Searching with a jigging spoon
A spoon is used to search for fish. The real work here is moving between holes, while the retrieve itself is short and the same everywhere.
A row of holes instead of one
First a series is drilled — along an underwater slope, a ledge, or in a straight line from shore toward deeper water — and only then does the fishing start. Drilling one hole at a time and fishing between them is worse: the noise of the auger scatters fish exactly where the lure was about to go in. Drill with a margin: an extra hole costs nothing, but coming back for one with the auger once the row is finished does.
The same number of cycles on each
Holes are worked with the same cycle, without lingering. The point isn't to talk a fish into biting but to compare spots against each other: spending different amounts of time on different holes makes that comparison meaningless.
What counts as a touch
Anything that wasn't there on the previous holes: a fall that stops short, weight on the lift, a knock with no hookset. One touch is enough to change the route — that hole gets revisited once the whole row has been worked.
Where to go from there
Along the same depth line, as long as it keeps producing touches. Once a working spot is found, the next holes are drilled around it rather than further along the straight line: usually a small patch is what's responding, and the point is to trace its edges. Once the edges are known, drilling new holes stops — from there it's fishing, not searching anymore.
When to go back
After some time, to the same holes as before. Fish move around under the ice, and a spot that was empty in the morning can produce by midday. So the row isn't abandoned but worked again — that's cheaper than drilling a new one. The second pass uses a different rhythm: repeating the first one makes no sense if it gave nothing.
The sign for abandoning the whole row
When a second pass with a different rhythm produces nothing on any hole. One empty pass says something about rhythm; two different ones say something about the spot: then the row is left as it is and a new line is drilled, instead of adding more holes to the old one. It's the most costly call of the day, which is why it doesn't get made after just one pass.
Why it doesn't pay to linger
Because a spoon doesn't talk fish into biting. If there's no active fish under the hole, extra cycles add nothing — they just eat into time at the next spot. Talking a sluggish fish into it is an ice jig's job, and that's a different method.
What gets in the way the most
Snow and wind. A frozen-over hole has to be reopened, and fresh snow erases the route between spots — which is why the holes in a series get marked right away, the same as for tip-ups, while they're still easy to find.