Ice Fishing Questions

[baetis]

I don't ice fish nearly as much as a lot of guys on this board, but here's my take.

Since you are just starting out and aren't sure if you will stick with it, I would buy your basic tip-up. The plain wooden x works just fine. You need to spool it with dacron backing and then a top shot of mono or flouro. Tie on your basic baitholder size 4 hook and place a split shot about a foot above and you are good to go for pickerel. As someone else said, the easiest thing to do is set it 1-2 feet above bottom.

I never catch anything jigging, so to me jigging is something I do to kill time until the flags start flying. Swedish pimples tipped with a grub/mousie or a rapala jig seem to be the favorites. A flouro leader never hurts.

You may want to invest in a scoop to keep the hole clean of slush.

If you have an oversized backback you can easily carry 4 tip ups, a jigging rod, your scooper, some rope and a small plano for your hooks, jigs, weights.