Dead Sticking vs. Jigging: When Each Technique Prevails in Late Winter

With the ice fishing season in full swing, anglers are headed out to the hardwater to catch all sorts of species. Your options for how you fish are much more limited than in the open water season, with the only two main options really being jigging or dead sticking. But which is the best option? And when should you use them? Let’s find out.

There are definitely times when dead sticking is the best route to go when ice fishing. Here are some details:

Dead sticking is basically when you take your lure and bait presentation, let it drop down to the desired depth, and just wait for a bite to happen. 

Because of the way this works, it’s far more common to use live bait in a dead stick setup. Live bait will be able to swim around and move while attached to the jig, allowing for natural movements to entice fish to come and grab an easy meal. 

You can definitely still use artificial bait for this as well, but you’ll want to make sure they’re boyant, have appendages that can move from subtle currents and vibrations, and that they’re scented to help draw fish in.

One of the best times you can use the dead sticking method is when the water is at its coldest (typically mid to late winter). When these conditions are present, (most) fish are going to be extremely lethargic and have no interest in chasing after baits that are moving around a lot like they would be in a jigging scenario. 

This is especially true if you’re fishing in a clear body of water, since those kinds of places are going to have fish that really need a natural-looking presentation to even consider expending energy on a strike.

Dead sticking can work well for a variety of species of fish. If you’re fishing for walleye, try using this method in 18 to 30 feet of water with your bait 1 to 2 feet off the bottom. Panfish are commonly caught with this method, anywhere from 15 to 40 feet of water. 

Dead sticking can work for trout as well. However, with these fish, you’ll want to keep your dead stick shallow (about 2 to 4 feet under the ice). This will work best on clear lakes for these fish.

If being more active and jigging your presentation sounds like it's more your style, then here’s when you should be trying it:

Most anglers are familiar with the concept of jigging in one way or another. For jigging, you drop your presentation down to the desired depth, lift up your rod, and let the presentation fall back down to where it started. With jigging, it’s most common to use a tungsten jig, a spoon, or any other type of hard lure that is designed to be jigged and create different kinds of movement.

In winter, a good jigging strategy is going to be figuring out what part of the water the fish are in, dropping down to just above that, and lifting your jig up 6 to 12 inches above that point. From there, you can do a controlled drop to keep it really slow, or just let the design of the lure take it down naturally. Make sure to pay attention on the fall when jigging, as many fish will wait until that point to actually come and bite the lure.

Even though we know that many species don’t want to work too hard for their food this time of year, you can still jig effectively to get bites. Jigging helps create flashes, vibrations, and other movements that all imitate a dying baitfish. If you convince a fish that your lure is a baitfish in that scenario, chances are they’re more likely to spend some energy on checking it out.

Jigging is a good strategy to use if you’ve noticed that fish are coming to check out your presentation, but just swim away instead of striking. In these scenarios, a little bit of movement may be what they need to help trigger a reaction strike.

Jigging works really well when you know fish are suspended, as you can easily work the entire water column to hone in on their location. Darker water and lowlight conditions also make for good jigging days, as the added movement and flash from jigging can help grab the attention of fish from farther away and have them come in to check it out.

When it comes to the different species you should try jigging for, it’s pretty much the same as dead sticking. Walleye will absolutely bite on this method, especially in deeper water when using a spoon or rattle bait. Panfish can be caught as well, and your best bet is to use a small tungsten jig with live or artificial bait on it. 

Panfish spoons can be a really great option here as well. Some of the most fun you can have on the ice is jigging for trout with a spoon. Many species of trout will come in and hit your lure like a freight train, so be sure to give that a try if you can.

In some parts of the country, you’re going to be allowed to fish with two rods. In these areas, it’s always a good idea to have one rod set up for jigging and one rod set up for dead sticking. In these scenarios, you can have your dead stick rod set to be just above the bottom, and your jigging rod working throughout the water column to find fish.

Pro tip: If you’re doing this method, try to keep the two lines as far away from each other as you can. Otherwise, when a fish bites, you might get them tangled together, and then it’s a nightmare of a mess to figure out (trust us, we know from experience).