When winter seals the lakes beneath a sheet of ice, trout behavior changes dramatically —and so should your approach. Success doesn’t come from luck; it comes from understanding trout, reading structure, controlling your noise, and staying mobile and strategic when hunting them. Whether you’re a seasoned hardwater angler or someone stepping onto the ice for the first time, these five tips will drastically improve your catch rate.

Below are the same techniques we rely on every day guiding anglers into the fish of a lifetime. Follow them, and you’ll put more trout topside this season — and likely bigger ones, too.

1. Know Your Target Species & Where They Travel

Regardless of whether you’re chasing rainbows, bulls, or cutthroats, trout share consistent winter habits. They cruise edges, shoals, drop-offs, suspended in deep water and isolated structures. These are all natural highways that funnel food and opportunity for trout. They also become more active during low-light periods and often move in predictable patterns as they search for bait.

Understanding these tendencies is half the battle. When you approach the ice with an educated mindset, the guesswork disappears. Instead of randomly drilling holes, you start placing them where trout actually travel. This simple shift alone converts slow days into banner days. Don't be afraid to explore new areas, a sonar or underwater camera is great for finding suspended fish and structure. Lastly, using contour maps unlock the full potential of areas you should be spending your time, all the structures mentioned above can be found by simply looking for them on a contour map. You won't catch fish if you are not where they want to be.

2. Work the Water Column & Dial In Your Presentation

Most anglers jig randomly or just focus strictly on the bottom 5 - 10 feet of the water column. The ones who consistently catch more fish are methodical and are constantly changing depth in the column, watching sonar for indications and changing up colours, sizes and profiles of their presentation to find what the fish want.

A great starting strategy is to work from the bottom up. Drop your presentation to bottom, watch your sonar, and give the fish a couple of controlled minutes to react. If nothing shows after jigging that specific area, crank up five turns and fish that zone. Continue this process until you’ve reached the underside of the ice. If a fish engages with you on your way through the column remember what depth down it appeared and start to focus efforts at that zone.

If your sonar marks fish at a certain height, immediately fish just above them — trout are instinctive up-feeders, and you’ll be shocked how often a fish will chase you up if you jig or retrieve past them. If you can get trout to move throughout the water column with you, you have a good chance of being eaten before you reach the ice. If the fish turns off or loses interest, open your bail and deadfall past them. If you watch your sonar and its racing your lure to the bottom, keep an eye on your line; if you go slack and your jig isn't at the bottom on your screen, close the bail and set the hook. Trout love a good dead falling presentation and will pick it up while your bail is open and line is free spooling. It can be hard to keep your eyes on 2 things at once but this all comes with time spent on the ice doing it.

When it comes to cadence, adjust based on trout mood:

• Aggressive fish: Taller jig strokes, big flutters, a short pause added in, or pounding bottom to create a cloud of sediment followed by a slow lift. With aggressive trout it becomes a game of cat and mouse, the more you take it away from them, the more they want to chase it. Directional changes are a killer way to get that fish to seal the deal. Take your lure away aggressively, if the fish show signs of losing interest, open the bail and let it fall past the fish until it reengages, when it does close the bail and start taking it away again. Play on the predatory instinct of these trout, usually if you can get them to commit and move throughout the water column with your lure, you should get a reactionary strike. Bait fish don't sit still when a predator is near, they flee erratically.

• Neutral/finicky fish: A slow, subtle cadence almost always wins. Winter prey moves sluggishly, and your lure should too. Big long pauses, gentle pounding on the spot, small pulsing jigs all work great for a subtle presentation. Lastly don't be afraid to just "dead stick" your presentation, if a fish comes to look at it just slowly and controlled lift the lure a couple feet from where it was resting. I find somedays watching Livescope that fish stay on the outskirts of you while jigging but you set the rod down and it seems like seconds later you look at the screen and a fish is allover your lure. Somedays less is more.

Watch your sonar or underwater camera closely. If trout come in and slide away every time, something needs adjusting. Are you jigging too much? Too little? Are you getting excited when a fish marks and unconsciously speeding up? Sometimes the best move is no move at all — or a painfully slow lift.

Don't underestimate the power of a second, motionless rod (if permitted where you fish). If a fired-up trout inspects your active jig and isn't fully committing or misses your jig and sees a motionless easy meal beside it, the dead stick often gets crushed. In this scenario I tend to rely heavily on my Jaw Jacker hook setting devices; they are silent and quite honestly rarely miss a hookset. If permitted where you fish I would highly recommend, if not make sure your dead stick rod is secured and close by as when a trout turns and eats that presentation it's a very aggressive take. If you have a 2 rod per person allowance while ice fishing like we do in Alberta, my second rod is always in a Jaw Jacker. If there is 3 of us or 4 I'll take the extra rod for each person and have them set out around our location - up to 50ft or so away from us in several directions. The key is covering multiple areas of interest for a trout all at the same time. If 1 specifically is getting eaten and the other are not being touched, make note of the structure that its on, the depth in the column and the overall profile that the fish are keyed in on. Change the other rods accordingly to reflect similar profile, colour and depth of your presentations. Fish will aways tell you what they want, you just need to learn how to interpret that information and use it to your advantage.

3. Drill Holes With Purpose: High-Percentage Areas Win Every Time

Transitions, ledges, reefs, and drop-offs are the arteries of winter trout movement. Spend your time on these features and you’ll stay in the game.

When you arrive at your chosen spot, drill all or most of your holes immediately. Get the noise over with. Trout will “reset” after 10–20 minutes of silence I find and will slowly start working through the area again, but constant drilling and stomping keeps them on edge. If trout are on edge, they will not eat, it's as simple as that. Their lateral line picks up the smallest vibration and for their long-range detection of danger or food, the trout's acute sense of hearing (inner ear) and sight are more important. With hearing capable of picking up higher-frequency sounds from as far as 30 feet away in ideal conditions — they feel everything under the ice and through the water.

The best anglers head out with a plan and a backup plan. Know the structural zones trout use, where to find them on the lake and if someone has already taken the area you wanted, fall back on Plan B or Plan C. The worst thing you can do is squeeze yourself near a group because it “looks fishy.” Trout don’t enjoy crowds — and neither should you.

4. Silence Is a Weapon: Sound Travels 4× Faster Underwater

Few anglers realize just how loud the underwater world becomes once the ice locks in.

A gas auger can be heard kilometers away. Heavy footsteps, dragging sleds, slamming doors, even loud voices create unnatural pressure-waves that trout immediately detect through their lateral lines and an acute sense of hearing. Large trout especially, are notorious for spooking at the slightest disturbance or sign that something isn't right and you likely just blew your chance with that fish for the rest of the day.

I’ve watched this play out countless times on Livescope: a trout cruises in, a buddy walks 30 feet toward my hole to take a look at my sonar, and the fish bolts instantly. One or two vibrations cause from standing and taking a step in my direction — that’s all it takes.

Keep movements light. Keep noise low. And understand that underwater, everything you do is amplified for the fish. If a fish comes in on the sonar its easy to get excited, when we get excited we tend to get loud, any loud sound is likely going to end your encounter with that fish. Its best to try and stay calm and focus on how to get that fish to eat.

5. Stay Away From the Herds — Always

One of the biggest mistakes ice anglers make is following the crowd. If you see a cluster of tents and anglers piled into an area, avoid it at all costs.

Time after time, I see groups hammering one area of the lake, catching nothing, constantly drilling new holes, all while I head to the next empty bay, ledge, or reef half a kilometer away — and immediately bend rods. Trout are constantly on the move and they travel structure lines and are far more willing to commit when they haven’t seen 30 identical presentations in the last hour.

Big trout especially become educated. They learn very quickly, and when they pass through a high-pressure zone with lure after lure after lure, they shut down. Obviously there are times where a big fish makes a mistake and will be caught in a high pressure situation but from personal experience, I catch big fish and more fish constantly when I'm away from any other groups. This is critical if you're looking to have 10+ fish days, while other groups are struggling for bites. No trout will eat faster or carelessly than an unpressured trout who sees a natural presentation doing what it should, where it belongs.

My philosophy is simple:

If there’s already a group there, that’s one group too many for me to go fish that spot, same goes for fishing in the warmer months on shore or from a boat.

Explore new water. Build your own understanding of the lake. Spend time on the lake and piece together the puzzle. If you do that, you will find high volume fish days — and bigger fish, too.

We catch our largest fish every season by staying away from the noise, knowing and relying on the structure, and trusting the knowledge that we gain being out there daily and observing! Use these ice fishing tips this season to help you gain more success on the hardwater!

Ready to Learn These Techniques First-Hand?

If you want to take your ice fishing to the next level and learn these strategies directly on the ice, book a guided trip with us. We’ll teach you how to read structure, refine your jigging, and locate untouched water — all while exploring breathtaking frozen landscapes.

Join us this winter and experience the difference that precision and knowledge make.