If you haven’t heard, the hottest thing on the ice are tungsten jigs. These baits were made popular thanks to icefishing tournaments across the ice belt. If you were to survey the top teams on the circuits, you’ll find that they all have a few things in common. They all have learned the secret that these catch more and bigger fish, faster.
The leading brand in the US and my personal favorite is the Wolfram Jigs from Your Bobbers Down, aka the Fiska jig. These Jigs are made in Russia where this style of jig originated. What makes these jigs so great is that tungsten weighs more than lead. So what that means to you as a fisherman is that you can fish a much more compact jig without giving up the fall rate and feel of that larger lead jig. Also, the way the bait sits in the water at about a 45 degree angle gives the bait a much more realistic look. Many fish in the winter will feed on zooplankton, aquatic insects and small crustaceans called scuds or freshwater shrimp as they are known out west in the ice belt. With a little practice you can copy their movement to a T!
When you fish these jigs you want to fish them on a small loop. Doing this will give the jig a rocking type swimming action with even the most subtle movement of your rod tip. Also for you guys that use spinning reels for your ice fishing, tying the jig on with a loop knot will help reduce line twist which is a common problem when fishing with spinning reels. They come in two paint styles, handpainted and epoxy. Both paint series have glow colors and color choices for all types of water. The handpainted come in 6 sizes and the epoxy come in 4 sizes. The 3mm(16 hooksize) and 4mm(14 hooksize) sizes get the bulk of work for me with gills and sunfish, they also work great on finicky crappie and perch. For Crappies and Perch I will fish 4mm and 5mm(12 hooksize). Also don’t overlook the 6mm size which has a size 10 hook. I use this on big water and inland lake walleye a lot when they will not hit the traditional baits.
So if you haven’t tried these jigs yet you just gotta pick some up today!
