1. Thoroughly cleans the eye (more on that below).
2. Always sharpens the snot out of the hook. Especially important if there’s any over-spray paint.
3. Carefully [!] bends the eye to 90° so the jig hangs more horizontal. Says horizontal always gets more bites.
4. Also “opens up” the hook for better hookups. Notice how the hook tip is actually pointing slightly above the jig’s eye?
Gotta be careful when tuning tungsten — and even expect to break a few in the process — but Lawrence says tuning the jig this way also allows for him to use a snell knot…. Pretty sure he’s the first person I’ve heard talking about using snell knots on ice jigs.
Takes some time to tie, but says it helps keep the bait perfectly horizontal. Like how Dave Genz always shows to straighten your knot by sliding it back on the eyelet…. When you snell, even the fish can’t move the knot.
Couple other notes….
He’s always using 3mm tungsten (or even smaller) on pressured lakes.
But says when they “get up north like where the NAIFC Championship is, then you can go bigger. Sometimes that bigger profile is key when there’s really big sunfish….”
If he’s bumping up to a bigger profile, he likes switching to lead because it’s lighter and easier for bluegills to suck in. Bet ya never thought of that! I hadn’t….
One more thing….
The final trick he didn’t talk about, but I’m gonna, is the importance of a reeeeally good ‘stache:
