when to move tip up?

[snotsickles08]

I was just curious as to what people thought about moving their tipup every so often throughout the day. I have been out before where I wait all day and keep it in one spot and then at the end of the day I get a flag. other times I have let is sit there for a couple of hours and I I have no action and then I move it and 15 minutes later I get a flag. I am fishing in a good area with pike cruising through and also with weeds all around. anywhere from 2 feet to 8 feet deep. any help would be appreciated. thanks!!

[Kevin23]

Every hour or so for me. Seems i catch pike within 15 minutes of placing one and then it goes dead for hours.

[Icepants2]

I keep everything in place till the first flag and maybe the second. The reason is that I may see a pattern in the making. I never move a trap from a hole that has gone off. Sometimes these turn into the fabled "honey hole".

Icepants

[Hando]

When I am fishing with tip-ups I go with 5 at a time usually spaced 5-10 paces apart and running them in a line from a shallow depth to deeper to cover water.  If I am getting a flag(s) on one quicker than the others I'll move my set pretty quick so all are at a comparable depth.  If I am not getting any flags I typically won't go longer than an hour or two before moving them to new areas.  They are great search tools.     

[DR.SPECKLER]

couple hours then adjust depth a few times.if nothing I move it.

[snotsickles08]

nice! thanks for all the help. I usually set mine about a foot off the bottom but people have said that they fish theirs right underneath the ice. do you guys have a preference and have caught more pike one way or the other? just curious. seems like the times I have put it right under the ice I haven't had very much luck.

[DR.SPECKLER]

id rather have the bait above them rather than below them.pike will come up to a bait because they see better looking up .if im fishing 15 ft I like to set my bait around 6 to 8 ft down.that way they wont miss it if its close to the bottom and they are up higher.

[Icepants2]

How deep to set a tip depends on how deep the water is and the type of targeted fish. When I fish trout/salmon I rarely go deeper than 10' even in 60' of water. Bass and pickerel I go a foot off the bottom in shallow water. I have caught bass suspended in deep water. A fish will do what a fish does, swim around and look for food!

[Hando]

id rather have the bait above them rather than below them.pike will come up to a bait because they see better looking up .if im fishing 15 ft I like to set my bait around 6 to 8 ft down.that way they wont miss it if its close to the bottom and they are up higher.

I am on this patter as well.  Always higher in the water column is better than just off the bottom.  On weed lines I always set my bait above the weeds so if you are in 10ft and weed come up 4 foot of the bottom I am setting my bait 6 - 8 foot off the bottom and in good view above the weeds.  In shallow water less than 5ft I am setting a majority of my baits just a foot under the ice.  It sounds crazy but it works.  After hooking a a fish that close to the ice you'll buy into it too! Good luck!

[thedirtydirtyfisherman]

definatley better to above the fish then below... as stated fish because of their eye location and feeding patterns will more often look up for prey... its also easier for them to locate against the white background of the ice... some fish will spec target the bottom so its not always the golden rule and there are fish that will come up off bottom but only 2 ft and they wont budge any further. 

[Chris338378]

If I'm not moving to a new spot I leave them in and adjust the height of the bait.

[stripernut]

5 "hooks" here in MA, 4 tilts and one for jigging. 3 minutes a hole jigging (unless I am on fish) and the tilts get moved in 45 unless it is a active hole. I fish hard, hunting down the fish.

[fishbone]

i use the weather to dicate---if its not raining--and the walking is good--i will move them alot----if the weather suks and the ice has 12 inches of slushwater and my feet will get soaked i dont move very much----i also go by the bait---if you only got 12 minnows you dont move much--if you got lots of bait then pull them tips and move an re-bait

[Diehard_fisherman]

I keep everything in place till the first flag and maybe the second. The reason is that I may see a pattern in the making. I never move a trap from a hole that has gone off. Sometimes these turn into the fabled "honey hole".

Icepants

Excellent advice.

[snotsickles08]

i am in Colorado so we are only allowed to use dead bait except for waterdogs. me and my brother went this past weekend and I moved my tip up around a few times with no luck once again. I am usually fishing right around 6.5 feet of water so I normally put the sucker around 5.5 feet or 5 feet. whenever I mark the pike on my vexilar they are always at the very bottom so it would only make sense to me to put it right off the bottom if that is where they are cruising.

[ActiveTrapChecker]

Sometimes it's as simple as checking the bait. I tend to get more flags within the first 15 minutes of baiting a trap than if i were to just to leave it be and do its own thing for an extended period of time.

And I agree, pike see bait better if it's above them

[RyanW]

In my experience, large pike will sit an examine a bait for hours. In my local pond, there are a lot of little pike that take away a lot of food for all the other fish. I caught my largest pike to date (40") on a tipup that sat untouched for about 5 hours. I had another tip up setup about 10 yards away from the first one. Pulled up a 13" hammer handle and as soon as I released it, the other flag went off. Big pike thought little pike was going to steal his prey and he hit it hard! Pulled about half a 300yd spool of 30lb dacron out into the pond. This pond is 10' max depth and I usually set my tipup a around 4'-5' deep and don't touch them. I only take 2 max when I'm by myself, Michigan's 3 line law, and my tucr bullwhip.

[ActiveTrapChecker]

In my experience, large pike will sit an examine a bait for hours. In my local pond, there are a lot of little pike that take away a lot of food for all the other fish. I caught my largest pike to date (40") on a tipup that sat untouched for about 5 hours. I had another tip up setup about 10 yards away from the first one. Pulled up a 13" hammer handle and as soon as I released it, the other flag went off. Big pike thought little pike was going to steal his prey and he hit it hard! Pulled about half a 300yd spool of 30lb dacron out into the pond. This pond is 10' max depth and I usually set my tipup a around 4'-5' deep and don't touch them. I only take 2 max when I'm by myself, Michigan's 3 line law, and my tucr bullwhip.

Just read my post and yours and it made me realize that the larger pike i have caught have also been instances where bait sat for a while. Active bait tends to catch smaller fish, with pickerel being the exception cause they are the exception to every rule it seems

[Lobes]

Move those tipup's every hour!
The idea is to find the active fish. It's no different for panfish or any other fish for that matter. Active fish will be on patrol looking for food and will find it, and they will take it as soon as they find it, when they're actively feeding ...

                                                         
Lobes

[bshirtd]

Move those tipup's every hour!
The idea is to find the active fish. It's no different for panfish or any other fish for that matter. Active fish will be on patrol looking for food and will find it, and they will take it as soon as they find it, when they're actively feeding ...

                                                         
Lobes

It is extremely different from panfish if you went home with 6 good bluegills all day I'd say the fishing stunk. If I caught 6 good pike in a day that's a pretty good day. You don't have to convince a bunch of fish to bite just a few. That being said I tend not to move just one tip up unless others near it are going off and that one isn't (after maybe 2 hrs) I will check bait every hour or so for a multitude of reasons (make sure its set right no weeds on it. Heck first ice on my favorite spot it is so shallow fish will hit as your approaching the tip up.

[Bear Lake Bob]

I use a rule of thumb being fish the set in one direction a tad deeper, and for the last two hours start a line going shallower to Noles than 8ft!

[32footsteps]

I use tip-ups as search tools.  I set one in and drill my 2nd hole, set another, and then a third hole.  (Three lines in WI).  If that first one I set in didn't go off by the time the third is in it gets moved.  When I get that one set in a new hole, if the 2nd one I put in hasn't gone off it gets moved...rinse and repeat. 

Once one goes off I tighten my spread up.  This approach is very effective for locating panfish.  Once they are found I won't move a whole lot unless I can determine by watching which flags go up how the schools are moving. 

Going back to that idea that a pike will watch a bait for hours...yep...I buy into that as well. Since I target pike with dead bait 99% of the time I will check those tip-ups more frequently than I will with live bait.  That goes against the grain but it works as a trigger.  First time through I'll simply lift the bait up about 6 inches and set it back down.  That pike that was staring at it sees it move slightly and thinks it's going to escape.  Countless times flags have gone up within 10 seconds of setting that tip-up back down.  I'll "check" them this way every 15-20 minutes and the 3rd or 4th time through I'll inspect the bait if it hasn't gone up.  If the guts are eaten out of my dead bait the dead bait gets pulled out and I target panfish.  Schools of perch passing through a dead bait spread will gorge themselves on the guts of stinky smelly dead stuff.