Plastics through the ice?

[no1son]

Size isn't the only consideration for plastics. Color and style and presentation all count, too. The Little Atom tails are very good, staples for many up here, but by no means the only ones, not by a long shot. Do not stick with one that is not catching fish. That is the real strength of plastic offerings, you can carry a whole tackle box of options in a pocket. Last evening we had to keep changing out poles and the offerings on them to keep taking fish, and keep moving from hole to hole to find more than one willing. That happens on ice as well as open water.

Last evening our very tiny offerings took perch and sunnies, but they also took several largemouths up to a good three pounds and one small pike. We had lookers at everything we put down, including buckshot rattle spoons, but we missed something to get them to finalize the deal. We moved through a whole lot of holes and very often caught the "greeter" but then nothing else just marks moving up and down around our offerings.

I am going to rig up a couple of dropper rigs with the tiny tails suspended off a larger attractor this afternoon.

It pays to remember that if you have the interest but cannot close the deal, you need to change something. Don't stay with the same thing that isn't working. Plastics offer a large variety of options not available to live bait in color, size, and pattern, but you can't just let them hang or you will generally just sit. The action need not be much, in fact, often less in more as long as there is something even if just once in a while. At other times you will have to work them vigorously, and that you must work out on every outing.

Another thing is that reeling back up and doing a new drop will sometimes trigger another greeter. Those that come up to meet a descending bait are the most likely to try to eat it. Then what you want to see are more than one mark moving up to look over the bait, very often they will compete for it, and you want to see the marks moving up quickly, those will be the most eager biters.

[Crappie 1]

That's what I had last night. "greeters", then nothing. I'm going to a good lake tomorrow. Last time there I got 15 nice Crappie. I have my plastic arsenal packed, along with some minnows & waxies. Just been a weird winter for fishing. I expect when the ice starts to go it will get better..

[no1son]

This evening we had a lot of followers but very little bite, except for the two nice largemouths both about 16" or just under 3#. They were fun on the noodle sticks with 2# test, and just about filled the 6" holes, too. We pretty much figured out the followers were dink sunnies, too small to take the size 10 hooks even. Both bass took a size 10 yellow fatboy with a 1" white luv nub tail. We are used to bass showing up now and again in crappie fishing during open water, but the ones we have taken off this lake are the first we have ever taken through the ice, and they are not from the same spots, they seem to be scattered around, too.

This lake is proving to be real fascinating. There seems to be dink sunnies every where we have drilled holes. Some other places have perch, some up to ten inches. We are seeing pike, and even took a couple of decoy sized suckers. We haven't yet found our crappies, though, beyond just a single one about 5 or 6". The bass are the big surprise. I never expected to see a sucker through the ice either, but we have taken two of them in past few weeks.

A very interesting lake.

[Crappie 1]

We went today. While I was experimenting with plastics & jigs my wife caught 7 Crappie. I finally caught 2 on a really small pink jig with pink hair on the back. Put 2 Spikes on it.. I'll keep trying...

[no1son]

That's about as good a setup to learn in as you can get, if you are willing to take a little razzing from the Mrs. in the process. You know they are there, and your wife's minnows show you what depth. Her catch is your "control" to measure against. One word of advice is not to jig too hard, and watch very carefully for soft bite. Sometimes the rod just feels wrong a very little bit. Actual strikes may not be very common.

Once you get it down, your Mrs may try her hand at it and beat you there too. The ladies with their softer touch can get very good at it very quickly.

If you aren't fishing with a flasher or some other kind of depth finder, that will also help you a bunch.

[Crappie 1]

Ya, I have an FL 18 The bite was so light that if we wouldn't have been using 24" noodle rods, we would have never known we had a bite. My wife is a really good fisherman year around. She catches as many fish as I do. Makes up her own baits etc. Heres a picture of our dog with the Crappie.com tag on. In front of her is the Crappie we brought home, Should have put them on a board or something...

[no1son]

One thing that really helped me when I switched over to plastics was realizing that a whole lot of the bite was going to be soft, very soft. As it turns out with the bonus gamefish we take, their bite is also seldom more than a tick, except for yearling bass... We became absolutely devoted line watchers and use very soft poles all year around for our crappies. More often than not with the tiny plastics the take is a sip rather than a strike. I have even seen full sized muskies do that. I got a chance to watch Cabelas feed the panfish tank one morning. There is a very marked difference in how crappies and bluegills take their forage. We very often still get surprised at how deep some of the crappies have taken the plastics with so little feel about it on the line, and that goes for the real slabs as well as the more average fish. Watching them feed especially when the initial frenzy was over and they were finishing off the straggler minnows explained a whole lot.

[Crappie 1]

Hey no1son: I figured out how to use those plastics and catch fish. You put a couple spikes or wax worms on the hook. Got a bunch of Bluegills tonight but only 6 keepers. Had a red jig/pink & brown hair, I put a couple Spikes on it and they really went for it. Also tried a Tad Pole from Bob's Jigs on a yellow jig and got a really nice Small Mouth. We have a storm coming in tonight and the fish were biting pretty good.

[no1son]

That is certainly one way that works a lot of times. That is why so many manufacturers put scent and taste into the plastic bodies they make. There are so many different ways to use these things that pretty much the sky is the limit. The bottom line is always do they catch. Nothing that I know of says you have to be a purist in any of the options. With even a small number of plastic choices you can change to something else if what you have isn't working or you can work some sort of combination.

There are even times when I get on a good bite, I will switch to something new to see if I can get that working. That is the best time to try something new. You found fish willing to bite which answers the most important first two questions. If it clicks, you have just added another option to your arsenal.

You are seeing the front edge of the storm going through here right now. It is the 28th day of February and in Minneapolis it is raining. It might turn to snow after midnight but the worst part of the storm is going north of us this time. More towards weekend, and then the first week of March it is supposed to be in the 50's. Some winter!

[DroptineJoe]

I've caught alot of crappie on Ratso's and RatFinkee's but I have absolutely slayed huge crappie on the smallest Rapala Jigging Rap!! Those big girls flat out thump the raps!!!