ICE FLIES

There seems to be a new trend out for coming ice season with the big tackle companies putting out ice fly jigs. VMC ice fly and Northland Tackle Helium ice flies both look like nice presentations. Both have great quality and color selections. I know this type of lure is nothing new to the tournament scene, but what situations does everyone else plan to use these presentations for? Shallow water flats for gills/crappies with the slower sinking hair profile and drop shot combos for whitefish and perch comes to mind for me? I haven’t had a chance to test these out yet, any other opinions on them?

The Northland jigs would have to be fished shallow being as light as they are 1/100, the VMC could be fished deeper being they are 1/64, 1/32, and 1/16 in tungsten.

I have some that are similar to the VMC that were hand made and they look amazing, going to give them a good trial this year. I will post pics.

I’m interested in the new ice flies, I do tie my own though and have had success with ice flies the past two seasons. One of my most productive patterns is just a generic scud pattern. I started using a tungsten bead head on them last year to help get them down quick. I started playing around with them two years ago while fishing for rainbow trout. I had used a bunch of different things that morning but couldn’t seem to key on what they were hitting. I had a fly box with me and though what the heck… I tied on a pink scud with a heavier ratso below it to help sink it. I’d bounce that ratso in the soft bottom of the reservoir and started picking up trout like crazy on the scud. I again used the same presentation for blue gill on another pond and had good success. I’ve had good success with olive and pink colored scuds. I think the ones put out by VMC and Northland will work awesome but if you tie your own flies you can get creative and tie up some bugs specifically for the water you fish. I attached a pic of a pink scud I tied, this thing is loaded with tungsten beneath the material

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I read an article in this years in-fisherman ice mag that a top NAIFC tournament angler swore by his own hand tied hair to tungsten jig heads. One in particular that he tied specifically using “golden retriever puppy hair” and credited much of his success to that. I just thought that was clever and pretty funny.

I started using them two seasons ago but it isn’t easy finding ones with a decent drop rate. Dealing with absorbent lures in the winter isn’t really desired… But whatever catches them

Do you guys find better success with natural colors or bright florescent colors?

Zip, Great looking Scud!

Yes, some great new micro flies out this year! The one I’m most looking forward to is the Northland Tungsten larva fly (http://www.cabelas.com/product/NORTHLAND-HARD-ROCK-TUNGSTEN-LARVA-FLY/2065596.uts)

I’ve been wanting a vertical hanging tungsten jig for a long time, finally someone came out with one. This will be a go-to for me this year, I’m certain.

Like the sizes too, including the 1/100. A lot of days, I find the biggest bluegills will only take the tiniest jig you can drop down to them. In the past I’ve had to use 1/150 lead jigs, which were a pain to drop. 1/100 won’t fly down, but it will still be faster.