Tip-ups

[YELLOWBELLI]

How far off bottom do you fellows like to keep your pike bait? I know they generally look up for their meals so you don't want to fish below them but we've been getting perch minnows hit a foot off bottom a lot where I fish while the tip-ups are slow set 3-4 feet off bottom in 10-12 feet of water.

[Frozenfish]

Typically if I were fishing in 10 FOW I like to have my bait 3-4' down. I have had pretty good luck with that. Usually when I set a tip-up out I get a pike. Not all the time do I put one out, maybe 30% of the time. Not a big fan of pike, haven't caught a hog all year. Mostly 20''-30'', I suppose using walleye minnows keeps the bigger ones away. I haven't tried the chubs this year, maybe I'll get some for this weekend.....:)

[Banditto]

It really depends on what type of cover. If you have a lot of weed cover near by I try to set my minnow just above the highest closest cover.

Usually I setup a foot off the bottom or lighest closest cover but my buddy sets up 2 feet below the ice. We both do about equally well--go figure.

And for bait we go with the largest available minnows and prefer golden shiners. A bait shop I go to lets me special order them because there wasn't a high demand for them, but now it seems like everybody is using them where we fish.

[walleyechaser]

A good rule of thumb that's worked for me is setting the tipup about 1/2
way down in clear water.
If the water is murky try about 3-4' off bottom.
If weedy, do as someone else suggested and set it just above the tallest weeds.

[nilemon2]

I always have my best luck with my bait down about 2 feet and i always use the biggest shiners i can find. I prefer golden shiners but will use chubs if they are the only thing available.hope this helps:lol:

[kcud rellik]

This sounds crazy and first time i tried it i was skeptical BUT my friend insisted it worked.... we put tip ups in like 20-25 ft of water about 15' down.. we actualy had 2 flags go off before we could set up a second tip up so lost 2 chubs in approx. 5 mins.. has anyone else ever had sucess in this deep of water? i was always told to be in shallow water for pike....

[Banditto]

Somewhat successful in deep water. I setup off a 90ft hole in 30ft of water for pike and walleye. What I find is the pike cruise from the shallows and check the drop offs (a lot of theorys here on why they do this if your interested). And a lot of people say the deeper water doesn't hold enough oxygen to keep the fish active but some of the pike hit harder than the ones from the shallows--like BAM fish on.

Anyway shallows yield better fish overall but where do you think the big ones live??? I would bet deeper water and they feed in the shallows. Some really successful walleye fisherman I know will stake out the spot I am talking about the because the walleye for sure come in the from the deeper water to feed in the shallows at dark.

[walleyechaser]

Don't let water depth fool you-----pike follow the food !
I fish one lake where crappies suspend about 20' down in 40 fow and guess what. The pike are right there with the crappie. Its not unusual at all to get
bitten off by pike while fishing crappies in that area and if you put out a tipup
set about 20' down its a rare day when you don't get at least 1 nice pike.