Took the lil kids (two 5 year olds), my brother (who is in the Navy and in for a week from Virginia), and my 50-something year-old Dad out to a local honey hole of mine. None of them had any idea how ice-fishing is supposed to work before we got there.
2 Hours later.....
They have it down pat!
Everyone iced fish today, and I have a new found respect for sharing my flasher. Watching everyone's eyes light up as they watch the green and yellow lines inch closer and closer to the blip of their jig... then see them re-focus their attention to the flimsy spring bobber.... watch them quiver in anticipation... the tap-tap and quick hookset! Big smile.... Priceless.
Yummy fillets baby!
Little horizontal jigs (1/16th to 1/80th oz.) tipped with a fresh waxie that has been squeezed to pop the guts out the ass in 4 to 6 fow was the ticket today.
If you don't have a flasher, drop it straight to the bottom, jiggle it around on the bottom like a burrowing larvae, then lift it up about 6 to 10 inches and hold it there periodically quivering ever so-slightly for a 10 to 15 count. Repeat 5 or 6 times varying slightly your pause/quiver, then move on if you get no hits.
I can't stress enough the importance of 1 lb. fluorocarbon and light spring bobbers. They were either crushing the jig and running or just barely there. We were not getting bit at all on my rods with 2 and 4 lb. mono.
