Anyone else never catch fish on jigging style hard baits?

I’m talking jigging raps, slab raps, chubby darters not a particular brand but that style bait? I tried the small ones for panfish bigger for the eyes I have only got 1 sunfish so far a over achiever I’m I the only one? I tried these during a hot bite on crappies as soon as I dropped the lure down nothing else. trying to build confidence but so far for what I spent on all these lures I could have a couple really nice rod combo”s I’m just hoping I’m not the only one out there? This is my 5th year trying I believe I will give up.

Glad I am not the only one, Jigging raps and slab raps always difficult for me. Just have to keep trying and trying different things.

Yes, I’ve had good success with Chubby Darters, Jigging Raps, Z-vibers. Even the Chubby Darter, dead sticked bare had caught me fish.

I will say on days where the fish are easily biting on other lures, don’t bother with the these. When the fish are inspecting lure carefully, these lures typically do not get that light bite. It’s when the fish aren’t biting it seems and poof, these lures trigger the reaction bites that I need to not get skunked. Aggressive hard bites where the fish keys on and commits.

I’m not saying this is what you’re doing, maybe it’s just something unique to the lake(s) you’re fishing. But, it often times has to do with how the bait is being worked.

They are often worked way more than what is necessary. Especially in the case of rippin raps, with the aggressive rattle. I’ve actually seen fish hit them on a dead-stick style presentation. You often don’t need big pronounced jig motions. Lifts and drops of just a few inches, and even just slightly rocking it, with long pauses gets the job done at times, where swimming it aggressively doesn’t.

I’d try slowing things down, downsizing, and some different color combos. For example, I’ve had some success using the smallest size ultralight rippin rap for walleyes on tough bites. The next size up or larger wouldn’t trigger a bite. Color can also be a big deal.

They do work. It is hard to get the confidence in leaving one of those darn near motionless below the hole for long periods. But once you get it dialed in there isn’t a way to catch fish through the ice that is more fun.

It used to be that way for me, but 2 years ago I found some that really worked well on walleye and crappie.

I’m Glad I’m not the only one. They are talked about as such a staple bait but I rarely, if ever, put fish topside with them. Every year I really give them a good hard opportunity, but they never produce. At the end of the day I’m always back to kastmasters, buckshots and tungstens.

I’m in the same boat. Never seem to have success and then switch to spoons or jigs and catch them. Gotta keep trying and change up the cadence though. Someday we’ll figure it out

My go to bait on the ice hands down.

Love these baits, the keys is not to jig too hard or have too long of a pull.

Sometimes a slow lift while just jiggling the rod tip triggers them. less is often more as far as these baits are concerned

Check out the YouTube video from James Holst. He talks about how to work them correctly

Thanks for the tips on how to use these. I’m in the same boat, I see everywhere how great they work, but I’m unable to get them to be effective.

I love catching walleyes on jigging style hardbaits and they’re my favorite baits for ice fishing. Like James says, don’t overwork them and even keep them completely still at times if you see a fish that’s interested in your lure. It can be hard to hold it still and not work it, but it can work surprisingly well at times.
I often tip the belly hook with a minnow head too.
Like everything else, they aren’t always what the fish want, but even then, they usually attract fish that will often then hit a dead rod.

I’ve caught walleye on Rippin Raps and Jiggin Raps on Red last week. No minnow head. Pound them off the bottom and then once they show up slow the action down and get it up off the bottom and they’d hit.

Also the Lindy glow spoon was getting hit without a minnow. I love fishing the reaction baits when they will take them.

Grew up fishing #5 #7 #9 Jigging Raps on jiggle sticks almost exclusively so I’m comfortable with them but I can understand the hesitance a lot of people have, IMO you need to have confidence in using hard baits or you won’t succeed.

Like anything, they have their time and place and it just takes practice to know how/when/why and the above video with James is a good place to start. Hope this helps, good luck.

Way way back when the 9 jigging rap was the ticket, now the 7 produces more for me. If you’re not getting hit, try a less stand out colors like gold and black, deeper crappie is a go two lure for me in size 5.

Jigging raps are my go to lure in the winter. I use for eyes,perch on Devils. Use at Red pretty much all day long. Perch color seems to be my favorite one to use.

I have found the Lindy Darter to be the best…but thats because I use them the most

Nils jigging shad in perch color has been my number one walleye lure for ice fishing for over 20 years.
Smaller jigging raps are great for crappies also.

1 outing about 7 years ago. LOW 1st ice, mid Dec.

Nortland Puppet Minnow – perch holographic top with gold bottom & orange tint under nose.

Absolute 1 rod action for nearly 6 hour straight. If my good friend Tony S. is reading this, I’ll never forget the # of 4-5 pounders you caught & released.

Simply one of those very rare days of pure catching ecstasy.

Every other outing I’ll always wash a few but zero success. Can’t wait to get back over an ice hole and practice James 9” lift with 2 smaller twitches. Thanks for sharing your expertise, JH.

Attachments:

1. 

   3BDCC076-FA5A-4A2A-8417-846198B7B6DF.jpeg
   

Jigging raps are one of my go to baits. You just need to experiment with color and cadence. Some days you can’t fish them too fast.

always end up going back to a spoon tipped w/ minnow head lol

Jigging rap is first bait in the water for me. Fish have to be aggressive or they just get spooked. If they are neutral, I go to live bait, be it minnows or waxies.

Try putting it down your hole a foot or 2 and watch how it swims. You only need a small twitch to get big action out of them. Fish hit em on the drop so don’t pause too long or you will miss bites.

No comment on the rippin rap. I got all sorts of them and they rarely get taken out.

Mike Lehmann wrote:

always end up going back to a spoon tipped w/ minnow head lol

Yep! I’m in the “no success camp” too.

Maybe its the lake? The day? The month? The time of day?

Someone even mentioned you need to have confidence?

I dunno…

….although I can say I’ve entertained myself for hours, make that long afternoons playing with such lures. Even days.

I’ll have a camera down the far hole and drop the assortment down there and amuse myself twitching, jigging, jerking. You can mesmerize yourself dancing them up and down, in circles…with the precise twitch of the rod you can reverse the circle from clockwise to counter-clockwise with one stoke.

Perhaps the name is what mislead us…jigging rap, chubby darter inviting the angler to jerk it about.

Now come to learn it best to leave it sit still.

Maybe next time I’ll just hang it off a dead stick while I catch fish with the spoon tipped with minnow head.

I learned how to catch eyes on them by fishing for whitefish. There’s a certain drop-lift cadence no matter what bait you’re using for whitefish on Green Bay. Similar to James’ advice in the video above I learned to slow it down and be more subtle and it’s translated to walleye on other bodies of water. On Bago, it’s the 9” lift-drop, twitch, and when a mark appears, slowly raise it up. Often they’ll chase it 6’-7’ off the bottom before they strike.

Depending on the day these are the only things the fish hit. Have had walleye hit rippin raps while deadsticking. Don’t overwork them. In open water have had great luck with jigging raps for both crappie and Walleye,

My first experience with rippin rap was on open water. Was night fishing using minnows. Fish were lighting up my graph but almost no action. Tried a heddon sonar and got a few but still slow. Remembering the purchase of a couple smallest rippin rap. Worked them just like my other blade baits. It was Katy bar the door rest of the night. Unfortunately most of this school of crappies were not keepers.

If I remember correctly only managed about 12-15 keepers. But although I kept one rod with minnows on the entire night. They never hit the live bait. Unusual but it happened.

Through the ice I mostly catch walleye, crappie and yellow perch on jigging rap , slab rap and the rippin rap. Also use other baits like z-vibe and flatt shad with similar results.

The chubby darter is another story. The only fish I have ever caught on them is some tiny walleye.

Nope. Never. Not at all. Lol! I think people over work them as has been mentions. Hard to beat the blue shiner live target on lake winnipeg.

Attachments:

1. 

   EE5294EE-F86D-494B-BF58-96B2A8F372E8.jpeg
   

I dont use jigging raps much but I use rippin raps and chubby darters a ton and they always produce fish.
I think the biggest key is to watch how the fish are reacting to the presentation and adjust accordingly.
Lower it just below the bottom of the ice and see how the lure reacts to what you do.
I also agree that many fish will get attracted to it just sitting there. I often reel my lure up several feet off the bottom and just let it sit there when there is a lull and wouldnt you know it a fish arrives on the screen and checks it out.

Its funny how some people say you need to be subtle. That may be true much of the time, but not all the time. Last year on LOW I was sitting in the same house as my buddy and he has a huge mark show up on his LX9 with the “vapor trail” which is an obvious sign of a big fish.
Nothing was showing on my side. So, I started talking trash and said “Im getting it to come over here” and I began VERY aggressively jigging a rippin rap with long jigging motions and boom the fish absolutely hammered it. came in so fast and aggressive I didnt even see it show up. 26.5″ walleye.

The one thing I have noticed is suspended fish are typically more aggressive and will react to more aggressive presentations, but the bottom huggers prefer less aggressive in most cases.

I think many people have spotty success with the baits being mentioned because they are using lines that fail to let the baits work nicely…..too heavy of monos and braids. While I no longer fish the ice, I do fish very late season cold water docks, jigging the pilings. I used Nanofil 4# until last fall when I switched to the Clam Frost braid line in 4#. The difference between the two lines’ diameters is significant with the Frost being so thin its actually hard to tie knots. Side by side to the Frost, Nanofil looks like rope even though they are both 4 pound test. I found that using a tiny snap, whether a split ring was on the tie loop of the lure was there or not, made zero negative difference in the lures action or the ability to feel the hits. The Frost line has a diameter of .108mm. Its listed as 1 pound diameter. I call it a hair in diameter and a blonde one at that.

Before people toss in the towel on these jigging baits my recommendation is to pick up a spool of this Frost braid in either the 4 or 6 pound test…the six pound is ridiculous thin too….and tie on a small snap [at home where you can see good]. If the lures have split rings at the tie loop, remove them at home. The snap is sufficient. Then when they hit the ice take time to do as Eyeguy suggests, drop the lure down a couple feet and watch the bait as you are jigging it. Most will find that they are radically over working the bait and this super thin, light line lets a guy work way less hard to get fish catching action developed BEFORE the lure goes to the fish.

Way too many people are using too heavy of line and letting that rope-like stuff do the work when a much lighter line can be employed so the lures can do their work and let the reel’s drag take care of getting the fish to the hole. Heavy lines, heavy rods and heavy hands are the enemies of these smaller, compact baits.

Definitely a big fan of the rippin rap/chubby darter style baits. I’ll use them quite often to search a big area if I’m hole hopping, and have been on bites as well where they would consistently call in fish that would hit the deadstick. Jigging raps I have much less confidence in.