Tip-ups

[tims]

Ive been noticing groups of anglers spreading tipups over vast expanses. I was night fishing a favorite sunken hump of mine and it was like navigating a mine field. This hump is about the size of 3 football fields and normally can support several fisherman but it was unfishable because the spot was loaded with tipups. I almost ran over about 10 of them as I crept along trying to find a spot on my sled. The group had about 4 trucks and every once in a while they would drive around and check them with their headlights. Seems like a boring way to fish. Ive also noticed on other lakes in the area tipups set up 100-200 yards from were people are jiggin. Is this legal in WI?

[DonBo]

This is from the 2008-2009 regulations.

"anglers must remain within 100 yards of their line(s).

Failure to immediately respond to a line upon indication of a bite will be sufficient evidence that the line is unattended."

[nolte]

DonBo,

You missed the first part of that quote. Here it is in it's entirety from the regulations.

"it is illegat to leave any fish line unattended except when using licensed setlines or bank poles. When fishing in open water, anglers must remain within 100 yards of their line(s). Failure to immediately respond to a line upon indication of a bite will be sufficient evidence that the line is unattended."

In the way it is written it seems to leave quite a bit of gray area. The COs that I have seen usually trip a flag and then make sure you come check it fairly quickly, as long as you do that I've never seen anyone get a ticket for unattended lines.

I've logged a lot of hours jigging and watching tip ups. It's been my experience that after those prime time runs, you are better off putting out some tip ups, play some cards, listen to the radio and enjoy a few beverages. If I'm fishing at night I usually do two things, put reflective tape on my flags so people can see them and lights to alert me when they are up. Some of the biggest eyes I've caught in WI have come loooong after I would have packed up shop if I was jigging.

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

DonBo,

You missed the first part of that quote. Here it is in it's entirety from the regulations.

"it is illegat to leave any fish line unattended except when using licensed setlines or bank poles. When fishing in open water, anglers must remain within 100 yards of their line(s). Failure to immediately respond to a line upon indication of a bite will be sufficient evidence that the line is unattended."

In the way it is written it seems to leave quite a bit of gray area. The COs that I have seen usually trip a flag and then make sure you come check it fairly quickly, as long as you do that I've never seen anyone get a ticket for unattended lines.

I've logged a lot of hours jigging and watching tip ups. It's been my experience that after those prime time runs, you are better off putting out some tip ups, play some cards, listen to the radio and enjoy a few beverages. If I'm fishing at night I usually do two things, put reflective tape on my flags so people can see them and lights to alert me when they are up. Some of the biggest eyes I've caught in WI have come loooong after I would have packed up shop if I was jigging.

I agree. I like fishing tipups after dark. There are some big fish to be caught in NW WI's clear waters after dark. Seems like 11PM to Midnight has been really good this year..

Ryan

[nwwisco23]

If you check the wisco dnr ice fishing pages they make it clear that there is NO minimum distance you need to be from tip ups - you just need to be a "reasonable distance to get to them when they go off"... I've always taken that as if I have binoculars and a truck aimed at the flags I'm good...

my issue with night time tip-ups is they ALWAYS freeze in the hole - even in a couple of hours wit polar tip-ups...