The real moment of truth in ice fishing comes when a fish sucks in your bait and you snap back and set the hook home. Success is grasped or fumbled in that part of one second while the fish has the bait in its mouth. You snap back instantly or it’s opportunity lost, right?

Not so fast.

The surprising truth is that anglers are often too quick to set the hook. Sure, fish suck baits all the way in a lot of times. When they do, you can hammer home the hooks right away and be successful. But, especially in winter, fish often sample a potential food item with the outside of their lips — half-heartedly playing with it. Thanks to today’s good graphite ice rods, these sluggish “bites” are usually apparent  when the hook is not in the fish’s mouth — at least not yet.

Here are some tricks that can transform frustration into a day of consistent catches. Tricks to get fish to take that second bite, and for timing the hookset just right.

Learn them and your ice fishing life will be changed forever.

Learned With a Bobber

“Waiting to set the hook is not natural to me, or anybody else,” said Dave Genz, the ice fishing godfather inducted into the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport. “But sometimes you have to do it.”

Actually, you have to do more than just wait a second.

Genz’s first memories of ice fishing as a child with his father, uncle and grandfather go back to when there was no such thing as a graphite ice rod. Anglers used crude jiggle sticks and bobbers. The Genz crew had sophistication in their corner, though. They matched up bobbers with jigs (or hooks and weight) that made the bobber neutrally buoyant. The extremely sensitive bobber made a great bite detection device. They would rest it on the surface, but they would also keep the bait jiggling all the time, lifting the bobber above the hole as they jigged.

“Because everything was balanced well,” Genz said, “you’d feel the bite or see it. You’d get used to what the bobber looked like swaying back and forth while you constantly jigged it. Sometimes the line would just straighten out (instead of continuing to sway back and forth) and you knew you had a bite. But you might set the hook and miss him.

“So next time you got that kind of bite, you might try setting the bobber down on the water. If it laid flat on the ice (indicating there was slack in the line, because a fish had come upward with the bait), I knew the fish had it, and I’d set the hook.”

Other times, Genz mentioned, fish take the bait and go downward or sideways, perhaps in an effort to dash off with their prize. In those cases, the line gets tight, stays tight, and the fish takes line as it moves off.

“Sometimes,” Genz said, “the bobber would shoot under half an inch, and I’d set the hook and miss him. So the next time, I’d let the bobber go down farther, all the way to the bottom of the ice or out of sight, and maybe catch the fish.”

Sight Fishing Lessons

Later, Genz and his friends pioneered the technique of sight fishing. Watching fish in shallow water with a darkened shelter allowed Genz and his friends to solidify those early lessons. They saw what was going on.

“Sometimes you have to let ’em suck it in twice before they get it,” Genz said.

When you can watch fish come in, slide up to the jiggling bait and suck it softly against the outside of their lips, keeping it there, mouthing the wriggling maggot or soft plastic tail, it becomes readily apparent that you can feel it even though the hook is still hanging harmlessly out of the mouth. Set the hook in those situations and you get nothing.

“But if the fish is inclined to take it all the way in,” Genz said, “and you can create slack in the line that lets them get it in there more easily, and you give them time to do that, you can be much more successful.”

In this statement is a nugget worth noting: “If the fish is inclined to take it all the way in.” This is critical, and Genz has tricks up his sleeve for upping the chances more fish will be so inclined.

One way that can be accomplished while sight fishing is to manually swivel the hook around so it is facing incoming fish. Here’s how: Whatever hand you’re not holding the rod with, reach up and take a hold of the line between your thumb and index finger. Now you can spin the line. When the fish is coming, turn the hook so it’s facing that direction.

That makes it more common, on that first half-hearted sucking attempt, for the hook to glide inside the fish’s mouth. At the instant the hook disappears, snap your wrist upward, and the battle is on.

New Tools For Better Hooking

The tendency for fish to come in under the hole, slide up to your bait and take it partway in on the first effort has remained the same since before anybody was fishing through the ice. But the tools available to the modern ice angler have improved, and the methods Genz uses to up his hooking percentage have evolved with them.

He doesn’t use bobbers anymore, relying instead on the latest graphite jigging rods (many of which he designed). Genz now relies on a Vexilar flasher to show the jig and fish that come in. He knows when fish are coming closer to the bait, helping him tune in to feel for the bite.

“Instead of watching the bobber sway back and forth up in the air,” he said, “I’m constantly ‘pounding’ the bait and feeling the weight of the jig bounce on the bottom of each movement. When I don’t feel the weight of the jig anymore, or just feel a little more weight or something different, I know a fish has it.”

That fish might or might not have the hook inside its mouth. An underwater camera is Genz’s next weapon. It often allows him to see whether the fish has the hook or not.

“It lets you sight-fish at any depth,” he said.

But deeper, darker waters, and low-light conditions nullify a camera’s power. Plus, it takes longer to lower the camera down each hole than a depth finder transducer. Because Genz’s system calls for drilling and fishing many holes, keeping on the hunt until catchable fish are located, the camera is an important role player. The sonar remains the main set of electronic eyes.

The Case for Dropping the Rod Tip

When fish are aggressive, an instant hookset is the way to go.

“When you feel that big thunk,” Genz said, “you set the hook.

“But when you set the hook right away and you turn them (feel the weight of the fish but don’t connect) or miss completely,” Genz added, “then the next time you feel something, you drop the rod tip.”

To execute the rod tip drop correctly, it has to be instantly as you feel the bite. Speed is critical. You don’t lower it slowly, you drop it fast, but just a few inches. This gives you immediate information that helps you decide what to do next.

If you drop the rod tip and the line remains tight — in other words, the jig sinks at its normal rate — that’s your indicator that the bait is free to drop on its own, meaning a fish does not have it. But if slack is visible in the line, that means a fish is in control of your bait, at least enough to keep it from sinking. The fish might not have the bait all of the way in its mouth, but it might.

You must make a decision. To start, when you see slack, set the hook. A lot of times, that’s all it takes. If you get the fish, you’re in business.

“But if you’re still missing them,” Genz said, “try dropping the rod tip and counting ‘one-two,’ and then set the hook.

“If you still missed ’em, next time drop the rod tip and count to four.”

By working through this process, Genz comes up with a formula that works — for the moment, at least. Things are constantly changing in fishing. The only thing you know for sure is that the hookset timing will remain the same until it changes again.

Even though he doesn’t use bobbers anymore, Genz can still see those neutrally buoyant bobbers in his mind as he pictures what’s going on with his bait.

“I compare (dropping the rod tip and waiting) to letting my bobber go down,” he said. “When I drop the rod tip, as I’m doing the count, in my mind I visualize my bobber going farther down the hole. That picture just came to me one time when I was thinking about it. That’s all we’re doing is letting the bobber go down the hole.”

Keep Them Chasing

Genz has been talking about this next point for many years: People tend to react differently to the presence of fish when they’re sight fishing, as compared to fishing in deeper water with the aid of a sonar.

“When you’re sight fishing,” he said, “as a fish comes in to the bait, you tend to get slower in your jigging motions until it’s almost stopped. Like you’re trying to make it easier for the fish to catch it or something. But when you’re Vexilar fishing, you tend to pick up the (jigging) speed and try to get fish to chase and hit it harder.”

Slowing down causes two problems. First, in most cases, when a fish shows up, you’re better off if you keep doing what you were doing that brought the fish in.

“Or, speed up and get the fish to chase it,” Genz added.

When they won’t pursue it, you have to slowly jiggle it in front of them, he said. Give them your finest subtle presentation.

The second problem relates directly to the hookset. Anytime fish take the bait while it’s moving slowly or just sitting in front of them, it’s common for those fish to “bite short” and not get the hook into their mouths.

“You have to drop the rod tip when that happens,” he said. “You gotta give it to them, try to get them to take that second bite, so they can get it in their mouth.”

This means regardless of fish mood, you’re usually best off if you can get them to chase, or even slowly keep coming, as you jiggle the bait and pull it away from them.

“They hit it harder,” Genz said. “You usually get a more positive take when they come up for the bait.”

But there’s another important reason to keep the bait moving, and slowly pull it up and away from the fish. As you pull it away from them, you know the hook is trailing behind the line. So if the fish comes up behind it, you know they’re grabbing the hook. There’s no wondering which direction the hook is facing.

A Soft Hand

Particularly in colder winter water temperatures, especially in the daytime — when most people would rather fish, but success can be hard to come by — many fish exhibit the tendency to be interested in your bait but lethargic in their initial eating attempts. That’s why it is so important to sense this, and build slack line and time into the equation, before setting the hook.

“You need a little softness in the rod tip, so it can bend slightly when they suck it in,” Genz said, “but even that isn’t enough sometimes. If they don’t get it all the way in, that’s why you have to drop the tip.”

It takes a soft hand. But with practice, you can sense that they just grabbed the maggot or the plastic. You’re focused on feeling the lure bounce, and suddenly it’s doing something different. You drop the rod tip, and the line stays slack, so you know (the fish) is holding it. So now you’re waiting for them to suck it in, just like when you’re sight fishing.

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes your count works, other times you come up empty. If you’re coming up consistently empty no matter how long you wait, it’s time to modify the presentation.

“The first thing I do is put on fresh live bait,” Genz said, “or switch colors if I’m using plastics.

“They kinda shook their head, spit it out and swam off. They didn’t like the taste of it. Good fresh juice in the water is the thing. Usually, if you put fresh bait on, that cures it.”

With plastics, it might be a different color or a different shape, that does the trick.

Yet, assuming you can get the fish to commit, hookset timing becomes a big deal. This winter, when your quick-draw method is coming up empty, consider that fish are being hesitant, perhaps half-heartedly sucking the bait against the outside of the mouths. Cut them some slack, give them a chance, work at getting them to take that second bite, and then hammer the hook home.

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