Top 4 Proven Tricks to Make Winter Fish Bite: Ice Fishing Tips for Perch, Crappie, and More

Master the art of ice fishing this winter with expert techniques like bait movement, lure pairing, mud stirring, and cadence changes to catch finicky fish.

Four beautiful perch laid out on the frozen lake after a successful day of ice fishing. Each fish represents one of the four great tips shared in this article. / Envato | VidEst | CP5VJXM

Nothing is more frustrating than watching a fish appear below you that won't bite. Too many times I've seen a big red bar show up on my flasher below my bait, but after a few seconds of jigging, it just slowly fades away. I call this the Doritos Conundrum. Even if I've just eaten an entire pizza, if someone asks me if I want a couple Doritos, I'm probably gonna eat. So why won't fish? Sometimes you have to work for it to make them bite.

The author displays a bluegill caught using these expert ice fishing tactics. If you work at it, you can make fish bite. / Joe Shead

1.) Take Your Bait Away to Make Fish Bite

One great ice fishing tip is to take your bait away from the fish. Fish nearly always appear below your bait. So when I see one that won't bite, I slowly lift my lure away from the fish, sometimes letting the rod tremble in my hand, to look like an easy meal that's getting away. This is a good trick for bluegills, perch, crappies and walleyes. In the case of lake trout, get aggressive! If a fish won't hit, crank your reel as fast as you can to make the fish chase. I've had lake trout follow a bait vertically for 30 feet, staying hot on my quickly retrieved lure. Often a fish will hit when it sees its prey escaping.

The author convinced this lake trout to bite by quickly cranking the ice jig away from the fish. / Joe Shead

2.) The One-Two Punch: Pairing Active Lures with Dead Sticked Live Bait

A large, aggressively jigged lure calls in fish both with sight and sound. Sometimes it feels like you're just a needle in a haystack when confined to a small ice hole, so attracting power is very helpful in a lure. But although an aggressive presentation may get a fish's attention, it may be too aggressive for a fish to bite. That's why I like to use an active jigging presentation paired with a dead sticked minnow, especially when fishing for walleyes, which can be very moody. The VMC Bladed Bull Spoon has a bladed treble hook and glows for up to 15 minutes, putting out plenty of razzle dazzle. Tipped with a minnow head, it's lethal in its own right. But if fish balk before biting, I've usually got a fathead minnow on a VMC Glow Resin Treble just waiting. The glow treble helps fish find the lively bait, which is simply fished below a single split-shot under an ice bobber. I like the Clam Outdoors Ice Buster Bobber because it’s customizable, easy to use and never freezes to your line because the base is below the waterline. If a fish won't hit the spoon, the live minnow is usually too much to resist.

Vertical jigging on the left, live bait on the right: Two ice fishing rigs ready to outsmart finicky winter fish with a one-two punch. / Joe Shead

3.) Talk Dirty to Me to Create a Feeding Frenzy

A cloud of mud in clear water indicates a feeding frenzy, as perch, eelpout or other species root around in the mud for insect life. So stir up the pot once in a while by waggling your lure on the bottom. The 13 Fishing Jabber Blade calls in fish from great distances, with its vibrating blade, and it likes to get muddy. It's a great bet for perch. And if a school of mixed size perch comes in, just leave your lure sit motionless for a second. Often the little bait-steelers get bored, but the keepers know the best things come to those who wait, and they'll slurp the spoon off the bottom. 

Noisy lures such as the 13 Fishing Jabber Blade can call in fish from a distance under the ice. If fish don't bite, jig it around in the mud to incite a feeding frenzy. / Joe Shead

4.) Change it Up: Experimenting with Lures, Colors, and Cadence

Albert Einstein probably never ice fished, but he said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result. You don't have to be a genius to realize this applies to ice fishing as well. If fish come in but refuse to bite, change colors, lure sizes or even jigging cadence. When all else fails, move to more active fish that will bite.

Change it up: Four color and size options to trigger bites when the action slows. / VMC

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