Pan fish

[BUSCHLITE]

Has any one sucessfully caught crappies from tip ups, or am I just shooting in the dark here?

[crappie_attitude]

I haven't had much success with crappies on tip ups, mainly because the way they feed.  Crappies will usually take a bait from below and then sit there.....net result is your tip up doesn't go off!  I have found that crappies will end up swallowing the hook before setting off your trap, and that isn't good if you plan on releasing them.  Besides, you can catch a ton of them with a jigging pole once you locate them.

[Fish247]

I have, on several occasions caught crappies on my walleye sets.  Most of the time i use medium shiners(2-3in) for eyes, so a big agressive crappie has no problem taking the bait.  I have never actually set traps just for crappies or any other panfish for that matter but I don't see why it wouldn't work.  If you got into a school of active fish it would be a great way to catch more fish, and also to help locate an "Active" hole.  The best way to rig traps for this purpose would probably be a "down sized" pike rig.  A small treble hook, light split shot, and a small to medium(depending on expected size of fish) fathead or shiner.  Oh yeah and a light flourocarbon leader (2-6lb) of course.  Just my .02, I'm sure other people on this great site can offer more and perhaps better tips.

Tight Lines,
Eric

[holeinhide]

i fish for crappies with tip ups when ever i can i just set the bait just above the school this way when they come up for the bait they drop back down to the other fish and set off the tip up it keeps the kids busy as crappies form very large schools in my area.

[BUSCHLITE]

Well that sounds great. I sure appreciate the helpful info!!
The boy and I will give that a try tommrow. The lake we fish on doesn"t have a great deal of walleyes, but a good number of 11 to 12 inch crappies. I thought I could jig,  he could use a slip bobber, and we set four tip ups. May be I could even get the wife out of the inlaws cabin for a bit too!!

[chrisk]

don't forget to jig where you get dropped bait. if anything else tipups do cover ground and locate crappies and perch.