tipups for pike?

[bgreen82]

been out 3 or 4 times with the main intention of tipupping some northerns. have gotten completely blanked so far on the year. im in the southeast metro. been on big carnelian, battle creek, and powers in wdby. ive heard all are supposed to be relatively good for ice pike. been trying to work the 12-16ft. weed edges. been using suckers and some frozen smelt. with the suckers, tried both free swimming and using splitshots to hold off bottom. anything else i need to try or should i just keep plugging away at what im doing?

[Pikeslayer]

Add a small spinner blade(orange or red are my choice)to the clip on the swivel next to your hook!

[bassNspear]

try that, its a good idea, and try to place your bait about 3 feet from the ice. Itsa ll goign to depend on the depth of the water, but place it about half way down, you should be able to hook something up.

[Maximum12]

like bassnspear said, try about halfways down.

I know others have different tales, but I've never had much luck with suckers. Shiners for me, or even two big fatheads fighting one another on the same hook (assuming the lake doesn't have any big crappies in it!).

Also, I haven't caught a pike in more than 8' of water this year, so you may want to experiment with the depths you're working, & try getting in or above the standing weeds rather than on the edges.

Stuff to try!

[Pikeslayer]

I moved my house two days ago closer to home,Im fishing in seventeen feet of water. Ive got crappies in the house in the evning and pike on tipups all day long!I set my tipups three feet off the bottem!Works for me!

[dogs]

For me shiners out fish suckers many fold. The bigger the shiner the better on snakes.

[Steve Foss]

I always put one bait about a foot or two off the bottom and one about half way down the water column. That's in 10 FOW or deeper. Shallower than than, I lay one on the bottom and the other half way up. I never use live bait anymore. After fishing pike for ages in N.D., Minn., and Wis., I've found that dead bait outfishes live bait 3-1, and there's never been a day that somebody next to me with live suckers had more flags.

That being said, I prefer smelt or cisco. If I can't get dead bait, I'll buy suckers and kill them. Most tip-up anglers can't get away from the idea that a bait swimming around is better than a bait just sitting there. I agree that a swimming bait makes a good attractant, but many, many days that's all it does.

If you're dead set (huh, pun intended ), on using live suckers, take a knife or fingernail clipper and trim off most of the tail fin. That way they'll weeble and wobble but won't trip your flag, and won't turn off pike that aren't aggressive by swimming all over the place.

And if you're fishing a weed edge, assuming that one of your tip-ups is right at the edge, put another one shallower into the thicker weeds and suspend it about half way up. And I probably don't need to tell you (especially with your handle) to try to find green weeds. With the lack of snow cover and all that light penetration, shouldn't be too hard to find, but they generally outperform dead weeds hands down.

I've gotta add that it's a lot less hassle now when I pike fish. No need to find live bait to buy, find ways to keep it alive, get my hand all wet in that cold wind pulling it out of the bucket, etc. Aside from being more effective, dead bait is just sooooo much easier.

[Big Dave2]

Can a person buy smelt or cisco?

[Steve Foss]

Sure, they're widely available at bait shops. And smelt often are sold in the frozen fish section of the grocery store.

[Esoxmn]

You could also try to find areas of the lake were there is some current, just be sure the ice is safe there.

[Fishing_Rookie_123_]

Where do you hook a dead bait?

[Fish&Fowl]

You can buy tip-up rigs that are a long leader with two trebles on them and usually have spinners already on them too. Just throw one treble through the head and one in the back or tail and you're set.

You can also rig up by tying on 2 single hooks about 4-5" apart from each other and doing the same thing.

[goose52]

As posted earlier try shallower water, i've caught some up in 6 ft. i vary my depth of bait sometimes a couple feet under the ice in deeper water. in clearer lakes like carnelian(been 25 yrs since i fished it) the fish can see a long way. sometimes they like the bait close to the bottom. i've had good luck with live suckers. sometimes i use no leader with a cicle hook. very few bite offs. sometimes use just a big treble hook with spinner above it, but i use a leader. good fishing.