IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Bluegill => Topic started by: Jbotto on Feb 12, 2017, 09:20 PM
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I'm new to the group but reading a few of the threads here recommending spoons and was wondering why the dropper chain or drop-hook was recommended and used? How do you guys do this?
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Here's a video with a good explanation of how and why by Doug Stange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g9OEdbpo3U (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g9OEdbpo3U)
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sometimes they are attacted to the spoon but they are reluctant to bite, so the dropper or chain hangs just a bit lower and is tipped with a small spike, mousie or plastic bait witch is a nice little meal that they can inhale. I'm guessing that just a staight up spoon is to much bait for them and they want that small easy meal hanging in their face. Also works good for crappie and perch.
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I have had good success with replacing the treble hook on a 1/16oz Slender Spoon with a #10 or #12 shrimpo jig with plastic tail. Jig it like a spoon to get it to flutter then jig it like a jig/plastic to get the bite
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The concept that I understand is that when the fish are just nibbling and barely inhaling a lure, the dropper hook rig tends to be easier to get sucked into their mouths. I've seen this effect and improved hook up ratio when I attached a secondary split ring chained instead of that single split ring. To improve it I've also seen better results while I chained a swivel in between both split rings. Then again when the bite's have gone to nibbles, I've just used fishing like direct to the spoon and then hook. I usually get results of within 1 inch to about 2 inches in line dropper length. However the concept for me isn't so much of the dropper rig, but it's to allow a better bite to hook up ratio. It follows the same concept of a stinger attachment and they are usually about two inches in length. When fish are just swiping at lure, the stinger has potential to get caught in their mouths.
While the dropper rig is more of using the spoon as a weight and/or attractant only, I've done so in faster current to that concept. This was where I used to just put a small tiny wet fly, micro jig, or single hook with micro plastics on. The problem I had was that during an up bite, well the weight of the spoon doesn't move. That two inches or more so is too much of a buffer of slack. By the time the fish has moved the spoon, they've already let go of the lure before I can react to a hook set.
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I tie a small ice ant or some other small jig 6" below my bigger spoons. On a tentative bite they'll hit the dropper and on a hot bite they'll hit the spoon.
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I have had problems whenever I use multiple hooks- if a fish is hooked on the lower hook, the upper catches on the side of the hole, and the fish gets away. I noticed in the video that the rig he used was removing the hook fro the spoon, and using only a hook on the dropper. This seems like something worth trying- get the attraction of a spoon with the finesse of a smaller bait beneath.