Swim baits

[Neal/CO]

I don't have any experience fishing for walleyes thru the ice. It looks like that will finally change this winter (safe ice). I recently purchased some jigging raps and Nil Master Jr. Jigging Shads. What is the best way to fish these baits? Aggressive or subtle? I have alot of experience with jigging spoons but zero experience with these baits.

[EricCO]

You got enough for me?

I have some blade baits and spoons and one jigging rapala and then the rest of my jigging stuff are huge slabs used at Big Mac. Wonder what a 1 oz slab would do to my Thorne Bros rod?

[Neal/Co]

I have a bunch of 1/4 oz Cicada's and Rocker minnows and some swedish pimples. I guess we will have to experiment with the swim baits until the fish tell us what they want? That's why I went with the heavier Pro Glass model from Thornes, it has plenty of backbone. Hard to believe there is storm bearing down us as nice as it is today?

[crash]

There was a real good article in the last In-fish abot jigging these.

Seems a little shake, then lift, pause, dip, fall, start over was the way to go about it. But yes experiment to see what the fish wants, you got a good flasher right? Sometimes pounding the bottom lightly to kick up some mud gets their attention.

Some guys put a minner head on the bottom hook. And replace that bottom hook with one a little bigger. This deadens the action, but we used to stick one minner on every hook point when fishing the Saginaw river in the winter.

Neal, you gonna come to "my" get-together? Somebody's gotta show these salt boys how to Walleye fish. hehehehehe

[Neal/CO]

Looks like you are having fun with your new project!! I hope you have a better turnout for you get-together than we did. Wasn't it me that said "don't worry it never snows in early October".

[crash]

Hey, we never catch huge landlocked stripers in May.

Hope that trick works for me! hehehehe

[Tracy]

Neal,
I have had a lot of luck with Jigging Rapalas (black/silver) when the fish would not take other baits. Some days the fish would seem to prefer a 6" to 18" verticle snap with a slack line return to rest, but the greastest success I have had with Rapalas was doing what I call the rocking chair. This is a non-stop jigging motion up and down keeping tension on the line at all times. Letb the jig hit the bottom, raise up 2-4" then begin this steady motion of lifting your rod upward 1 to 2 feet. When you hit the top allow the jig to swim back down on a tight line as soon as your bait reaches the bottom of this stroke lift it right back up again (just like the rythym of a rocking chair). The fish will usually take right at the bottom of this motion.
Good luck!!

[Minnesota]

I like to give the rod tip 1 or 2 long sweeping lifts to get the attention of the fish that maybe are just far enough away that they can't see the lure when it is sitting still or barely moving. I follow it up with a medium sweep so they have something to maybe zero in on on their way over. Then I let the lure fall to a rest. For about the next minute I alternate between 5 seconds of jiggling or shaking my rod tip lightly and letting the lure sit stationary. Sometimes it seems like they will only snap at it when the lure is stationary. I am not sure if my reasoning for what I do is accurate but it seems to work o.k. I usually tip the bottom treble with a waxie or a minnow head. I also like to replace the bottom treble that comes with these types of baits with one that is 1 size larger. They are kind of like fishing with jigging spoons in that your flasher will tell you what they want. Try something, if it makes the fish swim off, change it up until you find something that will make them snap. Know what I mean?

[WAeyes]

Neil, I fish the Jigging Raps almost exclusively. In clear water, I would error on the subtle side. If your not sure how it looks when jigging it a certain way, then drop it down your hole a few feet where you can still see it and experiment with it. It has been my experience that a medium to subtle jigging motion works best most of the time. The fish will hit it stationary 90% of the time and 50% of those hits you wont feel until you go to jig it up again and there is resistance. Man I love that! I normally dont use a minnow head on it, I dont think it helps and I also think it effects the swimming motion.