Got to looking through some old mags and re-reading articles and stumbled across an advertisement for a gadget (the automatic icefisherman) similar to an ice fishing tip-up but it had a holder for an ice rod. The tip of the rod is double over (cocked for hook set) and it has a trigger mech. that releases the rod tip to set the hook when something grabs your line. 
Regular tip-ups are fine for catfish, bass or walleye but the stoneage style that i have are not sensative enough to be tripped by bluegill or sunfish. Panfish rarely hook them selves either, something needs to cross their eyes.
When i ice fish, i usually start by drilling several holes to cover different depths, usually 3 or 4 and they can be somewhat spread out. I normaly put a baited rod on a bucket in one hole and roam around to the other holes looking for fish and keep watching the 'dead stick' rod for any bites. If i see a bite on the dead stick, most times when i get back to it, the bait is gone... as well as the fish.
So...... A little lumber, a PVC pipe, some hinges and other hardware and voila!
A homemade auto-hook-setting-tip-up-fishing-machine??? haha!!! In test runs, it doesn't take much of a pull on the hook to trip the rod. And it DOES have some force behind it, i set the hook twice on my finger when i was trying to test it. Hopefully i can give it a try on the ice this weekend.
Regular tip-ups are fine for catfish, bass or walleye but the stoneage style that i have are not sensative enough to be tripped by bluegill or sunfish. Panfish rarely hook them selves either, something needs to cross their eyes.When i ice fish, i usually start by drilling several holes to cover different depths, usually 3 or 4 and they can be somewhat spread out. I normaly put a baited rod on a bucket in one hole and roam around to the other holes looking for fish and keep watching the 'dead stick' rod for any bites. If i see a bite on the dead stick, most times when i get back to it, the bait is gone... as well as the fish.
So......
A little lumber, a PVC pipe, some hinges and other hardware and voila!
A homemade auto-hook-setting-tip-up-fishing-machine??? haha!!! In test runs, it doesn't take much of a pull on the hook to trip the rod. And it DOES have some force behind it, i set the hook twice on my finger when i was trying to test it. Hopefully i can give it a try on the ice this weekend.