Not jigs but an excellent lure

[hays47]

Was pming with Attica about ice fishing and I told him about search lures. For those of you who have icefished for awhile this is probably old news. The lure does work all year round though.

Basically you buy a jigging spoon ( Kastmaster , Swedish Pimple , Northland etc ) take the treble hook off. Tie a 2 to 3 inch dropper on the split ring. On other end tie either a single hook , small treble , pinmin , tiny jig or whatever. Tip bare hook or lure with some kind of meat- minnow , waxworm , maggots I have even used piece of nightcrawler. If ice fishing use 1/12 oz to 1/4 oz. size spoon. If boat fishing open water 1/12 oz t0 3/4 oz spoon.

How to work it - This lure works for aggressive fish mostly. Let spoon drop until it hits bottom and then pick it up and let it hit bottom again. What you are trying to accomplish is to create a underwater dirt cloud. Once you created the cloud raise the lure a foot to a foot and a half from the bottom.

Why this works - Some fish , perch especially, raise these dirt clouds searching for bloodworms or other aquatic life. It also attracts other fish such as walleye as they feed on perch. I have caught just about every fresh water specie that I can think of on this gizmo.

The flash of the spoon , the dirt cloud , the movement all help to trigger any fishes attention. Using it on the ice the lure gets down to active fish fast but still maintains the smallness so important in icefishing on the business end.
Watching my vexilar I can tell if the fish are interested and adjust speed of jigging to trigger them into biting.

I finally tried using them on open water when I could not get some finicky crappie and perch to bite. I could see them on the fishfinder but they were not interested. Since it was two weeks after iceout I reasoned that what worked 3 weeks ago might work now. It allowed me to catch enough for a nice dinner. I did not slay them but it beat the heck out of a big zero.

Limitations of lure-- only vertical presentation , often they will hit something else faster. Usually takes a lot of expiermentation such as what spoon size /color that is going to work that day. The reason they call it a search lure is that they do find fish. They won't catch fish everyday but they sure do up my odds most days.

[Baxter1]

Doug Stange from the In-Fisherman always talks about these.I use them quite often also,they work.