Ice advice: The most effective way to rig and use live bait

Trick #3

Another detail: If I’m fishing in a permanent or portable ice shack and my holes aren’t freezing over, I’ll suspend a minnow under the lightest, most precise slip float possible. For tough-bite crappies, I’ve even used wooden toothpicks (above) for floats, giving new meaning to the word “sensitive.”

Whatever float you use, it’s important to remember that you want at least 75 per cent of it hovering below the waterline—it’s just that delicate of a balancing act. When they’re rigged right, you’ll see as many or more fish take your bait when the float rises up slightly and comes to attention as when it dives down and out of sight.