Tip up for trout

I bought a tip-up that I intend on using for tiger musky and pike. I’ve never used a tip up and I target rainbow trout a lot during the ice fishing season. Anyone had any luck with target rainbow’s specifically with tip ups? One of my buddies tried last year, neither of us had any experience with tip ups, needless to say we got a lot of flags up but no hook ups. Any tips or info is greatly appreciated. Thanks

try light line with a 3 foot leader of say 2-4 pound test and stay away from your tip-ups I set mine up and stay at least 50 yards away until a flag pops

Thanks Chuck. I’ll try that!

What’s the best way to rig these (bait, size of hook)?

I have heard the best time is in the early morning and on flats near deep water, is this correct?

I want to try fishing for Rainbows this year. There is a lake I have been wanting to try.

Thanks

What state are you planning on fishing for rainbows? In Minnesota you can only use (1) line in designated stream trout lakes which covers every lake in the state containing rainbow trout to the best of my knowledge. I don’t know what regs other states have for trout lakes, but I would check before you go out. Stream trout have a tendency to do one of two thing when they take a bait. When they are active they hit fast and hard, if you don’t set the hook quickly they drop the bait before you can spell your name. They have very firm mouths which makes it difficult for loose line to dig a hook into. The other tendency is to inspect the “meal” carefully. When they are in this mood they will slowly approach the bait tap it with their nose and taste the water around it, if it moves funny after the tap they swim away. The best presentation when they are in this mood is something small and light like a 1/50 oz jig with a plastic or larvae again you want to be present when the strike happens or they can easily shake the hook. I’m not by any means saying that you can’t catch trout on a tip up, but you will typically be much more successful using a $2 hand wound rod with a little foam bobber than a tip up, and it’s also quite a bit more fun! Just my 2 cents

As for location it will vary greatly by lake. The most important thing to know is what the trout are eating. After you know what their Diet consists of, you can plan the location. If they feed on bugs, try sandy flats, weed edges or bays… shallower in the morning and deeper during the day. If they mostly munch on minnows look for inside turns, points, large rocky areas, steep drops, and bays. Sunny days are typically the best days for rainbows. As for a pattern for bug feeders; no matter what depth you are in you typically will do best inside the top 10 feet of the water column. Don’t over work the action, sometimes it can be a benefit to have a slip bobber at neutral buoyancy to keep you from accidentally moving it when a fish is staring at your bait. Jiggle your line once in a while to draw them in and pause after each jiggle. As soon as the bobber moves, or you feel a strike set the hook! If you plan to target the active or larger rainbows, pick up some Spoons like the ones James and I used last year in Season 8, Episode 12 and try copying our methods. Minnow feeding trout will feed anywhere in the water column, so change it up a bit. Graph mode on the LX Digital series is a bonus for these lakes as it shows a history of the whole water column. I put my zoom window where I have been seeing the most fish, or on the bottom so you can watch for movement. In Minnesota you cannot possess live minnows on any designated trout lake or stream, so frozen/salted minnows will work, but I prefer wax worms and red spikes. Color patterns vary by lake too, but red, silver and yellow are quite staple. Hope this helps some, and good luck this winter!

It looks like you’re in Utah? If so, look into JawJackers or Automatic Fisherman. I personally prefer the JawJackers – they are illegal here but you see them being used all over CO, UT, WY, ID for targeting trout through the ice.

I am in Utah and rainbows are plentiful here in almost every lake we fish. With that being said I am pretty comfortable catching them with my ice rod. I was curious about the tip-up; rigging, ling and presentation. I had the thought that Ben pretty much confirmed for me:

“When they are active they hit fast and hard, if you don’t set the hook quickly they drop the bait before you can spell your name. They have very firm mouths which makes it difficult for loose line to dig a hook into. The other tendency is to inspect the “meal” carefully. When they are in this mood they will slowly approach the bait tap it with their nose and taste the water around it, if it moves funny after the tap they swim away”.

I think I may look into the JawJackers. I really appreciate the information Ben and MNBassFisher. Ben I loved that episode 12 on season 8, for me personally that was the best information I could have found. I had never used spoons before ice fishing and that was a game changer for me. I’ve loaded up on slender spoons and VMC spoons. My buddies were amazed at my catch rate compared to theirs (using jigs). So now I dead stick a jig and use a spoon on my jigging rod. Thanks again, here is a big spoon fed bow from last year I cant wait for the ice season here… taking too long.

Got to spend a winter in the high mountains of CO in the .’80’s Spending time on the ski hill wasn’t working out to start and we had met another couple from the Milwaukee area, so instead of skiing the bullet proof snow, we ice fished. We chopped holes through the ice with an axe, then used our fishing rods to replicate what would termed the earliest drop shot rigs. We would polomar knot three hooks ‘tween the weight and 18″ or so above the weight. Then we would bait (mealworms, waxworms, marshmallows, corn, etc.) them and run them to the bottom in anywhere from 10-15’ of water to 40″ or so in front the reservoir dams. Reel the line tight and watch the rod tip for a bite. Then try to set the hook on all that mono, which took some timing on the deeper sets. I would try to run some type of braid that deep now that its available…

Fishing now on the Great Lakes and in particular Chequamegon Bay, we would find a place to set up when fishing for trout/salmon, set up the shack and jig with the flasher and set two tipups very close to the shack at mid-depth of the water column and closer to the bottom, so you can get to them very fast, when they are tripped. They are notorious for dropping them as fast as everyone prior has mentioned. 80%-90% of our fish come from the jigging method and you might get lucky every now and then to pick one off from the tipup.

If I were to get serious about it, I would think that the Auto Fisherman concept would be far more efficient as the hookset would be applied at the right time with this finicky species.

Mark

I agree that where legal, those auto-hook-setting tip up methods would be your best shot when you’re allowed 2 lines. I absolutely live for trout fishing from January through March here in MN; so anything I learn from the countless hours I spend on the ice, I am happy to share! Best of luck, tight lines, and post pics when you start pulling them through the ice! MNBassFisher always makes me jealous with his trout photos/videos from CO before our season opens here. Trout opener in Ely is like a second “first ice”! We chomp at the bit and can’t sleep the night before with anticipation of the first Rainbow, Splake, Brookie, Brown, or Laker on the ice!

+1 on the Automatic Fisherman, if you want to seriously fish a set line for trout. We started off fishing trout with bobber setups and tip ups, but once we got our hands on some autos, we never looked back. It is THE tool for catching trout through the ice. Kerry’s one heck of a good guy too, so do yourself a favor and just buy a couple bases. I know lots of guys who’ve tried to make their own, and it’s just not worth it…. You can stick your own rods in them if you want, but the ones he packages up work pretty well. Good luck!

P.S. I am in no way sponsored by or affiliated with Automatic Fisherman. I just think it’s an awesome product being made by a good guy.

Exactly right. Tipups are tough for trout because they typically grab it and drop it pretty quickly – not giving you much time to get there and set the hook. Automatic fisherman and JawJackers will do that for ya! I always used one for my 2nd line in Colorado.

Thanks for the kind words Ben. I moved back to MN in May so I will be re-watching those and other Trout videos anxiously awaiting opener!

I dont know why my picture didnt post but anyways. The information shared has been great. I’ll post some pictures when I finally step on the hard deck.

If you don’t have plans for opener give me a jingle.