If you want to catch a variety of fish through the ice, follow these suggestions from expert ice fisherman Walt Matan.

Looking back on thousands of hours spent ice fishing and jig making, two things are for certain: A fish is a fish as long as it is the same species, but each species reacts eats and attacks prey differently. Let’s take a quick look at proper presentations by species.

Bluegills

Bluegills are readily available, school up, hide in relatively shallow water near weeds and can be easy to catch. I spent a lot of time staring at a spring bobber, more time watching a locator, but, perhaps the time I spent watching bluegills react to my baits with an underwater camera was the biggest eye opener of all.

Bluegills will feed like piranhas as long as there is competition from other bluegills. Small fish will peck and pull and jerk your rod tip. But, those bigger, loner fish are slow movers. They will move within inches of your dancing jig, until in one motion, they will inhale and suck in your bait. If your bait is too heavy, your rod is too stiff or you are not paying attention, you will never notice.

When it’s all said and done, I prefer a flasher. It is easier to spot fish and pick up and move on when the fish move on. Ice jigs for bluegills need to be fairly tiny. I like a size 12 or 10 Custom Jigs & Spins (CJ&S) Demon in shallow water. Its lightweight for a bluegill to inhale, and its flutter-on-the-fall action really attracts the fish. Add a juicy wax worm or a few red spikes and you are good to go.

Another top choice is a CJ&S size 10 Ratso. The Ratso will hop and dart about kind of like an underwater bug or small minnow. Jiggle and pause, jiggle and pause…do it long enough and bluegills can’t resist them! When those fish get a little deeper, it’s time for tungsten. The CJ&S Tütso is a new creation that has a tungsten ball head and a finesse plastic body—the same body as the Ratso.

In shallow-water situations, I prefer an Eyeconic 25-inch UL ultralight-action pole with a Frabill 101XLA straight line reel spooled with Maxima Chameleon 2-pound-test. This is a very light combo that has just the right sensitivity to detect bites and jiggle baits.

The difference, though, is the weight. Being nearly twice as heavy as lead, a tungsten jig will get down quickly, plus it will hop differently when you jiggle your rod tip. You have to get the right jiggle motion down. It’s always a good idea to drop a jig down the hole a little, give it some jiggles, lifts and falls and see what it does before letting it plummet down into the fish zone.

Crappies

Crappies inhabit the same areas as bluegills, but can also suspend over deeper water, usually near the weed edge. Crappies approach a jig differently than bluegills. They usually move right in and gulp the bait. “Up” is how they feed.

Because crappies can be anywhere in the water column, a flasher is the only way to locate and catch them. The flasher lets you watch your jig sink and watch crappies move up upon it.

Jigging spoons are premier crappie locators. You want an action spoon with a bend as opposed to a slab spoon. CJ&S Slender Spoons and Demon Jigging Spoons are my top choices. Glow variations are the go-to colors, while waxies, spikes and minnows are the right baits. I have also had tremendous success with the RPM3 balance minnow bait with no bait (just a lot of jiggling).

My go-to rod in this situation is an Eyeconic 32-inch Medium-Fast with a Frabill Straight Line 261 reel spooled with 3-pound-test Maxima Chameleon line. This rod will give you the action needed to bounce and jiggle these baits the right way! This is a great combo for larger panfish.

If you are fishing in shallow weedy areas and catching bluegills, try raising your jig up a few feet to attract crappies. Sometimes they are even right under the ice. When fishing deeper water, before you start fishing, move your locator around different holes until you spot suspended fish.

Perch

Perch root around on the bottom, snouts down, stirring up the muck and munching on anything and everything within sight.

Perch like bugs and shiny things. They will eat a jig like a Ratso, the tungsten Tütso or a flashy Slender Spoon fluttering about. Perch are attracted to action; catch one and the commotion will bring in more. Old timers hook a large nickel spoon on a heavy line and work it aggressively to call the perch in from a distance! Then once in, they catch them on smaller offerings.

I’ve had better luck with perch in walleye waters on reefs, the edges of the reefs and transition areas from rock to sand. Sometimes though, those perch will pop up anywhere.

White and yellow bass

White and yellow bass are schoolers. They hang together and compete for a meal—any meal. I’ve caught them on everything from a tiny 3 mm Tungsten Chekai jig to a 1/4-ounce Slender Spoon and size 5 RPM Minnow—a bait meant for walleyes! When times are good, go big—white and yellow bass are aggressive. When times are tough (like a barometric pressure swing), you have to go tiny.

When it comes to ice fishing, panfish are kings! Whether you are after bluegills, crappies, perch or whites and yellows, they all fight well and taste great fried up.

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