TEASE THEM UPWARDS

By: Vic Attardo

The most important thing that Vermont guide and Ice Team pro James Vladyka has taught me in years of our ice fishing is the simple fact that minnows do not chase bigger fish.

He’s extended this thought to any kind of prey or edible item, like insect larva, eggs, you name it: food that game fish intend to eat doesn’t turn around and chase their pursuers.

Seems logical, and practie when you present a jig, a spoon or minnow lure to a gamefish -- everything from a bluegill to a pike -- your offering should not swim into the face of the bigger fish either as a threat or wearing the sign “eat me.” To do otherwise reminds Vladyka, he says, of the Ghost in the first Nintendo many years ago the ghost would chase mario trying to catch him but if mario stopped and looked back the ghost would stop as soon as mario tried to run away again the ghost would follow trying to catch him.

In any case what happens if you chase the target fish with your bait is that the target fish turns and runs, well swims away quickly, Vladyka asserts.

Not having anything to do on a rainy winter day, instead of banging my head against a wall, I watched a bunch of Youtube videos of ice fishing. I’m drawn to those videos featuring an underwater camera. I love the scenes where the walleye, perch, or what have you comes out of the yellow dark, grab the bait and is suddenly yanked upwards. I’ve even started betting with myself whether the approaching fish will strike or swim away depending on the action of the lure. How sick is that?

Based on what Vladyka taught me, and I’ve since proven for myself hundreds of times, when a fish swims into view you should not dangle the bait directly in its face. Instead, you should slowly raise the lure so that the fish rises with it. The cat is mesmerized by the mouse.

Also when a fish swings and misses at your bait, then swims slightly away and appears to be returning, you should not put the lure directly in its eyes, or even worse swim the lure towards the interested gamester. Over and over I’ve seen some camera jockeys do that and wonder why the fish spun around and dashed off.

“I guess they’re not biting today,” say the clueless.

However, for those who know what they’re doing, they continue to jiggle the lure at the same tempo that first attracted the fish then slowly, ever so slowly, lift the bait. What you’ll then see through the camera is a fish that is hypnotized by the rising bait and,

If you’re not using a camera but a flasher this is what you may see on the screen and how you respond: your jig appears as a thin green line and seemingly out of nowhere appears a thicker red bar -- the approaching fish. If things are going really well, suddenly the red bar surrounds the green line so you snap the rod to attention and feel the strike.

However, many times the red bar engulfs the green line but you don’t feel any added line weight and there’s no hooked fish. Often when this occurs the fish has just bumped or possibly even exhaled on the the bait as Vladyka says, “Breathed on the bait” (a camera will show you this is a common occurrence). You feel nothing on the line but the gamefish has tested your bait.

Chances are after that test the fish swims off a short distance, but turns for a return peck or a long, long look.

On a flasher the red bar will disappear and come back. The thick red bar will reappear on the dial and seemingly sit there, as it actually does. However if you keep motioning the lure on that same level you’ll often create a disinterested fish, and one likely to high tail it out of there especially if you suddenly increase the tempo of your jigging. In short you’re spooking the very fish you’re hoping to catch.

Using the Vladyka theory and my practice, I instead begin to lift the jig continuing the same tempo twitching. On the sonar, I’ll see the fish swimming up to the bait. On the flasher this appears as the red bar following the thin green bar several feet above the initial contact. Often the two colors will co-mingle again creating a thicker bar from the stronger sonar signal. When this occurs the gamester may have again lipped and tested the bait or, hopefully, vacuumed it in. If it’s just a lip touch you won’t feel anything on the rod but if the fish has taken the

I’d watched the incorrect techniques on so many tuber videos it took Vladyka’s not-so-gentle prompting to set me straight. Now I notice when someone does it the wrong or the correct way on their camera and flasher screens.

Another advantage of slowly teasing the fish upwards is that most hook-sets are in the upper jaw or the top of the mouth. Vladyka says this occurs because when a jig is just held horizontally it often spins resulting in missed sets. I’d add that as both the target fish and the jig or spoon is moving up the fish strikes from a slightly lower angle and the top jaw is the first to come down on the bait.

Once you start practice this method of teasing a fish upwards I think you’ll get a lot more solid strikes.