Baiting Ice Fishing "Tip Up" With a Minnow

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about how to bait a tip up with a minnow. Number of different ways to do this, different minnows, different hook sizes, different sizes of minnow. The easiest and most common way is just to hook it right through the lips. The fish stays alive for quite some time, it moves around well, you put it right down the hole. Another method that people like to use is they'll hook it just below the dorsal fin. You don't want to get it too deep, 'cause you don't want to hit the spinal column of the fish and kill it. You want that minnow to still be alive. A third way to do it, and this is for if you have smaller bait that you want to be really active, or you just want to attract bigger fish, is you would put the hook in right through the back, just by the tail. And, that's going to make the minnow struggle even more, and it's going to move around a lot more, and perhaps bring in a bigger fish."