Got a tip-up for Christmas. Do a lot of ice fishing but have never really used them. Going to try friday. Where we are going, the panfish bite has been pretty fair, but have had a lot of bite offs. Going to try some large sucker minnows. What size and style of hook, leader, and any other ideas or tricks would help a lot. Thanks
Art
I use a treble hook tied directly to heavy braided line with a small split shot up the line about a foot just to help keep the minnow under the ice. I use large golden shiners but I either kill them or make sure they are not overly lively before putting them on the hook. Northerns will take a dead or dying minnow long before exerting the energy to chase after a lively minnow in cold water. They have a real slow metabolism in the winter so they don’t like to spend a great deal of energy. I read an article about fishing tip ups for northerns a few years ago and picked up on the dead minnow trick and found out it really works. I will also go and buy canned cat food in a seafood flavor and put about half a can down each hole before setting my tip ups. I picked this up from the article as well. It seems the fish smell or taste the oil from the cat food and it draws them in to your bait for hours. I can’t say if it makes a huge difference but I know the dead minnow thing helps. I sure get alot of strange looks and take a little ribbing when I break out the canned cat food but it all stops when I start catching northerns. They taste pretty good this time of the year.
Eyehunter
Make sure when you are setting your tip ups to set them up at least 2 1/2 – 3 ft. off the bottom. Especially if you’re fishing in weeds. I think this is something where a lot of people fail when fishing ups. Even for walleyes I set the lines up about 2 1/2 – 3 feet off the bottom. A fish will always swim up for a bait but will rarely go down for one.
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