Could someone give me some tips

[WalleyeSlayer21]

Tips on how to get more Flags, What tip ups brand to use, what type of jig or hook to tie on, what type of bait. What depths for early, middle, and late season. Thanks Guys.

[Fowlmouth]

First of all the tip up brand doesn't help catch more fish than another brand, but I do like beaver dam tip ups for there durability - you get what you pay for. When tip up fishing for pike I like 8ft - 25 ft depending on structure. I will try anywhere from a few feet under the ice to about 4ft of the bottom. Try and find a weed line and you'll get fish. I like braided tip up line tied onto a quick strike rig with large shiners or small to medium suckers.

[monstermoose78]

It is about finding a lake with a good pike population in it.

[mn86]

trying running tip ups in a diamond pattern. shhh.

[20lbSloughShark]

I like my baits higher than most. 3' off the bottom is about as close as I get. If you are serious about pike, then the best tip up you can get for the money is the Frabill Bigfoot. The cheap HT ones do work just fine, but the ones with the 500' spools are 10x better. If you are fishing in clear water, a flurorocarbon leader 40#+ might help. In stained water, I find no difference with light steel leaders. One thing that often helps is spinner blades on my rigs. So far my favorite circle hook is a Mustad deomon perfect circle hook in 6/0. If you prefer regular J hooks, I like the gamakatsu big river bait hooks in 5/0. For trebles I love eagle claw's, especially the 374. I like #4 sized trebles. I have not noticed much advantage to red hooks, but you could try them. I advise against regular J hooks. Some people online say they do well with them. I used them for years and have never had success with them. I have also never seen good results with people using them in person. For tip up line, I like regular dacron. Thicker line is easier to handle. I like 50#, and I get mine from Cabelas in bulk spools. Most other places only carry 25 or 50 yard spools. You want 100 yards on your tip ups if you can fit it. Avoid black line if you can help it. It is nearly impossible to see underwater. My favorite is green spot, but green, white, tan, or nearly any other light color work fine. The fish will never see your line, so don't worry about that. I find that right away when the ice is only a couple inches thick, pike are often very deep. Once the ice gets to around 6" or so, and becomes cloudy, pike come in very shallow into the weeds. As the season pushes on, they move out to weed lines, deeper structure, but some still hang shallow. I don't usually focus too much on depth. What is much more important is structure, and ultimately bait fish. I wouldn't doubt if the average pike swims from 2' of water down to 50' in the matter of an hour while searching for food. Here in MN we can't fish late into the season, so I can't tell you much about that. All I can tell you, is I have read that they work their way into spawning areas like bays, creek mouths, etc. One simple tip to get more flags is to keep moving. Start off leaving them in for no more than 30-45 minutes, and adjust from there. Often I find I will get a strike in 5 minutes, and no more from a spot, move, and get another in 5 minutes. Good luck.

edit: I almost forgot to mention bait. I love suckers 8"-10". Most days you will get more pike of all sizes. Yes you can get them on crappie minnow, but they prefer the bigger bait. Don't waste money on decoy suckers. If you can't get larges, ask for the biggest mediums you can get. A simple trick that has proven dynamite is to cut the tail off. They struggle more, and move less, not to mention it almost eliminates bait flags. Shiners are great for a mixed bag, but you will often limit yourself to smaller pike. Any other questions, just ask.

[ZachD]

I only use Big tooth zero rig or quick strike rigs on my northern tip ups.

I like to keep my baits at different depths and have the fish tell me at what height to fish them. It tends to be more the middle of the water most days.

If I am just targeting northern I usually fish in the 6-16 fow range.

I like to run the tip ups in a zig zag pattern from shallow to deep.

I usually put on a mix of medium to large suckers.

I would say tip yup brand doesn't really come to play with northern (more comes in play with walleye) But I prefer beaver dams, although it does seem my cheap HT pink tip up seems to catch the most.

Sometime I will crush the minnow so it is half dead

I move tip ups that have not had a flag every 45 mins

[th64]

Bring kids and an underwater camera-I read do a diamond pattern of sets, or a zigzag

cannot do either with 2 pathetic lines out! kids love to use the camera(bring a football too!)

Anyway the camera has saved a few trips for me, once we were getting zilch so we punhced a bunch of random holes, in one hole I saw healthy weeds and sunnies, we then did a bunch of holes in that area and set up, we probably caught over 20 pike the largest around 10lbs. No weeds or sickly weeds in the other area, we did not see pike on the camera but with bait and weeds nearby Mr. Toothy will be too.