsey. Good luck any Q's let me know.

[jsmac51]

I also use 30# flicker and yes it is temper mental line. It will twist very bad if you do not take it off the stock reel the rite way. You must take it of with th line loading from the top and do not use yor fingers as tension. I have a made up tension devise that works great. Use the best quality bearing swivels and a section of 20 pound floro and u are all set. NO FLEAS NO PROBLEM. I run it on all rigger rods and my dipsey. Good luck any Q's let me know.

Could you upload a pic of the "made up tension device"?

[bloodshot]

Its just a 2x10 with 2 L brackets that hold a piece of threded rod. The rod goes thru the line spool and 2 large washers and wing nuts adjust 4 tension. The whole set up screws to a wood table. I use it for all my line. I also have a old fan motor that has a colapsable frame on it that I use to strip reels.

[knowfish]

Hello, We also had the worst experience ever to date with fleas, out of Oak Orchard using #30lb Trilene Big Game. It was crazy. We changed our rigger lines to Flea Flicker, went out this past Sunday, and Monday, had no issues with fleas at all. Very minimal. For the flea season, Flea Flicker is the way to go. Good Luck to everyone in the Derby.