Ice Fishing Skills: Choosing a Lure

Video Transcript

"I want to talk now about a very important aspect of ice fishing, and that's how to choose what size jig to use. Jigs range in size from anywhere from four to five inches, you can get ones half an inch long that are very light. And here are just three examples of some different size and some different weight jigs. But you want to match the jig size to the size fish that you're most likely to catch in a particular water body. For example, if I was fishing for pike, big bass, pickerel, wall eye, something along those lines, I would choose a bigger, heavier jig. Maybe one of these two. If I was fishing for pan fish, for trout, I would use a smaller jig, a lighter jig. Again, you don't want to put down a jig that's almost as big as the fish that you're trying to catch or half the size of them. So, you always need to remember, what size fish am I fishing for? What species am I fishing for? Accordingly, you also want to match your jig rod to the size hook that you're going to be using. You want to use the appropriate jig rod with the appropriate lure, so that when you pull up on that rod, you're just getting a little bit of bend in it and you can feel the jig or the lure that you're using. If it's too big, your rod tip would look like this. You won't be able to feel the bite as well. If it's too light, you won't have any bend in your rod when you bend it up and down and you won't be able to feel the jig. So, remember, not only match the size of the jig to the species you're after, but one that fits your rod."