How To Set Up a Tip-Up

I know its getting to late in the season, but I wanted to set up a "How To" for setting up Tip-Ups. They are a great tool for fisherman to use when they want to cover a large area out on the ice. Enjoy.

Although tip-ups have many different shapes and designs, they all follow the same basic principle. There is a support structure that sits over the hole, a reel with line that descends down into the water, and some sort of mechanism for tripping a flag when a fish bites.

When the fish strikes it causes the wheel/spool to spin, which releases the flag causing it to spring into the air...TIP-UP! Setup is quite simple:

1. Drill a hole in the ice where you would like to fish, clear hole.
2. Bring your tip-up, bait, and a depth finder to the hole.
3. The line can be lower to what ever depth you like, but since many fish swim near bottom (pike, walleye) you can clip the depth finder to your hook to sink the line all the way to the bottom very rapidly. 
4. Wind your the wheel until its tight and then give it a few more turns. This brings the depth finder (and your bait) off bottom for fish to see. 
5. At this point you can also attach a mini bobber to your line, to mark the depth. That way you don't have to remeasure each time a fish bites.
6. Wind up the line, take the depth finder off, put your bait on, and drop the line back down. Fold the flag into position and wait for a bite! Good luck!