While I don’t venture on ice much any more I still adhere to the idea that smaller baits come along with colder water. I’m not referring to ice tackle or ice-specific plastics, I’m talking about smaller plastics used in open water. Those shown here are in the 1 1/2″ range but have fairly narrow diameters and the tails are pretty lithe with lots of action from minimal effort put into getting the action. Over years I notice a marked preference in plastics that glow as water temperatures dive. Yet while the fish seem very attracted to glow baits I often feel that might be put off a little when a bait even as small as these shown gets put down in front of them in a dark environment. So what was the answer to this?
I decided to do a little trial type of thing last year and began shooting full glow baits just to nip the ends off the tails and then adding those ends to baits with normal color combinations. After doing a few trial baits and giving them a month long soaking in near-ice water I found that the partial glow baits did way better in the production department than the whole glow baits.
I just finished making up some fodder for when the water gets into that 45 degree range, which should not be all that far out in the future.
I’ll note here that the picture taken in the dark was quite a bit closer to the baits than the one taken in light.
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