Ice Fishing with Whip-ups

Most everyone who has spent time fishing through the ice has used or at least seen tip-ups at work. These are the heavy-duty rigs for ice fishermen, using heavy line, usually a large live bait, and a flag that pops up and signals a fish is dining. The angler trots over and hand-lines the fish up through the hole.

Whip-ups, relative newcomers on the ice scene, work altogether differently. They are akin to a snare trap one might see in a jungle movie, where the mighty Bwana steps into a noose and triggers a bent-over tree that whips him up in the air and leaves him hanging upside down, held by the ankle.

Two brands of whip-ups have made it into ice-fishing arsenals, the Slammer from Slamco, and the Automatic Fisherman from the company by the same name. Each uses a slightly different triggering device, but the setup is the same. A bent-over, loaded up spinning rod is set in a holder, with a bait in the water below. When a fish takes the bait, its tugging triggers the rod to “whip up” and set the hook. The angler comes over quickly and reels the fish in on the standard spinning rod-and-reel combo.

One fishery where whip-ups are gaining ground quickly is in Great Lakes harbors and marinas that hold brown trout in the winter. In more northerly reaches where rivers freeze solid enough to hold anglers, some anglers target steelhead with whip-ups. In both cases, whip-ups work better than tip-ups since neither browns nor steelies are known for running far with a spawn bag, usually the top choice for bait, before they spit it. This behavior makes tip-ups marginally effective for them. Plus, whip-ups allow the angler to observe them from afar, where crunching atop the ice won’t spook these jittery fish when they’re attracted to the bait.

Whip-ups also work great with larger live baits for species such as pike and walleye, and even with small baits for panfish. In these cases, care must be taken when putting the bait in the water that the trigger isn’t set so light that the bait’s struggling can trigger the contraption. The easiest way to do this is by adding a bobber so big that the bait can’t pull it down.

The Slammer is designed to work with rods from 4 1/ 2 to 5 1/ 2 feet long (I use a 5-footer with mine). The Automatic Fisherman website also sells rod and reel combos specifically designed for that product, plus a float that exudes a substance that keeps the hole from freezing, without, the company says, adding pollution or a scent that keeps fish away.

The bottom line is that these are cool tools that let you set rods you can monitor from a distance away, setting the hook when a fish bites and giving you the fun of reeling it in on light spinning tackle. For more information, check out www.slammertipup.com and www.automaticicefisherman.com.

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