Can't make a lure work

[slipperybob]

As it goes a crank bait lure that's meant for casting just doesn't work for vertical fishing.  Can't make a lure work in a way it wasn't designed for or can I still try?  Of course it wouldn't hurt.  It's called fishing after all.  So this brings me back to using some of my ultralight jerk baits, crank baits, or whatever to try to see if a fish will bite it.  Well bottom line that when it comes to ice fishing, baiting the lure defeats the purpose as the fish will eventually bite the bait no matter how I rig it sensibly.  So the challenge is really to see if a fish will bite the bare lure.  However I still got to get the lure down to the depth.  Here comes the list of candidates. 

Of course we have to start off with sinking lures.  Of my first choice was the good sinking Countdown minnow rap is size 1 as that's the smallest they come in.  Sure the lure sinks at about 1 foot per second.  However to my result, it was not productive.  I can't get the lure to perform the action that I really wanted.  It was nothing more than just a non moving lure.  It doesn't wobble on the fall.  It takes a great deal of speed to get any wobble movement out of it that only works to turn the fish away or spook them.  So naturally I tried the Floating minnow rap version in size 3.  Yes I had to weight the lure down and it was small split shots.  And here another problem arise as the hooks of the lure would tangle itself up in the line.  Again this was something that's not going to work.

Next up was a few ultralight cranks from Yozuri.  There was a sinking version of the L minnow style.  There are actually two versions.  One is sold in our US market which is a suspending slow sinker at 1/8 oz. The other is exclusive only in the foreign market which is a heavier sinking version at 3/16th oz.  The slight wobble on the sink on these lures was promising however again the slow sink rate was for deeper water was still a bit too much to wait for.  I think the biggest setback of this lure is profile.  It's a rather bulky roundish profile and it seems unlikely to be a target as a meal.  In comparison a Salmo Chubby Darter in size 3 has a smaller profile overall.

Still haven't given up.  I tried other Yozuri offerings to include the 1/16th oz. Snap Shad at 25mm length (40mm to include the bill) and even the suspending 1/16th oz. Altima Pins Minnow at 2 inches or 50 mm length.  I had gotten a little more creative and used jig heads with hook cut off and threaded them onto the line instead of using split shots.  I still got line tangles with the treble hooks.  However this does hint the method that I need to experiment some more on. 

Probably I just simply need weighted trebles or a threaded jig head onto the crank itself.  I'm sure the weight will dull the lure action, but I need to sink it still.  With light lures, even a threaded on swivel or upsized hooks will give the lure more weight in terms of sinking and applicable to open water casting.  Even with the concept of a threaded onto inline spinner body as weight wasn't too far fetched.  Probably just something reserved for wasting time on the ice and tinkering in the workshop. 

...and the tinkering still continues...

[slipperybob]

There is something to the buoyancy of a floating type lure in action with it weighted down into the deep.  From experience with open water sometimes that really hits the jackpot of being the hot lure.  You want to get the lure down deep or close to bottom, yet you need that momentary pause where it will wiggle and that is the formula.  However with vertically jigging in a small ice hole, the limitations tend to give a lure tangling with the line.  By applying weights direct to lure, it changes the lure buoyancy.  By applying weights to the line, it often results in line tangle.  By applying the weight just in front of the bill, it sort of prevents the bill from doing what it's meant to do.  Sometimes the weight veers off to the one side and it yields an off balance presentation.  Lure sizing has everything to do with it as well.  It's easy to tinker with larger lures and make them behave more so in the way one wants to.  However with ultralight lure profiles, any alterations makes a lot of changes to the lure action.  And that is the real challenge and can't make a lure work like in concept.

Perhaps the concept is wrong.  So to side track it a bit, looking at sinking lures that excels in a horizontal presentation while providing a passive action.  Two lures that came to fulfill that immediately was the Yo-Zuri Edge Trembler minnow lure and the Rapala Subwalk.  It was hard to track down a diminutive size offering as since the common size lure was a size 9 or 90 mm size.  Again the lures in open water fishing performance works much better with larger lures as opposed to the smaller sized ones.  I was able to obtain a size 7 Rapala Subwalk and similar sized Yo-Zuri Edge Trembler in 70mm if I remember correctly.  Anyway the existence of these surprised me as they were actually found in the clearance bins.  The Edge Trembler has the most wobble action but was a slightly slow sink rate.  Again it was designed to sink at 1 ft per sec and that's kind of slow for fishing in 30 ft of water.  As for the Subwalk, it has a slight more advantage in terms of sinking as the lure orientates itself for a nose dive.  It works to an extent but since the size of the lures are significantly much larger than my typical offerings for crappies, they weren't productive.  I have a size 6 Salmo Chubby Darter that I will work it for Walleyes and that's works well.  To imagine the concept of a smaller Edge Trembler and smaller Subwalk but with a bit more weight, those would be marvelous.  Alas, stuck with the Can't make a lure work if it wasn't designed to work it for ice fishing.

...but that still didn't stop me from tinkering with different lures...

[slipperybob]

If spinning blades works so well for open water fishing, why can't it work for vertical jigging as well.  For the most part a spoon especially that of a jigging spoon does exactly what it's suppose to do, as well as a beetle spin harness.  Well I started with inline spinners, figure they ought to work.  I kind of expected that with the tiny ones especially the Mepps 00 sized ones were too light to sink well.  They are listed at 1/18th oz in weight but due to lure type they feel a lot lighter.  That also works against the sink rate as the lure profile is resistant to water streamline.  The dance from the spinner blade does it's job with just a slight rod tip shake.  However the concept of an actual spinning blade on the crank, just wasn't working.  It needs sort of about 2-3 feet of a start up and in terms of vertical fishing, that usually is too much of a distance for cold temperature fish.  So there goes that idea.  In fact and old school method of having a lure weight and bead and clevis with blade on the line works far better and gives roughly the same inline spinner appearance.  Because there is no metal wire, it also makes it a bite easier on the light bites.  Again it's about baiting the lure.

However there leads to still the promising effect of having a spinning blade.  So in concept there are lures that which I can doctor up with a tail spinner.  The use of a swivel and blade with split rings to make the attachment of course.  It sort of was band aid solution to an otherwise nonproductive metal blade bait from Northland.  It was during the time of their Live Forage series.  Profile wise the lures look great.  All of their spoons in the Live Forage series worked.  The Moxie Minnow Spoon was especially productive being fished bare metal.  The problem was their blade baits.  There were simply no vibe action to them.  Not sure if I need to rip them harder and faster or for more distance, I just wasn't getting much of any action except for the lure rocking back and forth on a rod tip shake.  So I experimented with attaching a spinning blade to the rear.  Of which while jigging and such the spinning blade provided the wobble and vibe that induces onto the blade bait.  It allowed the lure to dive and the tail spinner will spin.  A slight rod tip shake and the tail spinner dances.  A slight lift of the lure and the tail spinner spins.  Now the only real problem was with hook up ratio.  Sure the fish came in and bite, but with soft bites they weren't inhaling the lure with a hook point.  Not sure if they're just lipping the blade or just the head of the lure.  I'm just guessing as I see the rod tip react with a slight pull but again no hook up.  Again obviously if I bait the lure, it would be almost no different than any other baited lure. 

However this intrigued me to expand into other lures especially those of the tail spinner type of lures.  Again they're more so of an open water type of lure but designed more so for their vertical yoyo fishing style.  I got the Revenge Tail Spinner lures and choose the smaller of the two.  Still it came in at 1/2 oz. weight.  It was a bit hefty and was pushing the limit of my Perch Sweetheart rod in term of lure control.  The problem again was with lure tangle in the tight vertical ice hole.  The spinning blade was a bit too much and would wrap into the soft 4# lines.  At first I figured I would tie up a leader line of like 20# mono and it worked, but there wasn't any satisfaction from that solution.  Eventually I settled onto a solution of a metal wire.  I used a short metal wire of about 4 inches and round bend the end to make connection and a line tie eyelet.  Which worked very well and to an added benefit was a metal banging noise maker as the metal spinning blade would make contact with the metal wire.  Dinner bell is ringing and works great for a calling.  Well this lure configuration does require baiting the belly treble although the lure profile itself looks too good.  Wish they would make an 1/8th oz. weight version and size because it would probably be just the right configuration and size for panfish under the ice.

...And the tinkering keeps on...

[slipperybob]

When those soft plastics swim baits hit the market, I saw a potential for them for ice fishing.  They worked well enough for open water and even while rigged under a slip bobber.  So I have purchased several of them, especially the Storm lures version.  They were cheap enough and they were available.  I like how the paddle tail works while jigging and cranking them back in open water.  The majority of them stays horizontal when suspended.  However there was a catch to it all while vertically ice fishing that seems to just not work out for me.

First of all, the majority of them have a good sink rate, even with the 1/8th oz size lures.  The 1/4 oz. size lures did so even so much better.  The tail would paddle wiggle on the sink as well as the jigging part.  I think the problem is that the paddle tail is doing a bit too much action and the lure is doing too much just plain vertical up and down.  This is a bit strange as since I use the Northland Mimic Minnow in the 1/16th oz size with a paddle tail before and it worked just fine for catching crappies and perch.  For somehow these Storm soft plastic swim baits are just not getting fish to bite on them.   I just don't get it.  Lure profile in shape and size, they ought to work.  There is something that I'm missing or some other factor that is not triggering that final seal the deal. 

From a perspective, I wonder if just having that belly treble is enough to deter a fish from biting it.  That just doesn't make much sense to me as since if a fish was willing to bite the belly hook of a Salmo Chubby darter bare naked and all.  Why won't it bite a soft plastic lure that has better features and representation?  The answer eludes me.  And here goes a weird off shot experiment.  There was this tiny Blue Fox jig with an under belly spinner much in the same way as the Blakemore Road Runner under belly spinner or Northland's Crappie Thunder jig.  The Blue Fox was much smaller and I'd figure that it would be more easier to catch fish on it.  Well for some odd reason that lure just doesn't work and fish just don't bite it.  One for the profile is right, but seems like the weight and/or action doesn't produce.  A few things about it that doesn't seem to work out is vertical jigging is much slower and the blade just doesn't spin.  Well it shouldn't matter as much because other jig heads of similar size still gets bitten with soft plastics.  And this one is a soft plastic swimbait in design with better details.  Just something about it didn't work so well.  Even when I did get subtle bites, there was always no hook up.  Again I am thinking the fish are hitting the blade only and there's no hook there.  So then I change the blade out for a treble hook.  Figure if fish were biting from the under the belly then perhaps they'll bite the treble and get hooked.  Well now there's no biting at all.  Strangely weird how a fish would ignore treble hooks from one lure and then totally avoid it in this one.  Perhaps it's just the lure. 

Now I still keep these soft plastic swim baits around, because I know they work.  For somehow they don't seem to be productive for ice fishing and that eludes me.  Now I did tinker with one lure and it was the flat tail swim bait version.  I re-rig it so that it was sideways so that I would be able to jig the lure and make the tail flap up and down.  Well concept wise it worked but again fish didn't want it.  Could not make this one work.

...Have to rethink the tinkering think...

[river_scum]

have tried a three-way rig to run it around down there? sorry if you did, I didn't read all the data.  gota go do that 4 letter word. lol

I did a similar thing way back when "suspenda strips and dots" stick on weights came out.  I stuck them on a rattle trap so it hung nose down a bit.  rip jig it to get their attention from long away, then hold on!  I like to use it around my tip ups to call fish into the area.  it does work and still use it more than 20yrs later. it is a vertical presentation though obviously.

now to get a crank to run off to side you need wings glued on it.  that's going to ruin the wobble of it though. I often wondered if you couldnt run one around on a cane pole, under the ice, and get bit.  fish are stupid after all and like to chase things. lol

there are plastics with wings that go horizontal very well.  the puddle jumper is a great design.  a big airplane jig head with a plastic worm is almost hypnotizing in the test tank! still limited to a circle depending on depth.

don't fret thy will have remote lures run with live scope in a year or two.

[slipperybob]

The blade bait battle.

In concept it's proven to catch fish and that's open water.  Now about vertically jigging it in an ice hole.  Well once again, we're dealing with vertical straight up and down a little space.  The concept sounds good as well as the vibration give off.  The theory sounds promising as with the given function of such lures.  The reality is it don't work!  I still like the Reef Runner Cicada blade baits.  It just looks so appetizing to a fish.  There is just something missing.  Ah the fall.  The sink does nothing.

What have I tried?  Johnson Thin fisher the smallest one.  Why can't I get them to bite it?  Northland Live Forage Minnow blade baits.  Still nothing will bite it.  Well I take that back, nothing will bite and get hooked onto it.  Damiki Vault Blade bait.  Again why don't they bite and get hooked.  Such is the result of ice fishing.  They want something to seal the deal.

Perhaps I just haven't found the correct presentation or the correct scenario.  Once again I'm stuck on baiting them for results.  Which once again means they're nothing more than just weights.  But are they?  Perhaps just not the right forage for crappies.

[slipperybob]

The blade bait battle becomes...

Shortly after I thought it wasn't so productive, I stumbled upon new variation of blade bait from Major Craft.  The Jigpara Blade bait seems promising.  At 1/4 oz and 3/16th oz with a length of 1 and 3/4 inch they're just small enough and just light enough to pull off the job.  Now it was just a chance but they did produce some results, but far better than what I've ever had before experienced.  I wasn't even on a hot bite, it was very slow to say.  Yet to even trigger fish to look at and bite the lure was something.

Perhaps it was the culmination of prior experience to led up to this point.  Now this particular lure was not getting tangled, was vibrating when jigged, and did solicit bites.  So I'm not giving up on this concept.  As a matter of fact I decided to buy another variety.  Steelshad Blade bait at 2 inches long and 1/4 oz in weight.  I will plan to use it on my next chance.

[stripernut]

For a blade bait, I have good luck with the Sabile Vibra in both open and ice fishing. I have some of the tiny ones for pan fish, but have not gotten around to using them yet as I spend most of my time jigging for preditors... 3/4 oz all the way to 11 oz for the salt, glow, prism, great colors, but it is the action that I like the best.

[slipperybob]

For a blade bait, I have good luck with the Sabile Vibra in both open and ice fishing. I have some of the tiny ones for pan fish, but have not gotten around to using them yet as I spend most of my time jigging for preditors... 3/4 oz all the way to 11 oz for the salt, glow, prism, great colors, but it is the action that I like the best.

I have one of them Sebile Vibrato and tried it a little bit for crappies. It's the smallest one they make but still a little large of a profile for small crappies.  Perfect for crappies 10" and upwards.  So I don't have much time on it to tell a definitive story for it since the smallest one was also only been made available in recent years.  It's on my list of to use more often for ice fishing.  It is one of the more unique designs. Since the lure was intended for ice fishing, it's not part of my endeavor to use an open water lure for ice fishing tryout purpose.

[stripernut]

Mr. Sebile does not ice fish and it was not designed for ice fishing, but they make them for it now. Sadly they stopped making the larger ones over an oz.

[slipperybob]

Oh! I only learned about it as an ice fishing lure.  I'm gonna give it some experimental tryouts.

[slipperybob]

The blade bait bumbles...

So got around to just testing a few blade baits in the bucket.

The Steelshad at 2 inches and 1/4 oz weight.  All I could do was those few inches of up and down, but seeing how the tail hook catches onto the line too easily, it's a bit disheartening.  Straight up vertical jigging dynamics is quite different from open water retrieve performance.

6th Sense Slice Blade Bait  at 2 inches and 3/8th oz. weight.  I couldn't see any vibe in those few inches of water.  However seeing how well the blade bait balances with that keel weight has a very promising outlook.  It has a nice balanced upright sink, so not prone to get tail hooked line.  Due to lure shad profile body height, it does have a larger size in comparison to other 2 inches length lure.