According to Dan Galusha, jigs produce fish throughout the entire ice fishing season.

In ice fishing, there are basically two types of jigs—vertical and horizontal. Through the years, I have found a pattern that extends through the season for using either of these types of jigs. As with everything, this isn’t set in concrete, but it does follow along with fair consistency.

Throughout the ice season, there are two Custom Jigs & Spins lures that I use the most. For horizontal presentations, it’s the tungsten weighted Wolfinkee. On the vertical side, it is the Demon.

As the ice first comes in, and even a little before, I’ll be using a horizontal jig, tied on with a King Sling loop knot. I use this same knot 99 percent of the time for this sort of lure to give it a natural motion, and always return the lure to an upright, horizontal position.

I mentioned “a little before ice,” which is when I fish the Wolfinkee under a float tipped with a Crappie Nibble. It is bobbed in open water over areas in which the fish will be wintering in a few days or weeks. The float is allowed to drift with the wind, or slightly bobbed or jigged with rod tip motion.

When safe ice arrives, I’ll use the same motion for jigging the lure in the hole. The only difference is that I’ll be changing depths to where my Vexilar is showing fish activity, and vertically fishing a straight line to the jig, rather than using a float.

In the middle of the season, things will be mixed between the horizontal and vertical. Normally, I start off with the Wolfinkee, but have a Demon on another line to use if the fishing is slow. The Wolfinkee is slowed down on the jigging, while the Demon is a quick lift-and-fall, with a variation of three to four quick jigs upward before letting it fall back to the fish location. I’ll be tipping both of these lures with a Crappie Nibble or wax worm and dipping them in Kick’N Crappie attractant. A couple of other attractants can also be used, like Kick’N Bass Shrimp (known for use in saltwater) and Java. I’ve also been told that Herring will work well.

Once the winter starts growing long, it will be time to switch to Demons as the primary lure. They will be fished with the normal lift-and-fall, plus a few quick upward jigs followed by a pause. As the fish become more negative, the Demon is used on or very close to the bottom. In fact, it is set on the bottom with quick upward jigs to stir up some commotion of bottom debris that will hopefully excite the fish enough to encourage striking.

Just before the ice starts becoming too dangerous to fish, it goes back to being both lures, with the horizontal (Wolfinkee) claiming most of the strikes. This will carry over to “ice out” when, once again, I’ll go back to what was being done with a float before ice-in. Fish will still be on or very near their winter holding areas before starting to move out.

Hopefully, this quick and simple jig selection format will help you be successful immediately before, after and throughout the ice season.

Need that upper edge this fishing season? You’ll find more great ice fishing insight in the winter issues of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.