I’d be a very rich man If I had a dollar for every person who believes that the reason they don’t enjoy the same results as some of the more successful anglers is because they don’t have access to secret lures, covert baits, hush-hush scents and cloak-and-dagger waypoints.
The reason this view is so out of whack is because the key to success most days is not in the big picture or the grand scheme of things, but rather in the subtle, often cunning and clever refinements.
The little things really do add up most days to making a huge difference in your fishing success. And if you enjoy ice fishing as much as I do for walleye, black crappies, yellow perch and bull bluegills, I have a brilliant refinement for you.
Truthfully, it is a game changer.
In fact, here is what I want you to do this winter to prove it to yourself. Use one of the new single action fishing reels like the Rapala R-Type Ice Centerpin and prepare to be amazed for one very simple reason. Because of the natural way that your line comes off the spool, and goes back on – like a fly reel – and because there is no drag system to twist your line, it never coils and develops a memory.
As a result, when you drop your lure or bait down the hole, it remains dead still and doesn’t spin like it does when you use a spinning reel. And if there is one thing that walleyes, perch, crappies and bluegills detest with a passion, it is a lure or bait that twirls around in circles, as they stare at it and size it up.
It is the subject of this week’s video blog that I shot the other day while ice fishing on Northwestern Ontario’s majestic Lake of the Woods. How good was the fishing? In two days, the yellow perch action was non-stop with only two or three fish measuring as small as 12-inches. The vast majority averaged over 13-inches in length, with so many 13.75 to 14.25 inch jumbos approaching two-pounds that it was spellbinding!
Click on the following video and see for yourself.