Puppet Minnows for trout

[BackCountry Kyle]

Started trying puppet minnows for trout around here with some limited success. Then I watched an episode on IN-Fisherman where they used them for Walleye. The problem was they really didn't give any tips on how to fish them, just showed the fellas reeling in the eyes(my biggest problem with that show). Does anyone have any tips or tricks? One guy was adding meat to the treble the other guy was leaving his bare. I give the usual lift and settle technique with a little jiggle every 3rd lift or so and have only "caught" when I'm tipping the treble with something. I've had more lookers than takers and was wondering what else might make the fish strike or if I'm wasting my time. Thanks for any info!

[BackCountry Kyle]

Lots of lookers the past couple days! No takers , but man does it get some attention. After watching some back logged recordings of In-Fisherman (walleye and pike on Devil's Lake, thought I'd see Jay out there in the background ) again I got some instruction on some techniques. Pretty much what I do but one thing they said to try is really bang that thing around and I'm gonna leave it bare too. Who knows? I'm using the firetiger pattern and it had caught a couple real nice bows (20" plus), but two days and no hits.... we'll see....

[appleye]

I'll bite. There a couple ways to work a swimming lure. The old stand by jig and swim is great. The In-fisherman videos I've purchased say to lift, fall, hold to 15 to 20 seconds before lift fall again and let the fish react then change accordingly. The other method that I've had a ton of success with this winter is to just jiggle and lift making the fish react and move to the bait. The last is what In-fish calls a nod. Make the minnow look like it's getting ready to swim then do a lift fall.

If you can find the In-fisherman's DVD's for ice fishing theres great video of all the action so you can watch. We hooked up a camera this year to work on making the swim lure work better for us. We fish trout, (rainbow, lakers, brook, cut throats and splake) and a swim lure catches them all. Also catch, crappie, perch, small mouth large mouth and walleye and one pike on a swim lure all with not bait.

Good luck, Appleye

[BackCountry Kyle]

Thanks Appleye! Gives me hope.... The firetiger is real similar to a couple spoons that I've been crushing them on so I've been going with that. I'm going to try an all gold pattern next and then to the silver, unless I get some other suggestions . I didn't get as much action today as past days so I think finesse is the way to handle it and it would help to have a bit of confidence in what I'm doing. Thanks again, your advice is not falling on deaf ears!