Some questions I need help with please...

[masoct3]

This is my first year ice fishing. I have all the tools except for a fish camera, a tip up and a flasher, all I plan to get next season. So here are my questions:

1) When fishing at night (or when the sun is down), is it necessary to use a jig that has glow to it, or will the fish find the jig by noise, vibration etc if the jig is simply a "normal", non-glowing color?

2) With the jigs/spoons vs. a normal tip with a minnow, do you really need to jig it with movement the entire time you are fishing with one? What I mean is that my arm gets tired and sometimes I wish I could take a longer break in between jigging.

3) Can anyone provide a URL on practicing jigging the correct way, maybe video so it is easier to see?

Thanks so much!

[hamms-scooter]

Do you hold your fishin rod by the reel arm going down to the reel?Kind of a pencil grip on the rod? This helps when jigging and you have way better success with your hook sets. This way you really only use your wrist to jig.

ps... key word you said (flasher) this piece of equiptment will teach you how to jig. Watch the fishes reaction to your presentation and go from there.Play kind of a cat and mouse game to eliminate the sniffers and the biters. Make them chase up off the bottom as those tend to be your biters and more aggresive fish. I'm not a camera guy but it would be neat to have on clearer waters like mille lacs. Good luck ! Get a flasher!

[St_Croix_Banks]

Camera is nice but really not necessary.

[jdog]

+2 need a flasher

[wplatehunter]

At night or fishing in stained water I like to use glow jigs. I also agree get a flasher. I have a camera, but don't use it much.

[furnace man]

Fish feel vibration so the more you jig the better chance that they will come and look at what you have to offer. Make sure you jig nice and slow I allways jig about up and down about a foot. Glow jigs work good but not always needed. I use mostly a minnow head on my jig rod. just have a dead stix with a good active minnow and have your jig rod they will generally take one or other.

[mntim]

Glow jigs are just like flashers, you don't NEED them to catch fish, but they sure help. Congrats on your new hobby and best of luck.

[Jim Almquist]

The flasher will be the best learning tool that will teach you what to do as far as jigging is concerned. You will then find what attracts them and what spooks them. If I see no fish on the flasher I will jig more aggressive and raise my lure 4' to 8' off the bottom and jig it back down till I get to the depth I want or stop it if a fish shows up at the depth the lure is at. I like it the most when they just come up and smack it but most times that is not the case so when a fish is by my lure and seems finicky I will just shake it so that it moves a little bit and then if it dose not cooperate I will jig a little harder or depending on there mood maybe just let it rest for a little bit. The flasher will tell you the mood of the fish so you can adjust accordingly. One day on Mille Lacs I had a 25" Walleye hit my jig 6' off the bottom when I was doing a big lift - Hit the ceiling trying to set the hook that day

[Ed Carlson]

I found glow is as useful, if not more so during the day, as it is at night. Especially on tiny panfish jigs, as I think it helps to hold there attention. My personal favorite jigs will have glow and a bit of Flash combined.

Jigging is attraction...so you jig to draw them in and then adjust and adapt your presentation to the mood of the fish that came in to play.

This lends itself to the Flasher topic, as a Flasher will show you the moods and how they are reacting to your presentation. Real time feedback on the fish's reactions to what your doing is the key to inspiring them to bite. Otherwise is is Jig-N-Hope fishing.

When I'm using my Vexilar I jig relatively constantly tell I see a mark slide in view, than I adjust to there mood.

I prefer to Jig-n-Adapt, rather than Jig-N-Hope.

[BartmanMN]

Watch the videos on the Ice Fishing Today HSOforum. There is a ton of instructional information on there that will help you out.