Best soft baits for jiggin lakers? any input. Also best jigs?

[Orion7]

Hello I have had moderate luck with bucktail jigs with a little thin piece of sucker as a tail but would like to have more action with lakers.  Any suggestions on baits and techniques?  Some guys have told me they put a large piece of sucker cut like a snakes tongue or a Y.  I have watched the lakers on my camera and they look at the jig with a larger piece of meat like that but never hit it. U tube seems to have people using soft baits with more luck, any experience, brands, size lengths etc.? 

Thanks

[JIGGIN-]

Orion7,

This might help.

[blood tracker]

Don't fish for lakers very often anymore, but when I do I drink dos equis, sorry couldn't resist that one! seriously when I did fish lakers had good luck with a roadrunner jig head in green and yellow baited with sucker as you described. Mostly just rocked the jig on bottom then a 2-3 foot rise every now and again. when you do have a laker that wont hit maybe try resting your bait unmoving on bottom min. 5 min. then pick up. This will often make them hit. Hope this might help. Every day is diferant!

[BrookieSlayer99]

Orion7,

This might help.

Did you even kill it before you filleted it  ?

[Mr.Harry]

I haven't done the soft bait/tube thing for them yet. It seems like a very popular technique other places. Maybe it is in NE waters too but I don't feel like I've seen many doing it where I fish. Buck tail jigs tipped with sucker strip has done well for me. I too like the 'snake tongue' technique. I basically fish 4 types of lures for lakers - bucktail jigs (in that I include airplanes), pimples, PK flutters, and rapala jigging raps. That's about it. In those four lures I have a lot of different color/size/patterns usually maxing out at a little over an ounce and going down. Like many will tell you I usually start with the largest in any one variety and work down in size from there. I will change up colors just as often trying to find what they're hitting. I have switched up all my treble hooks to singles except for the rapalas, so I can tip them off. Even the PK's, though they say it is unnecessary. I find even a teeny little taste of something, even just an eyeball, can improve the bite without inhibiting the action. But I would agree with the cut-bait that sometimes less is more.

[Arctic Addict]

I like a 4" salt and pepper rattle tube jig.

[Orion7]

Thanks guys and thanks for the video.  He makes the cut bait look better than mine.  Nice having larger suckers..

[dennisg34]

Honestly depends on the lakes. Newfound for instance prefers free. Colors while sunapee prefers white. Bucktails, bass tubes, swim baits, jigging minnows, jig heads with just cut sucker pieces are all good. White and green are best laker colors, some white with red, white /green etc

[JIGGIN-]

Did you even kill it before you filleted it  ?

nope

[blood tracker]

nope

[nixstyx]

nope

Haha, I remember you posting that last year and thinking, "wouldn't it be easier to cut if it weren't flopping around?" Anyway, that comment is off topic.


Here's a video that is on the topic of soft baits (which I interpreted to mean plastics) Maybe that's what you're referring to about the YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIzJhDoQDU0
I've never tried any plastics other than tubes, but looking at this video makes me want to try a white Senko or swimbait... just keep them on your hook and out of their stomachs.

[Mr.Harry]

Honestly depends on the lakes. Newfound for instance prefers free. Colors while sunapee prefers white. Bucktails, bass tubes, swim baits, jigging minnows, jig heads with just cut sucker pieces are all good. White and green are best laker colors, some white with red, white /green etc

x 2 on the green and red. On Winni anyway. No idea why. But there's a reason I have six pimples in 3 different sizes each with those color decals. Carries with the bucktails too.

[pfeifferpower]

dudes like a surgeon lol.....nice viv though

[BrookieSlayer99]

nope

Why not? Killing a fish 3 seconds before you start filleting it will make no difference in the quality of the fillet and it is obviously much more humane.

[JIGGIN-]

Why not? Killing a fish 3 seconds before you start filleting it will make no difference in the quality of the fillet and it is obviously much more humane.

It's bait.

I suppose I could whack it in the head prior.

[dennisg34]

Why not? Killing a fish 3 seconds before you start filleting it will make no difference in the quality of the fillet and it is obviously much more humane.

X1000 always respect the animal that's giving you its life for your benefit.

[BrookieSlayer99]

X1000 always respect the animal that's giving you its life for your benefit.

X2

[JIGGIN-]

Thanks guys.

I will change my ways.....

[NHSlabbinCabin]

I like buckshot spoons. Have pretty good luck with them.

[makomanfish1]

Orion7,

This might help.

Thats a very good video.. I LIKE IT!!! TY for posting

[winnisquam guy]

hey man, i try to kill my sucker before i fillet it. for lakers, i stick with bucktail jigs. I'll cut the sucker strip several ways depending how aggressive the lakers seem. if they are less aggressive, i'll use smaller sized jigs with long skinny strips of meat. these will act like a teaser and hopefully intice lakers to hit.

[Eaglecrg]

"I basically fish 4 types of lures for lakers - bucktail jigs (in that I include airplanes), pimples, PK flutters, and rapala jigging raps."

I agree with this with the addition of tube baits.  Also, if you are getting lookers that don't want to commit, try reeling in real fast like its trying to get away.  It often triggers a hit.

[suckerbait]

As far as plastics go I have been doing very well with a reins bubbling shaker worm in 3 and 4 inch with appropriate jig head. I rub the plastic down with bioedge smelt scent. When they shoot off the bottom I just keep reeling up with short twitches and they usually hit it. If they go back down without hitting I drop right down to bottom again and start the same routine over. I have also been getting a few on a pk panic red dot glow with single hook and piece of shiner. The cusk have been crushing it this year so I have been fishing this a lot. This is now my go to cusk jig. I think the glow and the clicking of the spinner blades brings them in.
With that being said all my lakers last weekend came on a small tungsten tipped with a worm while fishing white perch.

[TheOutdoorsman]

With that being said all my lakers last weekend came on a small tungsten tipped with a worm while fishing white perch.

It's amazing how often the smaller jigs and spoons are overlooked by lake trout fishermen in the winter.  Nine times out of 10 on a tough bite, they will snub the bigger lure and take the smaller offering.

In the summer, I'll fish with 4-5" soft plastics (shape and color depends on the day) and 1-2 ounce spoons, but in the winter I normally do much better with smaller lures and lean more toward spoons (1/16th to 3/4 ounce) than anything. 

[Orion7]

How are you fishing the spoons through the ice.?  I have a variety of swedish pimples in white, glow white, pink, black and purple in sizes from an inch up to 4 inches. The only time I can get a hit on these is twitching it just  off the bottom or laying on the bottom and lifting it to a straight position and letting it fall maybe a 2 inch lift.  Many hours sometimes for one hit and usually I miss it when it finally happens.  I have tried reeeling in fast, slow, dropping from the hole to the bottom then letting it sitting motionless and inch or so  of the bottom with no hit.

SORRY GETTING BACK TO THE SPOONS do you fish them different?

[Mr.Harry]

How are you fishing the spoons through the ice.?  I have a variety of swedish pimples in white, glow white, pink, black and purple in sizes from an inch up to 4 inches. The only time I can get a hit on these is twitching it just  off the bottom or laying on the bottom and lifting it to a straight position and letting it fall maybe a 2 inch lift.  Many hours sometimes for one hit and usually I miss it when it finally happens.  I have tried reeeling in fast, slow, dropping from the hole to the bottom then letting it sitting motionless and inch or so  of the bottom with no hit.

SORRY GETTING BACK TO THE SPOONS do you fish them different?

sounds like you're doing most of the same things I would do with a pimple. I keep switching it up - bottom knocking. Motionless to twitching. Up and down rips. Different parts of the water column. My attention span can get short, so after a short while of working the same hole this way I'll switch to a different size/color or different lure altogether. Try switching the treb hook on the pimple to a single siwash and tipping it. PK's have a different action and do more of the work for you. It's all about letting them drop and do the flutter thing. Guys with flashers will tell you this is where you need the electronics as you can see how the fish are reacting to your jig/jigging style. They're right. But I don't have one either, so I just keep switching it up and working different holes till I find a bite. Sometimes it comes. Sometimes it don't.

[Mr.Harry]

This is so stupid but it's what I do without having a flasher - I try to imagine fish looking at my lure mentally, and then do the different actions/retrieves to entice the hit. Like playing the cat and mouse and game but you can't actually see the cat. But it works! ...sometimes. I gotta get a flasher or I'm going to lose what little is left of my mind.

[Orion7]

Thanks.  Sounds like a flasher investment may be in my future also.  At some point I should try to hook up with another member to see how they use their flasher and the difference it could make before I invest that kind of money. 

Thanks again

[Mr.Harry]

Yep. I did a little of just that with nhslabbincabbin a few weeks ago. It sold me. He had this LCD display marcum that I found very easy to read and process visually. Go about 4 Hundo. I'd of bought one immediately but I just had a baby. No $$$.

[Mr.Harry]

I don't know where you're at geographically but Tim at Suds n Soda in Greenland has done/does introductory display 'classes' on how to use the Vexillars. Right there in the store.