5 Amazing Tips that will Make You Enjoy Your Ice Fishing A Lot More than Before
Ice fishing is way more enchanting than regular water fishing. However, most ice anglers are seen to be settling into a routine. Initially they catch many fish, but then the enchantment either slows down or totally stops. They may make a few changes in holes, colors or depths, but that’s all. The moment they stop catching the fish in this routine, they give up and blame the fish that they stopped biting. But before you do that, there are some tactics to try.
1. Line Twist
Moving the jig up and down is a regular practice of most anglers. But because of this fish come to know about it and stop responding to it. To change this, consider holding the line between your thumb and index finger and twist or roll it between your fingers. This will make the jig spin in the water while staying at the same depth. Also consider moving the jig around the border of the hole without moving it up and down. Fish react to this technique well particularly in shallow water.
2. Use Ice Fish Finder
Taking help of the best fish finder for ice fishing is a great tactic to make the most of your ice fishing by targeting fish precisely without any waste of time and catching more fish. Such an ice fish finder is certainly a trustworthy source for finding fish where there is a lot of uncertainty about where the fish really is under frozen water.
3. Vertical to Horizontal
The style of ice jigs is equally important as color. Using a vertically hanging teardrop-shaped jig is the habit of most anglers. But when fish stops biting vertical jigs, you should change to horizontal gigs; perch and crappies usually bite better on a horizontal jig.
4. Chum
Do something different than other anglers that will give you an added advantage over them. Try chumming by taking a few added spikes, minnows or wax worms, crushing them and dropping them down the hole. This will draw more fish to your area and also get them feeding more aggressively.
5. Bait to Plastic
Consider choosing finesse plastic baits rather than live baits. It may seem unlikely but bluegills and other panfish soon get tired of live bait. Upon noticing this, change to a small 1/80 round head jig hooked with a silver plastic. The delicate plastic tails of these miniature jigs shake and quiver with even a slight movement of the rod tip.
Try these tips this season and you will surely enjoy your ice fishing session a lot more than before!