I like to ice fish. There are plenty of good spots nearby. But I don’t like to fish with bait.
For a couple of years I’ve been jiggin’ “flys only” with only a small amount of success.
I know I’m not the only one that does this. Others that I have spoken with use similar flys and jig the same way.
Anyone have any amount of success with this?
Any special flys or jigging set up?
I find that jigging patterns with maribou works pretty well. The maribou gives it movement (life). A lead headed jig hook with a maribou leach pattern tied on it works well.
Hi Dudley,
It doesn’t get cold enough here to
freeze over, but at the height of our winter
my warmwater fish are often quite deep. I’ve had pretty good luck on them in the
cold weather jigging with variations of Al
Campbells Crappie Candy. It’s a fun fly to
tie and very effective for me. I’ll wager
it would work well for ice fishing too.
Warm regards, Jim
In Michigan we used to jig with Russian spoons. The old time locals pronoucned that ruuusion spoons.
A small bit of white marabou tied in with red thread near the hook should do it although it is the slender minnow shaped spoon doing most of the work.
my boss used to have a sportsmans shop. so 1 day he gave me a couple racks full of flys all tied from local tiers most likely from the late 60’s early 70’s. Ihave a dozen labeled " ice flys " tied by Matt in Blandford Ma. i don’t do much ice fishin’ so if u email an address i’ll mail u a few… just let me know if u have any luck…
stay warm…
do what u like, like what u do
Thanks for the generous offer trout hunter but I prefer to use my own ties.
Big brown, the maribou jigs is the first thing that comes to mind for me. I’ve got a bunch tied up.
ive tied some wooly buggers and such on bigger jig weevils on smaller jig heads.
TroutHunter77 - recieved the flies. They work. Field tests will continue… 
Thnx…
First fish
I’ve sent a number of people my own waxworm pattern. They have caught fish during warm days with them and some are going to try them thru the ice. We’ll see how they do.
Kahuna
H.H. glad to see you smiling with all that frozen water around you…
happy holidays and enjoy!!!
Don
do what u like, like what u do
Check your e-mail for photo of a fly I tied and that my Vermont buddy used last year while ice fishing and said it worked good. He caught something big, suspects it was a lake trout. Said he got it up to the hole half a dozen times and then it broke off.
Hey GMM, how about showing that picture to the rest of us.
I am willing to bet I can cast further on ice. That is, if you count the slide. (-;
Allan
i have done it with some success (i only get out once or twice a year) but the rig i use has regular ice fishing jig tipped with a waxy or something and an “ice fly” above it
the jig is mostly to get the fly down in a timely manner