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Ice Fishing is in Full Swing Right Now!
Posted by Walt Matan, Chief Lure Designer, Custom Jigs & Spins and B-Fish-N Tackle on Jan 21st 2025
With the recent cold snap, ice fishing is in full swing! If it’s not happening in your area, you just have to drive farther North. If the big lake you usually fish on is still not frozen, head to the channels or smaller bodies of water tucked away out of the wind...it’s happening right now!
Just do you - choose your experience
Ice fishing is great because you can experience it any way you want. You can do it on the cheap or spend thousands on fishing trips, tackle, and gear.
If you're happy just catching a few fish and enjoying setting up a camp, cooking some brats, indulging in a few libations and enjoying the camaraderie with a group of like-minded outdoors folks...you can’t beat a weekend on the ice.
If you like figuring out the puzzle of what makes fish bite on any given day, ice fishing can be experienced that way, too.
You want a locator when ice fishing
A sonar unit or locator with a built in map is an invaluable tool to help you find your spot(s). You can walk or drive up to a group of fisherman and plop down anywhere, drill a hole and catch nothing or maybe get lucky.
Better yet is to kind of sneak around watching your map and try to figure out what type of structure the bulk of the fishermen are focusing on before plopping down and drilling a hole.
Ice anglers love bluegill
Bluegill are still my favorite fish species to catch. I’ve spent more time fishing for them than any other species. Early ice, shallow water in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota...I’ve fished a multitude of lakes and caught thousands of fish in my forty-plus years of ‘gill whacking.
Recently I’ve been whacking an incredible amount of bluegill and a few crappie from a community slough off the Wisconsin River. In four days I caught 200, 178, 83 and 250 fish. The 83 fish day was half a day, so I would have caught more, LOL,
The secret was finding a nice ambush spot, an open area in the weeds, hunkering down in the tent, having three rods rigged with different profile baits and watching how they react on Livescope. Also fishing higher up in the water column helped a lot. The dinks were on the bottom and the better fish zoomed in from the sides.
Every half hour or so I would get out, walk around to the different holes I drilled nearby and fish with a long rod and no electronics. Some holes held more crappie, some much larger bluegill, I gave each hole about 5 minutes and moved on.
When electronics aren’t a good idea
That being said, in some bodies of water, electronics spooks fish. That’s when I break out the long rod. The advantage of the long fishing rod is you can set the hook and then smoothly pull the fish out of the hole. A lightweight plastic reel is all you need to hold your line in place.
No need to reel and your jig is ready to go at the correct depth on the drop. I still like to scan around with the LiveScope to see where the fish are moving to, but when it’s time to fish...it’s old school action. Jigs like the Demon, Ratfinkee, or ‘Gill Pill size 12 with a few red spikes will get you all the shallow ‘gills, crappie and perch you’re after.
As the ice fishing season progresses and the ‘gills move deeper, I’ll use a shorter rod and use electronics to locate fish and view in real time on how they react to my jigs.
In deeper water, tungsten comes into play. Jigs like Custom Jigs & Spins Glazba, Chekai, Majmun, and Puki are tops, along with those two magical red spikes.
Catching crappie
Crappie require all sorts of options as they can be shallow along with the bluegill and also spot up deeper along the weed edge. When crappie fishing I like to use a deadstick set in a bucket as an additional option.
A small minnow tail hooked to a Ratfinkee or Wonderglow Demon is a great option for the deadstick. When the minnow is hooked this way it tries to free itself and swim away creating enticing action.
Walleye like something flashy like a 1/8th or ¼ ounce Slender Spoon with a minnow head added to the treble. These Slender Spoons come in a variety of colors with a nickel or gold plated spoon. The nickel really shines in clear water, while I prefer gold in stained water situations.
The RPM Minnow is a great balance bait that has all kinds of action that walleye really go for. On the lift it pulls away from the hole and on the fall it slowly rotates down. Short rips and jiggles also elicit violent strikes.
A deadstick is a great addition for walleye action and I’ll add one of Custom Jigs & Spins NEW Puki jigs with a tail hooked minnow. The Puki is a tungsten Demon that has a little extra weight and a light wire hook that keeps the bait swimming freely.
Finding fish
Weed edges, rock reefs, original river channels that were there before the lake was made, points, bays, rock to sand transitions, drop-offs and flats are all great places for walleye and target all species in January...you just have to figure out what the hotspot is on the lake you are fishing, plop down, pull out your power auger, and drill a hole!