For anyone that has spent a lot of time fishing for panfish with plastics you know how versital they can be. But I have fished with a lot of people over the years that never realized how preductive plastics can be through the ice.
One of the things I like the most about plastics is I don’t like retying baits on the ice with cold fingers. I have found that through just switching plastic, either style or color; I can change the entire profile, color, or presentation. It is easy to change the way the plastic is presented off of the bait itself just by changing the way it hangs off the hook. I rarely tip my plastics with any kind of meat unless the bite is extremely tough. I didn’t gain this kind of confidence in them over night it took a lot of time on the water and I started out fishing them on spoons also tipped with a waxy. Through the years I realized more times than not I don’t need meat to be successful on the ice. There are some real benefits to having meat on the hook expecialy for the taste to help keep it in the fish’s mouth for that extra second to allow you time to get it hooked. However often times especially for crappies and big gills when they commit they usually hold it long enough to get the hook set. However there are those days where they just seem like they want to chew on something and not just crush it. For me this year my answer for that has still not been larva. I have switched to Trigger X plastics and I have actually had finicky shallow gills, while sight fishing, come in and almost chew on a mustache worm two or three times before finally committing and taking it in all the way. That was something I had never seen before with just plastic.
These are some of the ways I like to rig my plastics, and even change the the way the jig is presented just by sliding the knot around!
