Jig hook and a bead

No4/6 with glass Japanese seed bead , just add minnow

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Has the rigging helped Don?

I used that set up last weekend and it did pretty good. I’ll keep using it.

Tom I have not tried it yet. The way it looks here in northern wis I’m pretty sure we will have ice on for the opener????My ice fishing is over for the year, new work schedule took care of that. When I saw those glass beads about the size of a B.B. I thought I will try them . If anyone needs any ? I,ll have enough to last multiple lifetimes ???? Those were a size 8 I did order a size 6 a little bigger in pink. They look good.Also got some glow greens plastic in 3.4 mm . I’m sure depending on conditions why this will not be a benefit. The question I have is how they will balance with a crappie minnow? Will it stay horizontal? Anyone tipping with plastic? Gulp or Impluse minnow I thought would work ? I appreciate your feedback . Pray for some decent weather????

Don do you just lip hook the minnow or do you try to hook it as far into the head as you can?
I was trying every way I could think of to hook the minnow and when I hooked it up side down then turned it around and put the hook up thru the body I caught more fish, even when the minnow died.
I couldn’t find any jig hooks so I bend my own and have been testing different bend locations so the minnow sits just right.
I’m planning on going out again next week to refine the technique a bit more.

I don’t use live bait but I do use Plastics and Gulp on panfish and crappies. Plastic was my thing when I quit fishing ice. I’d imagine that a lip-hooked crappie minnow would stay fairly horizontal as long as the knot stays tight.

I’ll just expand on this a bit Don. Just like in ice fishing your open water fish will have daily preferences as well….horizontal vs vertical….so don’t leave this idea at home when the ice goes away. The beads act as a color attractor and anything that will draw attention to a bait is a plus for you so this bead stuff will work in both presentations. For a vertical presentation I’d pick up some Aberdeen hooks in sizes 6,8,and 10. Put your bead on in the same way and try waxies or garden worms right along with minnows. Using the Aberdeen hooks I’d hook the minnows shallow under the dorsal.

Along the same lines as the beads, a simple piece of bright yarn tied tightly to the line, pulled down to the eye of the hook and then trimmed so that there are no loose ends will help slow the drop rate on a plain hook presentation as well as add color. You can also add a drop of the Gulp juice to the yarn and sort of super-charge your offering. I use cod-liver oil instead of Gulp juice once in a while on a yarn or thread bobber stop just like your beads and feel that it too helps.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Don do you just lip hook the minnow or do you try to hook it as far into the head as you can?
I was trying every way I could think of to hook the minnow and when I hooked it up side down then turned it around and put the hook up thru the body I caught more fish, even when the minnow died.
I couldn’t find any jig hooks so I bend my own and have been testing different bend locations so the minnow sits just right.
I’m planning on going out again next week to refine the technique a bit more.

Seeing you are ahead of me ,i have not fished this yet . Did watch a vid were a guide on the Chippewa Flowage was lip hooking them. I thought up through the nostrils . Its good to hear other ideas for hook placement. Trial will find a good balance point.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

Along the same lines as the beads, a simple piece of bright yarn tied tightly to the line, pulled down to the eye of the hook and then trimmed so that there are no loose ends will help slow the drop rate on a plain hook presentation as well as add color.

I’ve seen this done when fishing a salmon rig, but leaving the ends of the yarn quite long. The theory behind this is the yarn gets hung on the teeth of the fish making it harder to spit the hook, before the hookset.

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Tom Sawvell wrote:

I don’t use live bait but I do use Plastics and Gulp on panfish and crappies. Plastic was my thing when I quit fishing ice. I’d imagine that a lip-hooked <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappie minnow would stay fairly horizontal as long as the knot stays tight.

I’ll just expand on this a bit Don. Just like in <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>ice fishing your open water fish will have daily preferences as well….horizontal vs vertical….so don’t leave this idea at home when the ice goes away. The beads act as a color attractor and anything that will draw attention to a bait is a plus for you so this bead stuff will work in both presentations. For a vertical presentation I’d pick up some Aberdeen hooks in sizes 6,8,and 10. Put your bead on in the same way and try waxies or garden worms right along with minnows. Using the Aberdeen hooks I’d hook the minnows shallow under the dorsal.

Along the same lines as the beads, a simple piece of bright yarn tied tightly to the line, pulled down to the eye of the hook and then trimmed so that there are no loose ends will help slow the drop rate on a plain hook presentation as well as add color. You can also add a drop of the Gulp juice to the yarn and sort of super-charge your offering. I use cod-liver oil instead of Gulp juice once in a while on a yarn or thread bobber stop just like your beads and feel that it too helps.

I have always rigged vertical ,this will be my first try at horizontal. It will be interesting which they prefer. I can imagine some days it will not matter and others it will make a difference, it’s good to have a few more tools in the box. Never thought of putting beads on the vertical presentation .Now i will. Again thanks for sharing those tips ,some of the most obvious i can overlook. Don Ps 11 inches in my yard and a total of 11 more by tonight,Green Bay has 15 already, a roof over a swimming pool at an Econo Lodge collapsed there!

Tom what is better Gulp! juice or cod liver oil? Pick one only one-thanks

Every dog has its day Tim. I carry a small visine bottle that’s filled with the cod liver oil. The Gulp juice is in every bottle of 1″ Gulp minnows I also carry because they both are effective. I can most certainly assure you that the day you leave one or the other home would be the day it would do you the best. As a rule I go from a plain plastic to Gulp, BUT, understand that I go thru a ton of plastic color combinations and profile/actions before Gulp comes out. Even then the Gulp is fished only long enough to prove itself before the oil comes out.

Here’s another couple observations/thoughts for ya’ll. First, Gulp 1″ minnows [the only Gulp I use really] tends to be a great attractant for sunfish. Yes crappies will respond to Gulp minnows, but if the fish are getting their switches flipped by Gulp its sunfish that’ll really be evident. I also note that small sunfish seem to really take after the Gulp stuff. I do not like catching small sunfish so I’ll vacate Gulp in a heartbeat if its clear that the small sunnies are there and try the oil. In many instances the small sunfish will not chase the oil while larger sunfish and crappies will support its use. I’ll note here that I don’t, as a rule, like to keep any sunfish simply because I hate cleaning them. Like everyone that fishes I too catch the occasional sunfish that is deep hooked. I’ll hold it long enough to know that it may survive or not and if its clear its history then I’ll make it a part of a meal.

And secondly, I think people are too quick to stick with the “tried and true” even if they are proving that they aren’t so “true after being tried”. The bead and hook in this post is a prime example of steeping out of the box successfully yet keeping things simple.

I’ll add a third thought here too. Good bait-using panfish anglers are everywhere. Good panfish anglers who prefer and are confident with artificials aren’t so plentiful. And a good bait panfish angler does not infer a good artificial panfish angler. A person has to be good with bait before he’ll become good with the fake stuff. This bead/hook post shows where the two different studies come together and work together successfully.

About how often do you reapply the CL oil?

If I use it directly on a plastic maybe every five minutes. Used on a hair or feather jig like flu flu every twenty minutes or so and the same for a bobber “ knot” on the line. The Gulp juice I’ll apply as often as I think it’s not doing what it should. Anything like thread or host or feather on the line or jig to hold the oil or scent a while longer is a bonus.

All scent products have what one might call a “bite life” or a period that it seems to work very well. When it’s noticed that the bite has dropped off, the bite life is finished and you’ll have to re-apply it. I expect a scent product to work….produce hits. If going to one from a so bite and the result is still just so so I generally will switch back to what I had been using. When a scent product is working the bite using it will be markedly better.

Caught 7 tonight up to 12 inches they bit the jig hook with seed bead as well as a pink Northland slurpee . I’m a happy camper !