Ice Fishing Skills: Choosing Line for a Jig Rod

Video Transcript

"One of the most difficult choices when outfitting a jig rod is to determine what kind of line you want to use and the choices out there for anglers these days are endless. You can use everything from your traditional monofilament which is simply a light clear fishing line, comes in various pound test, anywhere from two pounds up to twenty pounds for ice fishing. It's very good in some cases, and some lines have very good sensitivity. The nice thing about monofilament is that it has a bit of stretch to it so when you set a hook the line stretches, it allows you to set the hook well, to not rip the hook out of the fish's mouth. It can also act to cushion the hook and the line when you're reeling that fish in. Another alternative these days is what's on this rod and that's called "Super Line". It's a braided line, this happens to be fire line. It's incredibly strong, it's a thinner diameter than the monofilament line for the same pound test, so a fire line, an eight pound test fire line, would likely be equivalent to the same diameter of, say, four pound test monofilament. It's very strong, it's thin, it’s sinks much faster than monofilament. The one thing about it is, is that it doesn't have any stretch, so you have to make sure that you have a jig rod that really has some good soft action and that you have to remember that when you set the hook to set it gently so you don't pull it right out of the fish's mouth."