I haven't tied any ice jigs, but I do spend most of my "indoor winter time" sitting at the tying bench with a couple of Saranac Pale Ales, and visions of chasing big stream fish or bigger bruisers on my lake with the fly rod in the summer.
I do a lot of trout fishing, of course, usually brookies in the ADK's on smaller streams with a 3wt. And I tie plenty of dries and small streamers throughout the hardwater season when I get home and have the music turned up. That's fun and all.
But the REAL thrill is tying big streamers for pike and smallmouths, and going after them right at ice out.
While trout fishing with a 3 or 5wt is a good time- you haven't lived until you've bombed big streamers and bunny-tail creations on a cold Adirondack lake just after ice-out. Sitting in a boat in April is always fun, and the sight of a big Northern streaking across the weeds to tackle a surface streamer is about as cool as it gets (in freshwater).
I was on a business trip this week and here is what I created each night in the hotel room. Three night's worth of tying, a couple of six-packs, and a whole springtime of Bronzebacks and Northerns ahead too:
