Ice Fishing Techniques

Tip up Techniques

Tip ups are devices used mostly for larger fish like the northern pike, Muskie, and lake trout. They are cheap to buy and come in a variety of configurations, or they can easily be made.

They are nothing more than a cross member frame that spans the ice hole, with a reel and line submerged under the water and a spring type flag device that is triggered when the line is pulled or the real moves to alert the angler when a fish bites.

The line is pulled in rapidly hand-over-hand by the angler until the fish is near the whole, then it’s played carefully until it’s ready to be landed.

There are other styles, Home-made versions where the reel is above the water, but the tip up flag still remains. newer styles now are even lighted.

The following are a few tips to try.

• To prevent the trigger mechanism from freezing, put a dab of Vaseline at the bottom of the trip wire that holds a spring in place.
• When setting up tip-ups, avoid setting them all at the same depth.
• When you start catching fish at a specific depth, you can reset them to the proper depth.
• If they stop biting, go back to the scattered Depths till  you have success again..
• To keep up your tip up holes from freezing up cut a hole in a few pieces of carpeting and place them over your holes in the ice and under the tip ups.