Rigging a tip-up

[charliepete2]

I like to rig my beaverdam tip-ups with quick strike rigs for northern fishing. I spend quite a bit of time digging the hooks out of stuff and untangling them after I transport them. Does anyone have any good tips for me on how to avoid the mess (shy of cutting and retying the hooks every time)? I am envisioining some sort of velcroed plastic protector, but I'd like to hear what other folks do.

[David Kasten]

I just use velcro, thinnest strip you can get. They sell double sided stuff I just wrap it around the spool much like a fresh spool of line with the rubberband. I aslo keep all my tipups in a bucket and this seems to keep them somewhat uniform and i usually dont have many problems until it gets cold and i get lazy.

[tisosy11]

I use the plastic/styrofoam tip-ups with the cork bottom. They are really a nice set up becuase the hooks don't get tangled and they'll fit in a bucket just right!

[David Kasten]

theres another idea, back when i was a kid my gramps used a cork for all his loose hooks, would this work?

[icehousebob]

I make up leaders with hooks,beads,spinners, quick-strikes, etc and keep them stored in the round clear plastic containers that 3M electrical tape comes in. When you get to the lake, clip the leader on the swivel tied to the tip-up line. When you're done, unclip and rewind. I figured this out after bringing exposed hooks into the house and having to remove them from pets.

[Tom7227]

Take some of the foam that comes as packing when you buy something - the stuff that rebounds when you push on it not the pure white stuff that breaks up. Cut a 1 inch square an use a hot glue gun to attach it to the tip up. You can put the hook into this stuff and it will stay put and out of the way.

[fishinalot]

like Dckasten mentioned, Velcro works on just about anything!

[charliepete2]

thanks for all the ideas folks!

[backlash 1]

One other thing I do is store and transport my tipups in short lengths of 4" thin wall sewer pipe. I cut the pipe in about 13" lengths. I think most tipups would fit in that size pipe very nicely and then keep them in a 5 gal bucket.

[Ironranger]

I used gorilla glue and glued a wine cork to the bottom of all my tip ups. seems to work well.