Pike Set up on Tip-Up

[Ride_Red]

Besides a quick strike rig, how do you recomend setting up a tip up for pike and what would your bait choice be?

I use that steel leader that you can tie knots in with a large single hook (Red) and Large sinker to plant a large sucker.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Hi Ride_Red, welcome to FM.

It's starting to get towards the tail end of pike fishing, for me anyway. In the later part of the season I've always had the best luck with a steel leader, large hook, tied to the red Polar Ice 20 lb braided Dacron line. I only use a sinker if I have to to get the bait to the bottom.

For bait this time of the year I love dead smelt. Sometimes I'll put a fathead on the hook, then a dead smelt, and drop it right on the bottom. All the fathead is doing is providing some "Wiggle." IMO- the pike are slowing down a bit, here in SW MN, and the dead smelt on the bottom is an easy snack that they don't have to attack. They just scoop it up as they swim by. I get my smelt at the grocery store. If I can't get smelt I'll use suckers but I make them dead, then drop them on the bottom.

Good luck to ya.

[anyfishwilldo]

 Originally Posted By: boilerguy

I'll use suckers but I make them dead

Good luck to ya.

I like the way you word that. It sounds better than "I kill them"

[Ride_Red]

Thanks for the info what size hook do you use with the dead smelt, they are also avail her at stores. and single or treble

[Eric Wettschreck]

Here in MN it's just a single hook only, no treble hooks unless it's part of a lure.

I don't really know the size, I just use big ones. If I could, however, I'd use a treble. If it's legal in your area that's the route I'd go.

If the bottom has a little mud, putting on the fathead works great. It stirs up the mud just enough to attract the pike.

[Ride_Red]

Thanks for the info I will give it a try, trebles are legal here that is all I use for walleyes, do you ever put a spinner blade for color or anything like that?

[Eric Wettschreck]

No. The only action I want is the fathead wiggling. That is minimal and it's only to attract them to the dead smelt.

Earlier in the ice season I'd go a different route. More action, more color, more flash. Now, however, the pike around my place are slowing down. I'm not a fisheries guy by any stretch but I think they slow down and then go totally nuts around ice out.

Now that they have slowed down they arn't in the mood to fight or attack or chase something down. They will, however, scoop up a free lunch from the bottom.

[danwilliams]

Here I thought I had a secret weapon...using a couple fatheads on a dead sucker. LOL

been doing the same trick as Boiler this winter....

One time I'd left Mille Lacs and went to a small lake to catch some sunnies. All I had for minnows was fatheads..while I jigged for sunnies I put another line down with a quick strike rig baited with as many fatheads as I could stick on...Caught 2 nice pickling northerns that day on them...looked like a squirming swarm of fat heads..which is what it was I guess...

Dumb me..why haven't I tried that again?????

[kingspade651]

Ive been using a jig on my tipups called the tip n jig and have done very well with pike this winter. You lose a few more because of the single hook setup, but i have noticed an increase in the number of flags.

[Dooley87]

boiler- if you would rather use a treble on your tip ups just make sure to add a bead or a blade above your hook, as long as the bead or blade is within 12" of your hook it is considered a lure, that is why quick strike rigs can have two trebles and still be legal, they usualy have both blades and beads.

don't want the extra flash or color, get a few black beads or clear beads, they are still beads technically so it is still a lure technically

[Steve Foss]

I'm going to bore the people who have heard me say this on these boards again and again, but I quit using live bait for pike tip-ups several years ago. I'd experimented widely with live vs dead baits, and found that dead outfishes live for me at least 2-1 and often more, much more.

My speculation is that only active winter pike will hit active live bait, while active, neutral and negative pike will all slurp in a dead smelt/cisco/herring.

Regardless of whether I'm right about that, the results for the first several years of targeting pike were clear FOR ME. Dead bait was king. I should say I've outproduced live bait tip-up anglers with dead bait when I've fished alongside them, too.

Now, I know not everyone agrees with this, and other people have other perspectives that are just as valid as mine. It's just what I've found.

I generally put one bait just off bottom by a foot or two and the second one half way up the water column. If it's late ice in a state that lets you fish late ice, a bait just under the ice can be good in very shallow water.