To Jig or not to Jig, that is the question

There are two options when ice fishing. You can jig a lure, spoon, fly, or bait, or you can let it sit there. That is about it. Jigging is active and can do a great job at attracting fish, and even get them to strike. Set lining, or in other words, just letting bait on a hook sit there will outlast even the most patient fish, as it just sits there, motionless, waiting....waiting....and waiting some more for a fish to bite. On any given day, either will work. Here is what I have picked up from my experience.

Hard jigging with lots of movement catch few fish, save for whitefish when Wetaskiwins are involved, and northern pike, and on occasion, burbot, when spoons are involved. Lighter jigging catches more fish. Light movement catches the eyes of a lot of fish and they will come over to investigate. Light jigging where it kicks up a little of the bottom sediment will catch even more. When the fish comes over to look, if it figures what you are offering is edible, your lure or jig will be gone in one quick gulp. Adding bait to jig increases bites, be it maggots for perch, worms for trout, or minnows for walleye and pike, bait is often the threshold for a fish’s commitment to bite.

Where allowed, bait catches fish. It really is that straight forward. Put any sort of bait on a hook and drop it down near bottom and you can be assured that if a nearby fish is in the mood to feed, you will be getting a bite. One of my favourite set ups has been putting bait on a small jig and setting the rod and reel into a JawJacker. That way when the fish bites, the hook is set automatically, and all you need to do is go over and reel in the fish.

My go to approach is to set one line up stationary with bait, and work the other line by lightly jigging it, hopping from hole to hole, looking for active fish. If I do not get bites on my jigging rod, or if my stationary set up is getting more bites, I switch both lines to a stationary presentation and wait them out.