How to land rainbow trout through the ice

TACKLE

If you restricted me to a single type of jigging lure to catch winter rainbows and brook trout, it would be the smallest models of horizontal glide baits, such as Rapala’s Jigging Rap (above), Acme Tackle Company’s Hyper-Glide, Freedom Tackle’s Turn Back Shad and Lunkerhunt’s Straight Up Jig.

In the on-deck circle, meanwhile, I keep a stash of the smallest gold-and-silver models of the Williams Wabler, Mepps Little Wolf and Acme’s Kastmaster. As with jigging for brook trout, I use a medium-action jigging rod spooled with eight-pound-test neon Sufix Performance Ice Fuse line, along with a 14-inch stretch of six- or eight-pound-test Maxima Ultragreen for the leader.