6 Reasons Why Fluorocarbon Is The Best Ice Fishing Line

What’s the best line for ice fishing? For many ice anglers, fluorocarbon’s water repellency, near-invisibility underwater and other unique characteristics makes it ideal for ice fishing jigging tactics featuring lipless crankbaits, Jigging Raps, spoons and jigs for walleye, crappie, yellow perch, trout and more. Here are 6 reasons why fluorocarbon is the best ice fishing line.

Anglers using a hydrophobic fluorocarbon, like Advance Ice Fluorocarbon or InvisiLine Ice Fluorocarbon, experience significantly less — often zero — ice build-up issues on fishing equipment, which is a far cry from the ice accumulation woes plaguing traditional nylon fishing lines, such as monofilament and copolymer, as well as braid. As a result, using a high quality fluorocarbon ice line results in better overall fishing performance.

Fluorocarbon’s refractive index makes it nearly invisible underwater. As such, a bait fished on fluorocarbon looks natural and, subsequently, triggers more bites. This is especially true in clear water situations involving selective fish.

Tip: Tie a fluorocarbon leader to tip-up and rattle reel line to increase the stealth of your set-lines. Jigging set-ups with braided line will also benefit from a fluoro leader.

When a powerful fish drags fluorocarbon across the sharp, bottom edges of an ice hole, you’ll breathe easier knowing you’re using an abrasion-resistant fluorocarbon. Fluoro’s durability and strength also make it the logical choice when fishing water’s home to sharp-shelled sharp zebra mussels or when jigging around wood for panfish and trout. As a bonus, using abrasion-resistant Advance Ice Fluorocarbon or InvisiLine Ice Fluorocarbon will likely prevent more panfish and walleye lures from being bitten off by northern pike compared to monofilament.

Jigging a lure using fluorocarbon increases an angler’s overall feel and enhances their control of the presentation. One also gets excellent power transfer and, subsequently, better hook sets when fishing with fluorocarbon versus using a stretchy monofilament or copolymer line. These benefits are the result of fluorocarbon’s low-stretch characteristics.

Memory refers to line coils, which form in the line after it has been on a reel’s spool for a while. Memory is a common issue with many nylon fishing lines and creates many problems for ice anglers. Coiled line is less manageable and can lead to tangles. Line corkscrewing down an ice hole may also interfere with a bait’s action as well as reduce an angler’s ability to detect when a fish bites.

Fluorocarbon’s inherent stiffness and other anti-memory properties do away with the above issues. Its tendency to hang straight down the ice hole makes it ideal for an array of jigging scenarios for many fish species. To give an example, using fluorocarbon maximizes the sensitivity of the visual strike indicators designed into many rod tips, such as the innovative PC2 Flat Tip Technology featured on Tickle Stick or Widow Maker II ice rods.

Tip: Fluorocarbon isn’t flawless and may coil slightly after extended periods; however, this is easily eliminated by working in sections and stretching out the line between your hands.

For many anglers, the fact fluorocarbon sinks makes it excellent for getting light, finesse panfish and walleye presentations quickly into the strike zone. For instance, on a tough, mid-winter twilight bluegill or crappie bite only lasting 30 to 40 minutes, you can bet InvisiLine Ice Fluorocarbon’s ability to sink four times faster than monofilament is going to boost an angler’s efficiency with ultra-light jigs and help them catch more fish.

Fishing with fluorocarbon gives ice anglers many advantages. To recap, some of these include: fewer ice build-up issues, a near-invisible appearance to fish, abrasion resistance, low-stretch properties, excellent sensitivity, less memory and a fast sink-rate.

Hard-water anglers should also know Advance Ice Fluorocarbon and InvisiLine Ice Fluorocarbon are specifically designed to hold up in extreme cold and deliver exceptional sub-zero performance. With line strengths spanning 2- to 8-pound-test, these two fluorocarbons offer anglers with plenty of options when spooling-up ice fishing jigging combos for sunfish, crappie, yellow perch, walleye, whitefish, trout and more.