Best Baits For First Ice

The initial weeks of the ice fishing season can yield incredible, rod-bending action. Fish are actively feeding, and anglers who venture out once safe ice arrives are routinely rewarded with impressive catches. Be sure to carry the following ice fishing baits to get the most from your early winter adventures.

From the smallest W2 at 1-1/2 inches to the newest and largest W11 at 4-3/8 inches, the six Jigging Rap sizes allow anglers to target any freshwater gamefish. With a realistic minnow profile and natural swimming action, the Jigging Rap consistently deceives fish and is a must-have for early ice.

Another great lure to have this time of year is the Jigging Shadow Rap. It features a slower darting action than the original, which is perfect when jigging for walleye, whitefish, pike, and trout positioned on shoreline points, flats adjacent to deep weed edges, and other early winter locations.

Ice fishing essentials include jigging spoons, which put countless fish topside during the initial weeks of the season. While spoons are potent right out of the package, adding a minnow or minnow head can take the presentation to the next level.

Popular picks this time of year include the VMC Rattle Spoon and Clam Rattlin’ PT Spoon. The noise, flash, and tumbling action of these spoons attract predators and quickly trigger strikes from fish relating to weed edges, sand flats, and rocky structures.

Slender, fast-dropping spoons like the VMC Tungsten Torpedo and Clam Pinhead Pro help maximize the fish you can catch from a pod or school. Their tight, tempting actions, detailed finishes, and micro blades make these lures very efficient at enticing bites.

Clam’s Leech Flutter Spoon and Peg Flutter Spoon tumble back and forth, flashing and fluttering with a visual display akin to a vulnerable baitfish. This attracts fish from far and wide. Flutter spoons are excellent for catching walleye, pike, and lake trout that are chasing baitfish on flats, and also for hooking those prowling around weeds, rock reefs, and sand bars.

Lipless cranks have distinct characteristics that make them essential for the start of the ice season. The Rapala Rippin’ Rap, Ultra Lite Rippin’ Rap, Slab Rap, and Nano Rap, along with Clam’s Psycho Shad, as examples, produce tight actions and steady vibrations when lifted, followed by a wounded-minnow falling action fish can’t resist.

The Suspect, The Jerk, Mooch Minnow, Freeloader, Heavy Hitter, and The Mayor are fantastic ice fishing baits with realistic baitfish profiles, exceptional colours, subtle actions, and scent. These CrushCity soft baits perform flawlessly when fished on a jig, catching suspending fish as well as those close to the bottom. Anglers can also catch plenty of walleye, whitefish, and jumbo perch shaking The Jerk, Suspect, or Mooch Minnow on a drop-shot rig.

Small tungsten ice jigs, such as the Clam Pro Tackle’s Confetti Drop XL and VMC Tungsten Larv Eye, tipped with maggots, wax worms, a piece of nightcrawler, or a small minnow, are like candy to panfish, trout, walleye, and whitefish. A bait-loaded tungsten jig is extremely versatile.

For instance, the straight-falling action of these jigs makes them ideal when hole-hopping and picking apart a weedbed. The compact profile of a small tungsten jig is just as deadly for coaxing strikes from panfish and other species not positioned around weeds, but instead holding on to other areas, like soft bottom flats, the base of a drop-off, or rocky reefs.

Catching big northern pike at first ice is easy when you soak a dead bait on a VMC Bladed Predator Rig Wire Y Harness below a tip-up. Learn more about why this tactic is such a potent method for catching these opportunistic, toothy predators in our Magnum Mania blog.

The initial weeks of the ice fishing season often see many fish species eager to pounce on helpless prey getting within striking distance. However, this doesn’t mean fish are pushovers and willing to eat any lure an angler chooses to drop down an ice hole. Lure selection and proper presentations remain crucial details for consistently getting bites, so be sure to have the baits discussed above in your collection to make the most of this exciting phase of the hard-water season.