old mold I hardly ever shoot ideal for ice fishing.

[snake River]

I've had this old mold for quite a while it's a little stinger it should be ideal for ice fishing also an ideal bluegill bait but I would imagine that all the warm water game fish would go crazy over this little guy.

[arkansasbowhunter]

Small guy there

[lowe175]

Would be great for blue gills

[shipahoy41]

Ideal for a 1/64 th ounce jig head Bob. Nice job.

[CTom]

What's the length on that Bob? I have a similar mold that makes a 1 1/2" stinger and its too large for most thru-the-ice applications for panfish and most crappies. Most everyone up in this area likes a much smaller bait with a super whispy tail and not much more than 1" overall. By wispy tail I mean one that if you hold the body of the bait you cannot keep the tail from going absolutely wild. The stinger like this that I have is a super open water bait and is one of two go-to baits I carry a lot of.

[CTom]

Here Bob....this is what I think of when I think of an ice bait....

[snake River]

ctom they are 11/2" thank you for the information. I believe you have the same mold as I do .

[shipahoy41]

What's the length on that Bob? I have a similar mold that makes a 1 1/2" stinger and its too large for most thru-the-ice applications for panfish and most crappies. Most everyone up in this area likes a much smaller bait with a super whispy tail and not much more than 1" overall. By wispy tail I mean one that if you hold the body of the bait you cannot keep the tail from going absolutely wild. The stinger like this that I have is a super open water bait and is one of two go-to baits I carry a lot of.

Kinda like this 1" baby shad stinger. I love them and make myself a bunch of them.

[CTom]

That looks like a sweet shad bait Mike. I make a Bear's 1" Ice Minnow that's quite similar. Shown here next to a 1/32 head on a #6 hook you can see how fine the tail gets.



I have these in our local bait shop in several colors and they sell all year long, not just for ice fishing. I get special orders for them from several people who use them on northern waters for big bluegills after the spawn. I use them a lot here for crappies in open water when they are feeding tight to bridge and dock pilings. Right now at this time of year I fish a lot of marinas, I love jigging the pilings vertically off the docks. From those same docks I'll catch an occasional walleye of large proportions when they come in to gorge on all the forage that's available. Each of the last six years I have caught at least one walleye each fall that's gone between 9 and 11 pounds, all using this little minnow bait and a jig with a #8 hook. Go figure that old phrase "big bait, big fish". lol

[CTom]

Here are some that I just did this morning for Thursday's trip to the river.



The body color is what I call my "gunmetal bluegill". Instead of a clear plastic for my usual bluegill, this has a wee bit of black and blue in it to smoke it a little and then a liberal shot of gunmetal, blue and a hair of green and copper glitters are added. The gunmetal glitter is slick stuff. It looks black at one angle but then fires right up to a dark, shiney chrome in another. This color combination shown here has been crazy good to us since mid summer in larger baits so I had to whip a few of these 1" ice minnows using the combo color that's been hot to try on the docks.