How do you rig your tip ups?, Depth? Terminal tackle?

Hey guys, heading up to Lake Nipissing Ice Charters on Friday, my 3rd year coming up for a weekend. Last 2 times fishing wasn't so hot, always a fun time, but putting a bunch of fish on the ice this year would be great.

One thing im still struggling with are tip ups. Nipissing is really the only time I put these into my tackle bag and I've never caught anything on them yet. I use 40lb braid or tip up line to a swivel to 12-20 lbs fluorocarbon. I usually tie on a quick strike rig with a larger minnow or using 2 drop shot hooks with smaller minnows above a bell sinker. I usually take the sonar with me and try to set them near the bottom.

Any tricks you guys can share that help get bites?

Thanks

I have my best luck keeping it simple, I use a white or red jig head tipped with a shiner on 12ish lbs fluorocarbon. Set it 6" off the bottom and wait for the fish to bite.

This post has been edited by Gettinjiggy on Jan 13, 2020 - 07:41 pm

1\4 oz split shot 18" above a smallish treble hooked through shiners tail. Drop the weight to bottom and raise enough so the minnows just off bottom. Have the tip up balanced so it's "up" with the minnow just off bottom.
And be where the fish are....

What about for big pike? I had an 8 inch sardine down all weekend on a quick strike rig and it never got touched. Should I switch to mackerel? I know they’re in there.

I like to make my own quick strike rigs so I can make custom colours. I like to use larger sucker minnows or chubs 6 or 7 inches, live or dead doesnt matter. I also like to set my bait a bit higher in the water column for pike, if im fishing around 20fow il keep it up 5 or 6 ft off bottom even in 10fow set it so your bait is 2 or 3 ft up. Thats what has brought most success for me.

Thanks for the tips. maybe that was my problem, I was setting it about 1ft off bottom in 30ft.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll put some of these tips into actions and report back with success i hope! With the quick strike rig how do you guys position your hooks?

Thanks,

Useful tips. We've struggled with tip ups ourselves. Thanks for sharing.

I just put one treble behind the head and one down by the tail nothing to fancy and tie directly to the tip up line to make sure you dont snap the mono leader on the big hookset lol Iv done that before. Also I should mention the reason for keeping them higher off bottom is pike are most often looking up rather than down. There eyes are more on the top of their head and seems to be instinct for them to attack upwards most often.

Interesting, im all for cutting out failure points, and really I doubt they care about the line, pike often come in like freight train and just hit hard without much hesitation.

Do you use any weights with the quick strike rigs?

Ya they definatly arent line shy. I dont use any extra weight, the weight of the bigger bait is enough to keep it down. sometimes dead or frozen bait will want to float I just make a little slice in the belly if so, that usually makes it sink. Hope you get into a few gators!

just use Pickerel Rigs on my Homemade Tip-Ups. We usually get more fish on the tip-ups than in the hut.