I've only started fishing as a part of a love of the BWCA/Q and desire to go lower tech and "live off of the land" a bit. Just started winter camping last two years so Ice fishing is next on my list to learn. Tend to end up doing solo stuff in winter - as short of people who want to join, so learning curve is longer, as have to learn from outside sources. Here's the questions on ice fishing: Do you need to have live bait, or can artificial work? Want to switch to tungsten lures, they seem smaller than lead, does this matter? Is with size or weight/sink rate that is biggest variable? Any suggestions/advice will be appreciated and/or direction to places to learn more.

Lailoken: "I've only started fishing as a part of a love of the BWCA/Q and desire to go lower tech and "live off of the land" a bit. Just started winter camping last two years so Ice fishing is next on my list to learn. Tend to end up doing solo stuff in winter - as short of people who want to join, so learning curve is longer, as have to learn from outside sources. Here's the questions on ice fishing: Do you need to have live bait, or can artificial work? Want to switch to tungsten lures, they seem smaller than lead, does this matter? Is with size or weight/sink rate that is biggest variable? Any suggestions/advice will be appreciated and/or direction to places to learn more."

The theory behind tungsten jigs is that they sink faster than lead jigs due to there weight in relation to body size, why does it matter (if it does): when chasing crappies over deep water basins in midwinter the fish do not relate to underwater structure instead they school up and "roam" the basin not staying in one place very long therefore if you find an active school the sooner you can get your bait down to the level of the fish the more potential bites you will get before the school leaves. If you don't fish in this manner or you fish in relatively shallow water the difference between tungsten and lead is irrelevant.

You can catch fish on artificials in winter. Lake trout especially. Walleyes will go for rippin raps,etc. Panfish are susceptible to tiny plastics. Live bait is better, though, usually.

Dead bait works for pike and lake trout as well.

I almost always bring live bait. Of course if I am going to a stream trout lake I only bring artificial. I used to bring frozen cisco for lake trout but it became so difficult to get them that I haven't for a few years now.
You can be very successful with artificial bait I just prefer live as it is how I have fished my whole life.

Thanks, I'm thinking artificial then, as don't want to worry about introducing anything funky, and only doing it for food, so 1-2 fish enough for me. Thanks for the help.

Live bait vs artificial also comes down to what type of fishing you want to do. Are you looking to set a tip up and let it go while you tend to other chores or are you wanting to actively be out there jigging? If you are going to be jigging 100% of the time then artificial is just fine and thats the route I'd probably go. However, if you want to set up any tip ups or run a 2nd line with a bobber then I'd bring some live bait since that is far more effective on a static set line.

For small jigs I used tungsten. It is heavier and shows up on the flasher better.
I set up a dead stick of some kind with a minnow and a jig with soft bait or a plastic.

You may want a combination of artificial and bait depending on what your targeting. When fishing smaller presentations Tungsten jigs are very good especially when fishing in bwca in winter cause unless you brought a shelter you'll be fishing in freezing conditions on the ice. In those conditions there can be freezing of the ice hole and your line etc. The weight of the tungsten helps actually get the bait down in those cases. Also good possibility your fishing deeper water and tungsten helps with that.

What to bring depends on What fish you plan on targeting?