Tip ups for northern, set them shallow or deep?

[marknicholson]

Just getting into ice fishing seriously.  Setting your tip ups for Northern I have heard to set them shallow, a foot or two below the ice, because they are always looking up, and I have heard set them low because that's where most of the smaller bait swim.  Your thoughts?

[Groverat]

I always use dead bait 2"-5" off the bottom. 

[pfscott]

I caught my biggest Northern a foot off bottom in 15 fow. I usually set one deep, one in the middle, and one just under ice until I find where they are. Sometimes they hit all depths, sometimes none.

[Whopper Stopper]

Depends some on the depth you are fishing in. I usually start about 2-3 feet off the bottom if I am in 12 + feet of water or so. I have a buddy who always keeps his just under the ice. I never had much success that way. Much of acquiring a technique comes from trial and error.

Good luck on the ice!

   WS

[marknicholson]

Dead bait....meaning a dead shiner or the like?  Dead on purpose you just knew it was dead because it had been on the tip up all day?

[thomasthepikehunter]

Dead bait can be close to the bottom, sometimes on the bottom. Live bait not be close to the bottom. For pike 2' off minimum in the murkiest of water. You can easily set a bait too low, but its impossible to set them too high.

[slymer83]

Swallow water about 2 ft off the bottem and i make my own leaders with lots of flash ..it works good

[river_scum]

if you want action set them shallow in bays or inlets. if you want pigs set them deeper at the mouths of bays or on main lake breaks.

[alfredri]

We always set ours half way from top to bottom. We get our share

[coboy]

Last year I had my best success fishing between 5' and 7' of water with a dead sucker 2' below the ice. I'll fish above or on the outskirts of the weeds. The weeds hold the scuds which attract
the baitfish which in my case are trout. My largest pike last year and personal best was 38" and 17.5 pounds, not huge but worthy. I think if catching smaller pike in shallow water is a concern.
using larger bait will cut down on catching the hammer handles though it is surprising how big a bait those little ones will take. Tight lines

[dennisthemence]

i learned many years ago a good rule to follow is 3 to 5ft. off the tops of what your fishing over. hard deep bottom, top of weeds, gravel bar or mud flats. but each area has its own exceptions to the rules.
like 1 of my favorite spots is a gravel bar that comes of the north shore of an island and ends in 20ft' of water and drops off into 70ft' of water.  i have found a shelf in a 12ft' spot that drops to 24ft'. i set my tip-up just over/into the 24ft' edge, but my bait is just 10ft under the ice. so any pike crusing the top of the bar will see my bait and any pike running the lower part of the shelf will too.

dead bait is best close to bottom---up to 3' off bottom

also would like to say i have seen pike swim up a break from bottom-30plus fow- to have a try at my deke that is in 12fow, in 1 of my favorate spots for spearing

[kingcoho308]

allot of bays i fish i find that i set my rigs real close to bottom just a couple turns off bottom 4 to 5 feet of water most times. while fishing deeper bodes of water i like to try diffrent depths till i find fish and set accordingly from their i have best luck in my shallow water close to the bottom for pike

[combsey]

At the end of the season I go shallow and use dead bait just off the bottom and it has produced over the years

[racer25r]

I always have good luck with the minnow 1 or 2 feet off the bottom.

[meatman]

no hard fast rule.  experiment to see what the day brings. 

[32footsteps]

Depends on the situation.  I usually set mine about a foot off the bottom but I primarily fish a shallow (max depth 11 feet) lake.  Under low-light conditions...just before sun-up, overcast skies, and once the sun angle changes in the afternoon...I'm putting them in deeper water.  If there is good sunlight then they get moved up onto shallower flats that are between 4 and 6 feet deep.  I started tracking certain data points over the past few years and that "sunlight/shallow, dark skies/deep" thing was very consistent.  I'll plan for the dropping sun angle in the afternoon by pulling lines out of the shallows and into the deeper water and it's something I've been able to set my watch to.  Watching that sun hit a certain point in the sky day after day and being able to predict which ones will go off.  Pretty neat nugget of info to have stored away but it might not be applicable to all systems. 

[fishinjohn]

Try this set up.. shallow water.. 4-5ft.  Try using dead trout or large smelt or sardines... something oily that gives off a stink... be sure to take gaff to your flags, they ll be big !

[minnow1]

Depends on what the bottom is like or if there are weeds