By Nick Simonson

While traveling this weekend, I burned through a hand-me-down paperback of Stephen King short stories.  The sleepless wee hours of the morning in a hotel room two time zones over, afternoon lulls ahead of a nap before dinner and nightlife, and time spent at the gate awaiting connections made the read go quickly.  A fan of his briefer works, I’ve always enjoyed the short story collections he releases from time to time.

One of my favorites is the story of an obese bankman, cursed by an old lady to become thinner after he forecloses on her house.  Throughout the tale, he goes from excited at suddenly and inexplicably losing weight, to barely being able to keep his sanity together as the last pounds waste away from his body. And while I eyed up the numbers on the scale this morning after a weekend full of food, drink, and holiday cheer, I welcomed a similar cure/curse for my state, but figured that would have to come next week, after Christmas, when all good diets start.  That in turn got me thinking about downsizing for this year’s ice fishing season, as that’s how my mind works.

While many factors affect success under the ice, no other form of angling, outside of say fly fishing, benefits more from thinner line, especially in the clear water that often occurs under the ice.  Utilizing thinner lines, even by just a one pound in the pound-test scale, can make an amazing difference, particularly for those fish such as bluegills, perch, and crappies.  Decreasing line diameter can provide many benefits including less visibility of the line and a more natural presentation, a faster drop and better knot tying situations.

Obviously, like the thinning man in King’s short story, with less there, there is much less to see for those species of fish that rely primarily on their sight to catch food.  And when imitating smaller options with tinier jigs and lures, thinner lines make for a better puppet string when jumping a small jig around like some sort of underwater insect, and their vision turns solely to the presentation and bait before them and not that strange vertical line above it.

Additionally, lighter lines provide less resistance in the water when the school is feeding below and the action is fast.  Whether it’s a standard lead-based jig or a newer tungsten model, dropping the size of the line makes it easier to get that lure down the hole faster and back to the fish before they meander off to the next feeding area. 

Finally, a thinner line goes through those tiny ice jig eyelets easier than thicker stuff, making knot tying even easier.  One caveat, however, is making sure the knotted area is moistened before pulling it tight as the smaller line can lose its strength if it becomes warped under the pressure of tightening and the bight of the knot.

That too is the general lesson with lighter line and the tradeoff that each ice angler makes: subtlety and stealth for a bit of strength.  One doesn’t have to drop from six-pound-test to two-pound-test, but shaving things off from six-to-four or from four-to-two can make a positive difference in your presentation, and a good drag mechanism on the reel will make up for the difference in line strength.  There’s no need for any drastic losses in diameter, but a little bit helps.  Or as they say in weight loss, everything in moderation.

Learn the pound-test preferences and ideal diameters that work best for the fish you target most each winter through the ice, and go as low as you can, perhaps even set up just one with lightweight line for crappies, or bluegills, or those fish that need more finesse and you’ll see the difference that getting thinner makes…in our outdoors.

Featured Photo: Panfish like crappies and bluegills have keen eyesight, even in the dim under the ice.  Decreasing the diameter of lines used can help convince them to bite and increase odds of success under the ice. Simonson Photo.