Thread: 1" ice minnow

Bears had a 1" Ice minnow that looked way too tempting so I ordered the mold a couple days ago and it showed up here tonight. I gotta say, I like this little guy.

As shown in the pic, it measures slightly over the advertised 1". The tail section is nothing but movement. I could not hold it quiet. The two color shot was a challenge for the old eyes but in better light I think I'll do fine. I only had 4mm eyes but I really wanted to see what eyes did for it and they make this minnow look just like a juvenile pin minnow....wow is all I can say.

The mold shoots 15 baits at a pop and the mold shoots very easy. I can see a very close relationship building betwixt this mold and I. This mold gets a high five from me.

Been wondering about that mold. Have not seen any baits in a good pic until now. Gonna order a couple of them now. Great looking baits for sure. Thanks for posting.CF

Thursday I rigged the ones I had on a size 10 Clown Diamond jig. Gill Getters work, too, if you want the smaller hook sizes; there is a tungsten version out now from one of the suppliers that adds a bit of weight. On ice line the smaller jigs that fish heavy work just fine, that would include the Mooska types and Fat Boys, too. These are all essentially horizontal or 45 degrees of vertical when they hang, which is about all I fish anymore. If there is any hook shyness, I find the smaller hooks are more acceptable. The perch were inhaling them requiring a forceps to unhook several of them, everyone of them hooked in the roof of the mouth, too. There was also one hammerhandle pike maybe 16/17" and one bluegill of about 7". No question about the strikes either. We did have a couple of very soft takes and some little tiny bit of sunny nibble, but most of the bite took the rod tip down and hooked themselves. Most of the bite came up hot and when the flasher lines merged the noodle rod tip took a dive. There was no response on spikes, and pretty much only lookers for other plastics and mostly the same on waxies. Very little action was imparted but that tail never seems to stop waving, you cannot hold the rod steady enough for it to stop, you have to put it down for that.

What weight jig and size hook do you use for those? They look great!

Originally Posted by Percidae_Papermouth

What weight jig and size hook do you use for those? They look great!

I plan to use either a 1/32 head with a #6 or a #8 hook. On these I'll likely lean towards jigs with sickle hooks too for just a hair more hook gap. I make the jigs and tend to lean on the 1/32 with an 8 hook on smaller baits such as these. The heads are collar-less too.

they look good enough to eat you did an outstanding job they look fabulous.

I'm loving this plastics stuff. So many ways to manipulate the colors do do different things. Even small baits can take on an intensity not seen in any of the commercial baits and plastics. People stuck on the store-bought and commercial plastics are really missing the boat.

That will give you a lot of tail action for sure. Nice Job.

Mo,

This is not the winter to learn about ice fishing, if you are at all leery. Some 8 or 9 vehicles have gone through the ice just in my home county, Hennepin in Minnesota this winter. There have been a number of people who didn't make it out. Our county sheriff ordered all county lakes closed to drive on, it has been so undependable. There was a definite amount of griping about that, but there really isn't the normal amount of relatively safe ice up here this year. Way way too warm. Quite a few businesses have been hurt by the mild winter. I don't much blame the sheriff either.

I will underscore what has been said about the tiny rattail plastics in this thread. They work on all kinds of species and it is not just in the winter. The ones with the most active tails work best, too. We are also finding that it doesn't pay to overlook the blues and transparent blue cast ones either. My partner lost a very good pike right at the hole (he couldn't get the head started) on his last blue luv nub to a cut off there. This winter alone they have taken largemouths, pike, carp and even a couple of white suckers besides the targeted panfish. We keep them around all summer too. You really never know just what kind of fish will pick up the little plastics next. About as big as we ever go any time of the year is the Bobby Garland 2" Baby Shad almost never on a jig bigger than 1/32 with a size 6 hook.

Everything eats tiny quite frequently if not by volume, including muskies. I caught three of them up to 32" last summer on the little plastics, and I know they were direct takes, because I saw two of the three of them happen, that was in addition to something like a dozen and a half cutoffs. Last summer also produced a number of walleyes, too. BTW that was all fishing on foot and all on ultralight targeting panfish.

Very nice. Maybe santa forgot one of my packages .