LOTW Baits

Heading up to Lake of the Woods in the middle of February. Any suggestions for jigs/spoons and bait for dead sticks?

Everyone is going to say put all the gold spoons in one box and leave the rest at home. But it’s somewhat true, but the best luck I ever had was with a smaller red and gold rattlen flyer. Minnow heads only. Deadstick we just did plain red and chart. hooks. Second best seemed to be a glow red frosty. Everyone was using fatheads. But we brought up shinners that I was able to get that late and did better than other houses is what the resort guys said. They should have you out pretty far by then if the ice stays good. We were out 26 miles. Good luck!

Those are questions with a thousand answers. But, in general, seems like for colors the standards are red, glow pink and gold. But I will say, I have had days where blue, green, orange or purple work the best. As for lures the one I hear the most is the Lindy Rattlin Flyer spoon in red with glow pink or gold back. Then Northland Buckshot Rattle Spoon, in suggested colors. In recent years, I have heard the following have had their times – Rapala Rippin or Jiggin Raps, Clam Leech Flutter Spoon, VMC Tingler and Tumblr Spoons.

In other words, most lures work at one point or other, if they aren’t biting switch lures and colors and just use what is in your box.

On dead stick, my go to is just a plain #6 red hook with lively minnow, fathead or Shiner, some days one will out fish the other, other days it does not matter. I will put on glow hooks in different colors on slow days, or even jigs under a bobber. I did hear feathered trebles are all the rage this year, but there is something new every year to keep you buying lures.

There is the old standby LOW Stop Sign lures, you can get in every variation at the local bait shops.

Use something loud (rattles) or big profile and flashy on your jigging rod to bring the fish in, like a dinner bell. Then figure out what they want from there.

Anytime I have gone, the group that I go with always does well with pink and gold spoons tipped with a minnow.

For Deadstick just a plain red hook with a minnow on it about 6 inches off the bottom has always done well for me.

As for jigs I would bring an assortment because one day they might like something better than the rest. 1/8th jigs tipped with a minnow head or any rattling jigs to call them in. Personally I give each jig about half hour to an hour before switching it up.

Also make sure you have some kind of electronic device because that might be more important than any special jig you use.

Was there last weekend and we tried so many different things and none of them seemed to be better than others. One thing we noticed though was whole minnows caught more fish than just minnow heads, even on spoons.

I was just there last week out of Sportsmans for a 2 day trip. Jigging: Nothing was really that much better then another except glow seemed to help with a minnow head or tail. We used the usual gold and pinks but went to some dark reds as well as yellow/green as well. Our Dead Sticks were typically tipped with a Gem N’ Eye or Frosty type but our best deadstick lure was a VMC Teardrop UV Glow Green Fire Color. We did not use the plain hook method on this trip but will be on Leech in a couple weeks. We were in about 27 feet of water about 3.5 – 4 miles north of the island close to the Canadian Border.