On the 28th of November JigTwins posted some info and a couple pictures of 2 new ice baits that Contraband Baits have made available. One of those, the Kraken really got my eye and I had to get a couple to try. I wanted them for dock fishing. Things got hectic shortly after they arrived and yesterday I finally managed to slip away from a couple hours with a buddy and we hit the docks looking to see if the crappies and sunfish has indeed moved on with the foul weather we've seen of late. We were rewarded with a few fish but not lots. I managed to get a picture of one of the baits rigged on a 1/80 jighead tied to 1 pound mono. The mono isn't very visible in the picture being clear and after I got this shot of the bait I put the camera in my pocket until I got a fish. Of course I forgot to shut the camera off and the battery went dead for my fish shot 5 minutes later....but I got the plastic rigged picture!
The water was froze and we had to kick out some ice to fish. It wasn't real cold with the temps in the 20's and the wind wasn't a factor for a change. The water was about 17 feet deep where I dropped my line and on the first drop the line bowed after about four feet of drop. Typical crappie hit and I brought up a scrappy five incher. I dropped down again and got to about the same place in the water column and the line bowed again and again another short came to the top. I figured there was a mess of these dinks hanging right there so I stomped hard on the dock a couple times and dropped again, this time making it to the bottom. The stomp tends to spook the fish close to the dock enough that they leave things alone for a couple minutes.
I started my typical uphill jigging sequence I like to use for sunfish, especially those tight to the bottom, and within a foot the line moved just a hair, enough for me to know that I'd be hit. I set the hook and it felt just a bit heavier than the short crappies and that circular run soon told me my target sunfish was on the line. A few moments later a scrappy 8" pumpkinseed came to hand. Out came the camera and ....and....dead battery.
We traveled light that day taking only our rods, a few jigs and the three colors of the Kraken baits along with a net and a bucket. Honestly we didn't need anything more. We didn't slay the fish but we did manage to get five crappies that taped between 12" and 13" that followed us home for my buddies dinner. The Kraken is a solid bait for you ice guys. And while we never found the need to, the filmy thin tentacles can be plucked off leaving only 4 or two to give the fish more focus if they get finicky. These are a great bait. Here's the one rigged....
http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/IMG_1237.jpg
