Tungsten lures have changed the way ice anglers approach hardwater fishing in MANY ways. Some of those changes are pretty obvious, while others are more subtle. The most popular thing you’ll hear people talk about is lure size. Tungsten is incredibly dense, which means angler can fish smaller profile baits without sacrificing weight.

This can be a huge advantage in some situations. Not only might it lead to more bites, but it also allows you to fish heavier line. As a result, tungsten has exploded in popularity in recent years.

One thing you don’t hear people talk much about is how tungsten can impact the action on your rod. As Joel Nelson explains in the video above, tungsten makes it more difficult to detect bites and fish cleanly on longer soft-action rods that many anglers are using. He goes into more depth on how he addresses this problem in the video.

According to Joel, this is the BIGGEST mistake he sees anglers make out on the ice when they’re fishing tungsten lures.