Favorite Bait for Pike on Tip-Ups

[CMFish51]

Whats your favorite type of bait to use when fishing for Pike with tip-us? We are going to get our bait Saturday morning from Knutsons in Brooklyn. What's the best advise you can give...probably hit clark - sand - wamplers early in the morning

Corey

[chiefsLB59]

I have always used Golden Shiners and Chubs(sucker minnows). Both have produced but i think that the Shiners were producing a little bit more.

[walleyechaser]

When I'm serious about pike on tipups, I always bring both Golden Shiners
and Suckers.
Every Lake is different and things on a given lake can change throughout
the day. I try to get the bait sorted out by size, 4" golden shiners and
5" suckers. Neither are to big for eater northerns nor are too small for
bigger fish.
If you catch a small perch, say 5 or 6 inches long, you won't find a better
bait.
I like to put out one tipup if the lake is clear and have a heavier jigging
rod rigged with a light spoon tipped with a 3 or 4 inch shiner that I jig
starting at the bottom and slowly working up. Sometimes the strikes will
almost take the rod out of your hands---what a kick.
I generally set my tipups about half way down no matter what the depth.
During very first ice and last ice I've caught many pike right under the ice,
even in deep water.
Pike are scavengers at times and won't pass up an easy meal such as a
dead panfish that comes free of melting ice and is floating near the surface.
Another trick I'll share is that if you have a dead minnow or dead smelt
and are fishing over a clean bottom, set your tipup so the minnow is
laying right on the bottom. Especially in late season or right after ice out
if the season is still open they can't resist a minnow on the bottom.

[Happy Jack]

A lot of guys hook the minnow in the center of the back which allows it to just hang there in their natural horizontal position. They tend to get lazy and not move much. Try hooking it a little farther back so it is head heavy and has to struggle to stay normal.

[bmbiff]

a couple years ago we were fishing in the keewenaw on a lake that was chock full of pike. we were trying to catch some jumbo perch that were supposedly there but never even caught one and the pike kept breaking us off.
we came out the next day thinking alright we are going to tear up the pike, lets go get some minnows to use on the tip ups. well we were staying in eagle harbor and we drove all over and couldn't find any live minnows any where up there. best we could do was some canned sardines. low and behold we ended up with enough action to keep us busy but we didn't really tear them up like we would have with live minnows. really sucked cause the sardines were so mushy we would have a hard time keeping them on the hooks. we just tried to bury a treble on them and slowly drop them in the hole. these weren't even whole sardines, just chunks!

[dinoday]

I've had the best luck this year using walleye minnows followed by golden shiners.Only problem with walleye minnows is the price :lol:

[Dawg]

Frozen smelt if it can be found.

[minnow]

frozen smelt buy them every year buy the box!

[tommy-n]

Golden shiners 3 1/2'' to 5" number 4 or 6 vmc round bend trouble hook

[redshirt32]

Smelt are an excellent bait! I've used frozen one's with the heads on before but never the prepared one's from like Kroger or the like. I think the fresh one's are the way to go.They'll stay on the hook.

Do they work without the heads as good as with?

bmbiff, Can honestly say the only place I've heard of using sardines is in the ocean and those weren't canned. I don't think I would have of thought of that one. Good save!!


Don

[ybone]

whole dead smelt. 8 to 10". i leave mine out in my shop for 3 or 4 days prior to an excursion. quite rancid but tasty to those michigan cudas

[jimhx720]

Corey, if you're going to Knutson's, get the Walleye Jigger minnows, not the Walleye tip-up minnows. It's a big shiner and I've found out by Irish Hills the pike and Wally's won't leave em alone. Look in my picture gallery, that pike was caught last weekend on a tip-up baited with one of those Walleye Jiggers.

Going to be fishing there myself Friday night, I think my Dad might be coming with me, but even if he isn't I'm fishing.

[CMFish51]

Thanks Jim - I was hoping you were going to respond. I was going to Hail Call you today on the forum to get the right minnows from Knutsons...we are not going to be able to get bait friday, so we gotta get em saturday morning...what time do they open? is it 7 am??? I don't remember...

Corey

[jimhx720]

Yeah, all the fish that I've kept to clean out there have had those shiners in their belly, including the Walleye I caught the same night as that pike. My approach to tip-ups has been to try and put what I think is in the lake, in the area, that I am fishing. Has been working wonderfully so far this year. Plus I changed my rigging on my tip-ups. That alone had resulted in more hook-ups and far less break offs.
I am going to try and hit my honey-hole Sat night. Don't know if I'll be able to or not. My weekend with my daughter, if she has plans with her friends on Sat I'll be fishing! :lol:

[newfish]

try clipping the lower part of the tailfin at a diagonal on a live minnow. The result is that they have to move more to stay level. The can not remain still.

[ESOX]

One dead smelt just off the bottom. One lively sucker just under the ice. Both on quick strike rigs.

[just ducky]

Depends which lake you're fishing. I just got back from a long weekend on a lake in the Northern Lower that has a ton of pike. We've found the best bait to be small perch, which are also plentiful there, followed closely by small bluegills, then frozen smelt. We rarely buy pike minnows there...they just don't work as well. We fish for a couple hours and get several small perch or 'gills, then we set the tips. We got a ton of pike that way.