“Bonus” is a word we all love. Bonus points in school. Christmas bonus. Bonus savings on fishing gear. What if I told you about a strategy to catch bonus fish as well? Tip ups provide the perfect opportunity to catch bonus fish everyday you are out on the water. Many times, this can often be your biggest fish of the day too!
Tip ups are a tool that many anglers both have in their tool box and put into practice on the water. While many anglers utilize this tool, many just randomly place these around their fishing area. Let’s take a look at ways you can maximize your chances at catching more and bigger bonus fish!
Whether Up or Down-Spread Them Around!
Many anglers consider the “tip up” a staple of the walleye and pike fishing arsenal. One of the other even more versatile options on the market is the “tip down.” Much like the tip up, the tip down features a flag to indicate a strike, but the overall difference is the ability to fight the fish on a rod and to be able to downsize your presentation.
While tip ups may be your more stereotypical walleye and pike presentation, tip downs offer an excellent opportunity to pick up additional perch or even crappie and bluegill. The rig is simple and Chris Seylar breaks down how to set up these tip downs.
A good strategy is to have your larger baits, like chubs, shiners or even bluegill, on your tip ups with a larger treble hook or quick strike rig. When a large walleye or pike takes the baits, they will have the entire spool to run.
With tip downs, a smaller more subtle presentation can coax perch and walleye. Imagine the tip down as an additional deadstick rig like what you would have next to you jigging, but with a flag to be able to see strikes from a great distance. Baits like tear drops and minnows are perfect options for trophy perch and walleye on tip downs.
Spreading Out on Structure
Walleye anglers will often be looking to set up on various pieces of structure, especially in the morning and evening hours. This is a smart choice, as walleyes will often move onto this structure to feed at predictable times. Often times, these pieces of structure feature depth variations. For situations like this, tip ups and tip downs are the perfect weapons to deploy.
When I “set my spread” on a piece of structure, I take several steps in maximizing the amount of water I am covering.
My first step is to identify the area I expect the most fish to concentrate. This could be a point, a turn or some other piece of structure that will funnel fish. This is where I will set up my jigging area. Here, I will have my jigging rods and also deadstick rods in close proximity. The jigging can draw fish in and the deadsticks can result in additional fish, particularly fish that are less active.
Once I have this area identified, it is time to set up tip ups and tip downs. First, if I am not set up on the most shallow area of the structure I will place a tip up with a chub or shiner at the shallowest spot of the area I expect fish. This may be the top of a hump, a shallow stretch of a weedline or a shallow stretch of a point. Large walleyes can be found surprisingly shallow and this is an additional opportunity to cover that water.
Next, I look for where I expect the fish to come from. In many situations, this is the deep water adjacent to the structure I am fishing. In this area, I prefer a tip down or a tip up with a plain hook and a minnow. I view this as my “alert.” As fish filter up to feed, this flag will often give me an indication fish are moving up. Often times, fish will come in waves and leaving this rig on the transition area can get fish as they both move up and move back out.
My next step is cover a different depth. If I have a central location in 10 feet, a tip up in 5 feet and my tip up/tip down in 15 feet, another good place to place a flag would be in 8 or 12 feet, depending on what the structure looks like. This gives me an indication where fish are and is just additional chances.
Pay attention to where your flags come from. If you are consistently getting flags in a specific depth or area, it may be a good idea to move your main operating center to that depth or location. Additionally, when you are fishing with a partner or group, have someone bring a jigging rod to where you got a flag. Often times, the school is nearby and dropping a jigging rod down can result in more fish as another anglers deals with unhooking the fish you’ve caught on the flag, rebaiting and/or getting the flag ready for action again.
In South Dakota, each angler can ice fish with four lines. This means with two anglers, you can have two jigging presentations, two dead sticks and four flags to place. These are numerous chances! When fishing in a group, this is even additional lines in the water and area you can cover.
Go Big
If you find yourself in an area that there are not various depths or you know where fish are running you can begin to target larger fish. Tip ups and tip downs provide options to put the biggest fish of the day topside. Often times, these larger fish can be keying on larger baits and a large bait can be what triggers them to bite. For these big baits; shiners, chubs and bluegill are all great options. Bluegill and lake herring are new additions into legal bait in South Dakota, becoming legal July 1, 2019.
Overall, I like to use a #6 treble hook when using these larger baits. I will hook the bait just behind the dorsal fin, this increases the live of the bait and also gives maximum action and swimming. I like to rig these up below tip ups and fish heavier main lines and fluorocarbon leaders. The odds of a big pike are higher, but they of course give you a chance at a larger walleye as well.
For my minnow presentations, I favor a #4 Octopus hook or a tear drop style bait for additional color and attraction. Once again, I find hooking the minnow behind the dorsal fin provides the maximum life to your line. These are what I generally want on a tip down, but placing them under a tip up can work as well.
One of the greatest challenges in ice fishing is covering water and tip ups and tip downs are some of your greatest weapons in accomplishing this task. These lines will help you cover additional areas, pattern where fish are and also tempt the largest fish in the area. A well-planned strategy with your flags can turn a good day on the water, to a great day! Good fishing!
Related Reading
Understanding the dynamics of the predator and prey relationships taking place within a waterbody is critical to having success. Learn about the food chain, predator/prey relationships and how it impacts your fishing in How Predator/Prey Relationships Impact Ice Fishing.
Understanding the prey of the species your are pursing is critical to ice fishing success. Nick Harrington breaks down the various situations anglers will encounter when targeting walleye, perch and northern pike across South Dakota and the Midwest in Making the Forage Connection for Ice Success.
Learning a new lake can often seem like a daunting task. With so many lakes to fish, how do you know which one is the best one? Once you have a lake narrowed down, how do you have success on it. Nick Harrington discusses how he breaks down a new lake in Ice Fishing a New Lake.
