Baiting the ice hole
A motionless bait in a still rig doesn't search for anything, so the whole method rests on groundbait. Its job isn't to feed the fish but to gather them under the hole and keep them there.
How groundbait gets under the ice
Two ways. Straight down the hole — then the fine particles scatter on the way down, and not all of it, and not all in one place, reaches bottom. Or in a drop feeder that opens right near the bottom, laying the groundbait in a single spot under the hole. The second way is what makes groundbaiting controllable at all.
Why so little is used in winter
Because fish eat less in winter, and groundbait doesn't spread its smell through cold water the way it does in summer. An overfed spot stops working: the fish sit under the hole full and ignore the bait, and there's no way left to clear the excess off the bottom. This is a mistake that doesn't show right away — the first bites can still come even on an overfed spot.
Several holes at once
A whole row of holes gets groundbaited and the day starts from it. While the angler sits on the first, the rest settle — and you rotate between them in turn. That's what searching looks like in this method: moving between spots already prepared instead of covering water — a short circuit instead of a long one.
When to add more
When bites had picked up and then suddenly stopped — a sign the shoal is still nearby but the groundbait has run out. Less is added than the first time. If there were no bites at all, a second dose won't change anything: the problem isn't the groundbait but the spot, and then it's searched with something faster.
What gets in the way
Frost and current. In the cold, wet groundbait freezes into a lump right in your hands, and what reaches the bottom is a rock instead of a cloud. In current, the spot drifts downstream, and the bait ends up above the groundbaited patch — one of the reasons this method is kept for still water.
How this differs from summer groundbaiting
In volume and precision. In summer, groundbait works as a cloud and a scent carried over distance; in winter, only as a patch right under the hole. That's why the spacing between baited holes matters more than what the groundbait is made of: spread them too far apart and they stop being a row and become separate, random spots, each of which has to draw fish in all over again.
What we don't cover here
Recipes and ratios — that's a topic for the root on bait and groundbait, not on the method. And amounts in grams: that depends on the water, the fish, and how long you plan to sit, and it's something you work out on the water.