Rigging a Jigging Spoon With a Minnow in Ice Fishing

The lifelike twisting and turning of jigging spoons enable you to entice fish to your line, even with exposed hooks. Artificial bait and attractive pheromones also make jigging spoons irresistible to fish. Jigging spoons are perfect for ice fishing. The weight of the jigging spoon works as a sinker, which helps to keep your hooks at the perfect depth for your location and makes your bait available to fish that are hundreds of feet below the ice. Combining your jigging spoons with real minnows makes it even harder for fish to resist your line and helps to ensure that your time on the ice isn't for naught.

  1. Advantages

    • The combination of attractive, phosphorescent lures and real bait makes it hard for fish to find a reason to pass up your line. Adding minnows to your jigging spoons does more than simply ramp up the appeal of your line to fish. The hooked minnows will also help to ensure that your jigging spoon's hooks don't hook into vegetation at the bottom of your fishing hole -- the sharp edges of the hooks are covered by the minnows instead.

    Baiting

    • Baiting your minnows to your jigging spoon's hook is no different from baiting them to any other hook. After tying your jigging spoon to your ice fishing rig's line, simply secure your minnows to your jigging rig's hook by hooking the minnows either through their gills or their upper lips.

    Frozen vs. Live

    • The vigor of live minnows further compounds the attractiveness of your jigging spoon lure. While the frigid waters of your ice fishing hole will help to preserve your minnows, they'll eventually die and become unattractive bait. Furthermore, you'll need to take the necessary precautions to keep them alive on the way to your fishing hole. Frozen minnows, on the other hand, are easier to preserve. They don't have the natural vigor of live bait, but they'll last a lot longer than live minnows.

    Considerations

    • Some states restrict the use of live bait, citing the inhumane nature of the practice -- the minnows are speared by hooks and kept alive simply to be eaten. Check with your state's fish and game department for any regulation concerning live bait before you set out to use live minnows on your jigging spoon.