Help, have never used tip ups for trout

[SDFlagChaser]

Ok, so I grew up using tip ups for perch, bass, eyes and pike.  Simple, throw a minnow on and put it in the water.  I recently moved to an area where there are no perch, bass, pike, or eyes.  Just trout.  How the heck do you catch trout without using live bait (live bait not allowed).   So what do you guys do to catch trout? 

[finlessbrown]

if your going to use tip-ups i would try using those windlass jigging tip-ups

[Fishrmn]

Jigs, rat finkies, salmon eggs, worms, power bait, etc.  Jaw Jackers work well for trout.

[FG Steve]

Piece of night crawler, piece of corn, your favorite smelly stuff.

[Velcro]

Second the power bait.

I've caught some with spikes or mealworms on tipups.

Also second a wind tipup, and maybe put a small blade on the leader to attract attention. Wind tipups are awesome, I have a couple Ice jigging buddies (sold on Ebay) that are great for just about anything.  Of course they're funny looking so you'll have a lot of people staring at them.

[Trout Sen-Sei]

Use a small piece of powerbait on a size 10 hook but tip it with either a waxie or a few maggots.

[Super-ice-bird]

Power bait in Wyoming, orange, chartreuse, rainbow, lemon twist, and captain america(red, white and blue). Those are my go to colors for trout and the best bait I have used or seen for trout when you couldn't use minnows. Good luck!

[stephensonswille]

I've used tip ups several times for lakers along with steelhead and browns here on the Great Lakes. I've only landed a laker using tip ups lost more steelies and browns than I care to admit. So that's when I switched to several different techniques. Such as slammer boards, automatic fisherman, jawjackers, and recently picked up one of those hook setting tip ups with the big spring that sets the hook for you. Haven't had a chance to use the tip up yet but in my experience it should produce fish just fine. Something's that I have learned while chasing Great Lakes trout are they LOVE spawn a foot off the bottom or throw some waxies on a micro treble hook a foot or so off bottom as well. In recent years I have started using what we call wigglers. They are a dragonfly or damsel fly larva they look ugly as sin but they are trout candy. Throw them on a micro hook with a split shot off the bottom as well. I actually started using them in the summer for trout as well. Have never had luck with the powerbaits made more sense to me to use something they encounter in nature and eat regularly anyways

[Cbass123]

Not sure if your set on tipups or doing some jigging.  I often fish small ponds and shallow lakes, and have had good luck with trout magnets, or other similar small jigs.  They're also cheap, and easy to find in stores.

[Icepants2]

I have caught a good number of rainbow trout on tip ups over the years. Here are my tips, set up your tips with the lightest line which I think is 12lb. Tie that line to the smallest swivel you can find and tie the other end to 2-4 feet of 4lb flurocarbon. Trout are line shy and in clear water the fc helps. For hooks I like the Gammy walleye wide bend size 6. This is a light wire work and then a split shot above the hook. For bait I like Berkley Gulph salmon eggs, corn, pinched nightcrawlers etc. I did really like the Fish Bros. tip ups for trout but have switched over to Jaw Jackers. The JJ's are easier on the fish you tend to catch them in the corner of the mouth. The problem with tip ups are trout are hit and runners, you just can't get to a tripped tip up fast enought before the fish takes the bait down deep. This is half the battle now you need to figure where to set your traps. For bows I think shallow not more than 15 feet of water near a weedline that works for me. Brown Trout are a different animal and trap setting is different and the browns to me are harder to catch. - Ice

[Allfishinnocatchin]

I put a glow bracelet a foot up from the bait. They take a bit of a sinker to pull down tho. I have good luck at night and with heavy snow cover.

[Retiredbum]

I use trout eggs tyed in spawn bags, on my lakers.

[Mr.Harry]

I fish for bows pretty much exclusively with your standard Heritage tip-up. I always fish for them shallow, 10 feet or less. Typically under 5. For bait I put one or two salmon eggs & a meal worm on a #8 hook. 4 feet of 6lb flouro leader to a small barrel swivel, to backing. Zero drag on spool. Bait a few inches to a foot off the bottom. Works well for me.

[Cousteau]

I have been scuba diving at night in ponds with stocked trout.  They have always been near the bottom.  I don't know if this is just a night time habit or not but something to ponder  if you decide to go at night.

[fishermantim]

In many of the ponds I fish that have trout, they are more often caught near the surface in shallow waters near shore.
It may be more of the pond bottom structure than just being "near shore", but they do tend to hunt closer to the ice than most other fish.
I see (and I have done so as well) lines fished 1-2 feet right under the ice, with a variety of baits.
Worms, waxies, powerbait, pin shiners are just a few.
I caught trout on small spoons and jigs worked up from the bottom to the hole and had strikes occur just under the ice as well.

So...once you decide where you want to start you just need to choose what bait you want to try, or maybe try multiple type (provided you can use multiple traps where you fish).

Good luck!

[HybridHunter]

All the trout I caught mid season that's year came from traps right off the shore line in 2-3' of water using buckeyes.

[panfishman13]

honestly, this is all getting a bit complicated, so let me shed some light on what the heck goes on in winter for your average trout:

first, trout are naturally a river fish, their instinct is to eat things that float past them. in lakes and ponds, they're not much for sitting still and waiting for prey to swim past them. instead, they tend to wander around the perimeter of the lake in anywhere from 5' to 30' of water.

find a good point, and set your lines straight out from that, from about 10 fow to as deep as you wanna go, spacing your tipups every 5 to 10 paces.
as for rigging your tipup, trout are a lot less line-shy than you might think. i do great with 25 lb test tipup line and a 10 lb test monofilament leader. i tie 2 to 3 hooks to the leader, always a size 6 or 8 treble on bottom and large baitholder or octopus hooks above. bait them with cutbait, waxworms, nightcrawlers, powerbait, corn, or even marshmallows (if you use marshmallows, replace the baitholders with 1/8 oz. jigheads) as long as it disperses some kind of scent trail, you're fine.

set the lines so the treble hook is roughly a foot off bottom, and pay attention to which baits get hit the most.

i've tried a lot of different setups over the years, and so far this is what has been the most consistent, successful technique for me to catch trout on ice.

[icefishman]

Wind tipups are for fair weather fishing. The line freezes in if your not payin attn.
The rainbows we catch are caught up within 3 feet of the ice. The crazy part is there usually above an 80' deep hole
But I'm lost on the bait question except I've heard of guys using flies.... Mainly blood worm pattern

[Super-ice-bird]

In wyoming, power bait (Orange, chartreuse, red white and blue, rainbow, lemon twist are best colors) also small jig with waxworms.

[curtrein]

Minnow (fathead or shiner) on sz 14 treble with split shot 12-18 inches away. Fish this rig 1-2 ft off bottom. You will catch trout.

[RMLamp]

A ball of Power Bait dough on a small treble hook in the size 12 range attached to about an 18 inch leader and some split shot above the swivel.  Keep the sinker just off the bottom, the Power Bait will float above it.  The trout are almost guaranteed to swallow the hook so you have to be committed to keeping whatever you catch.

Check your tip up ever 30 minutes or so, sometime trout take the bait and don't set off the flag, they just sit there.