2/01/2001
- Articles
Unconventional
Spooning
By Noel Vick with On Ice Tour
The
jigging spoon. It is to
ice fishing what soft plastic worms are to bass and streamers are to
trout¼effective, time honored, and constantly being reinvented.
Largely
associated with gamefish, jigging spoons have been used for decades
on walleyes, lake trout, salmon, and pike.
But their use drops greatly when crappies, sunfish, and perch
enter the fold - notice I said use and not usefulness.
On Ice Tour has identified numerous jigging spoon
applications for smaller fish species, and they’d like to share
some with open minded ice anglers.
The
Spoon and Its Role
The
stereotypical jigging spoon is metal in composition and hangs
vertically. Some have
metal finishes while others sport flamboyant paints and even
holographic images of baitfish.
Most carry a treble hook, which dangles from the bottom, and
a few offer single hooks. Shapes,
sizes, and curvatures vary, but essentially, each and every model
aims to imitate injured baitfish, and this mimicry is created
through flash, color, sound, and vibration.
Plainly
stated, jigging spoons are aggressive lures.
They’re built for searching-out active fish and drawing
others from great distances. Sure
enough, you can reduce spoon size and slow things down when fish
seem sluggish, but under those circumstances, there are more
suitable options.
All
spoons are not created equal. It’s
important to choose a spoon size and shape to match the conditions
at hand. This is
especially true when pursuing discriminating feeders like bluegills
and crappies. It’s necessary to consider overall water depth to lure
weight; lure color as it applies to water clarity; matching lure
action to apparent fish aggressiveness; hook size to fish’s mouth
size; colors that match naturally occurring forage, etc.
The
remainder is broken down into “species categories”, allowing us
to make precise references and suggestions.
In ice fishing, the subtlest details often make a difference.
Jumbo
Perch
It’s
necessary to qualify perch as jumbos and non-jumbos, because
anything smaller than a jumbo is bait.
But in all fairness, jumbo means different things to
different people in different regions - I consider anything
9-inches or better a jumbo.
Of
the three - perch, sunfish, and crappies - perch are the most likely
to welcome spoons. Their
meat eating nature is closer to a walleye’s than a panfish.
And true jumbos eat some pretty big grub.
Upsized
jigging spoons are one of our favorite perch weapons.
Big perch love them, and contrary to popular belief, chunky
spoons sometimes stimulate responses from lethargic fish. On Ice Tour dispels the rigid formula of always downsizing
when times get tough.
Leech
Lake (MN) guide, Brian “Bro” Brosdahl hooks some serious hogs on
a 3/8th-ounce, Glow Perch, Northland Buck-Shot Rattle
Spoon. Conventional
wisdom asserts that Bro’s spoon is too large and gaudy for jigging
perch in only 10-feet of water.
But if you’d seen what I’ve seen, the questioning would
end. Gigantic perch,
some 12 and 13-inchers, inhale Bro’s immense spoon faster than a
petite freshwater shrimp.
What
we call Desert Storming is an effective method for rustling
up jumbos, especially over sand.
Take your spoon, which is garnished with a minnow head, and
bang it on the bottom. The
spoon kicks-up sand and causes quite a disturbance.
Perch are drawn to the commotion, imagining they’ve
approached a wounded minnow or agitated crayfish.
Speaking
of crayfish, On Ice Tour’s Chip Leer often tries to imitate the
sound of crayfish clattering around on the lake floor. To achieve
this, he adds a couple of Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Beads above his
spoon. Not only do they
add sound, but also a taste of color.
The
same spoons are ideal for making short droplines.
A dropline consists of de-hooked spoon attached to a short
snell that ultimately ties into a hook or small lure - perch love
them. The spoon portion draws fish in while the simplistic and
natural hook and bait prompt ‘em to feed.
Professional
angler, Tommy Skarlis uses a customized dropline for times when
perch seem less-than-interested.
He removes the treble hook of a Lindy Rattl’r Spoon and
replaces it with a six-inch segment of three or four pound test
monofilament. To it,
Tommy ties in an #10 or #12 Aberdeen hook and dresses it with
Berkley Power Wigglers (wax worm looking things).
Chip’s
dropline is for normal perch feeding behavior, which is fairly
positive. Beneath a
hook-less Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon, he works in a shorter
three-inch section of Berkley Vanish (four-pound test) and a
green/chartreuse #6 Northland Fire-Eye Attractor Hook.
For bait, Chip impales a whole crappie minnow or the noggin
of a fathead. The short
three-inch leash is just enough to separate the dinner bell from the
meal.
Crappies
Ah
yes, the beloved papermouth. I
dare say that sparse numbers of ice anglers regularly spoon
for crappies. Chip and
Tommy have been experimenting with spoons on crappies for some time,
and with success worth mentioning.
After all, we know that crappies attack things that flash,
glow, and vibrate; so why not jigging spoons?
Crappies
are opportunistic feeders. They
graze on various microorganisms as well as baitfish.
Finned forage is particularly important to large crappies and
ones feeding, regardless of size, at dawn, dusk, and overnight.
Therefore, we offer minnow-imitating spoons during low light
periods and when serious slabs are on the prowl.
Chip
and Tommy mesmerize crappies with propped baits.
For example, Tommy discovered that the whirling propeller of
a Lindy Pow’r Dart is a serious trigger.
He pulls it through suspended schools of crappies. The irresistible sight and sound activates certain members
and they follow.
A
similar pulsing and spinning does the trick for Chip, but he works a
Northland Whistler Bee, which is actually a modified jig; the
flashing propeller makes it spoon-like.
To it, Chip lip hooks a whole minnow.
You
can also rely on downsized versions of popular jigging spoons.
Northland’s Forage Minnow now comes in a crappie-sized 1/16th-ounce
model. Understanding
that crappies respond favorably to glow-paint and the color pink,
Chip favors the Glow Rainbow pattern.
The smallest size Lindy Rattl’r Spoon is also readymade for
hardwater crappies.
Bluegills
If
your head wasn’t shaking at the notion of spooning crappies,
it’s about to. The
biggest and meanest bluegills in virtually any body of water feed on
baitfish and cannibalize tiny bluegills.
And as unconventional as it might appear, jigging spoons
match this behavior.
Tommy
goes into tinkering-mode. He
takes the smallest Lindy Rattl’r Spoon and replaces its treble
with a long-shank Aberdeen (#10) hook and loads it up with wax
worms. Chip’s choice
is a single hooked Northland Forage Minnow (#8) with maggots.
In both cases, the boys lean toward yellows and oranges,
which are classic bluegill colors.
Our
good buddy Bro supports these lure choices, but he elaborates. Bro takes his wax worm covered spoon and rips it violently.
The intense action creates a cloud of worm bits and pieces.
Bluegill-radar locks in and soon there’s a school of
excited fish around. Hopefully, bullish ‘gills will strike what’s left on the
hook, but if that’s not happening, he quickly lowers a System
Tackle Fat Boy with a single waxy - his chances of hooking ‘gills
on the small jig are about 99%.
To
employ such “non-finesse” tactics demands untypical panfish
gear. Your rod needs to be stiffer, quicker, and shorter than
usual. The new
26-inch, medium action Dave Genz Signature Lightning Rod rocks! Originally intended for walleyes, the boys find its hardier
composition ideal for presenting spoons to perch and panfish.
You
can disqualify super-ultra-light lines because they’re too wimpy. Instead, spool-up Berkley Vanish or Micro Ice in four to
six-pound strengths - both types maintain relative invisibility in
these line weights. The
added potency is better suited for pumping spoons, and you’ll be
prepared if a rankled walleye or northern pike arrives.
We
understand that using jigging spoons on certain quarry is a little
unconventional. However,
if we flash and flutter and forget the norm, bluegills, crappies,
and perch will soon be picking up good vibrations.
On
Ice Tour is an intensive effort directed at expanding the sport of
ice fishing. Cofounders
Chip Leer and Tommy Skarlis offer public seminars and kid’s
clinics; appear at in-store events; exhibit at sport shows and ice
fishing competitions; broadcast a weekly radio show and conduct
hands-on product demonstrations.
On Ice Tour produces an annual ice fishing publication (On
Ice), and they can be found on the Internet at www.onicetour.com
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