Written By - Nodakoutdoors.com - 02/25/2008
Link to Original Article here

One of the most important€" and universally overlooked" things you can do: keep the line on all your ice reels is good shape.

Dave Genz, the man who changed ice fishing forever and continues to refine his approach, talks about taking care of the final 50 feet.

It'€™s always better to fish with new line,€ says Genz.Good line, properly cared for, doesn't spin and twist as much.

Lets talk about just the spinning factor for a second.

If you€™re going to make this your best ice season ever, you simply have to do something about the tendency for your bait to spin around whenever you aren't actively jigging it. Many ice anglers don't even realize this is a problem. Because you€™re fishing straight up and down, any time your line has twist in it, all that twist €˜untwists€™ whenever the lure is at rest.

You're jigging away, things look good, and a fish comes in to take a look. But when you pause the jigging sequence, the lure begins to twist around like a figure skater going into the final flurry. Who knows what the fish thinks about that, but in the real world it doesn'€™t usually help you get the fish to bite.