Tip-ups

[gopherfish]

Does anyone know of a good tip up to use for fishing big minnows. The ones i have used in the past do not work so well. The minnow is able to release the flag and spin the spindle. I have had my tip ups for years and with all of the good sales going on right now, I figured I would pick up some new ones. Thanks!

[Farley]

I have a Frabill Classic wooden tip-up that could handle large shiners, I dont know if it would handle a sucker, never tried that. The pin that holds the flag down has a smooth side and a grooved side, if you use the grooved side, that might keep the flag down. I think you can adjust the tightness of the spool too, maybee that would work?

[gopherfish]

Yeah, if there are tip ups out there that you can tighten down to adjust the spin, that would be great.

[Dragonsm]

I have used the Frabill Pro-Thermal Tip-up with no problems. A lot of times, I will run a dual treble hook "rig" into a nice size sucker minnow and have never had problems with the flag going off until a northern swims by and helps himself to that tasty snack!

Steve

[fiskyknut]

I use good old fashioned HT polar type tipups and when using large minnows a guy can run a length of wire leader material off the base of the tipup down to a offshore release clip to hold the line instead of relying on the spindle dealybob. Fish grabs bait, line pulls free from clip and then triggers flag, works great.

fiskyknut

[tucciproshop]

I have always used the artic/beaverdam and have not had problems with big minnow's. You can always cut a little of the tail off which will decrease the minnow's swim strength.

[Bob_D]

Heritage Lakers have an adjustable drag on them. I don't like using it because it slows the spool from turning when a fish takes the bait. The offshore clip or a cloths pin tied to the tip-up frame and clipped to the line works better.

[korn_fish]

I am surprised no one has said this yet. but using big bait or fishing finicky fish on tip-ups requires a little fine tunning of the tip-up to increase or decrease the sensitivity. The mose common, and easiest, method is to use a tip-up that has a smooth side and a grooved side. They provide the obvious tension differences. However, to "fine tune" the tip up to further increase/decrease tension and sensitivity, find tip ups that allow you to raise or lower the trip. HT Polar do this. If you raise the trip to a highr level, the flag will be at an angle when it is all set up. because the flag is at an angle, a fish/bait will be pulling the trip upwards on the flag (increased tension decrease sensitivity) or you can place the flag on the other side of the trip so that when the fish pulls out line, the trip is sliding downwards on the flag (decreased tension, increase sensitivity).

You typically see tip ups in a neutral sensitivity i.e. flag is parallel to ice when set.

Now, with that said. The other thing that I have seen happen with tip-ups similar to the frabil and HT is that the minnow swims around and around and takes line out that way. Most tip-ups have a line guide with some sort of tension device to keep the bait from doing this. However there are all kinds of ingenius ways to fix that one.

Hope this helps.

[gopherfish]

Thanks for the help guys, maybe I do not need to buy new tip ups since I have the HT Polar brand. A lot of you are talking about an offshore clip. Is that similar to what they use on downriggers and where might I be able to pick up some of these? Thanks.

[hunt4food]

I just trim the tails. I just use my thumb and first finger and squeeze through the tail fins with my thumb nail. I use some pretty lage suckers and shiners and that has always worked fine for me.

[radke22]

Before you go and ruin good bait, Place a beer can between the flag and the spindle. When you pull the flagpole down it should come in contact with the can, now wrench the top of the flagpole down aroud the beer can creasing it somewhat and attatch. This puts more pressure on then the spindle and allows you to use suckers as big as you want.