What's the concensus on tipping slab or jigging Raps with minnow heads?

I’m new this year to the Rapala rippin’ and slab raps. Does tipping them with a minnow head upset the action of the lure too much or is it ok to tip it? Was up at Red last weekend and was using a rippin’ rap for awhile. Had some lookers but no one wanted to commit to it. Thought about tipping it but then my buddy next to me was getting hits on a buckshot that was tipped so I switched to that tipped with a minnow head. We wound up with 2 19″ 3 16’s and had to throw a 21″ back. I’m heading back up in the morning for a day or two so I was just wondering about this.

Everyday is different, just like the lures. Sometimes a minnow head works wonders. Then there are days when you can fish with anything bare and get fish. Minnow heads are seldom going to interfere with action much. A whole minnow on a smaller jigging bait might but I wouldn’t fret over a head.

I personally never tip them. I probably don’t catch as many fish this way, but I feel if they’re going to take, they’ll take it regardless if there’s a head on it.

I use a jigging rap all the time with the minnow head or euro. I use for perch and eyes. Better luck when tipped used without before but prefer tipped.

I personally tip the treble of a jigging rap with meat and don’t tip rippin’ or slab raps.

thaddeus wrote:

I personally tip the treble of a jigging rap with meat and don’t tip rippin’ or slab raps.

X2
Also, if you’re on Red try and get as far away from people as possible.

Do your self a favor and pass red and go to lotw.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Do your self a favor and pass red and go to lotw.

We did pretty well on Red last weekend for things being slow as they are. And the fish we caught had some size and the 2 bigger ones came on rattle reels. I’m renting a sleeper from Cookies Wednesday and Thursday night and am going solo. It makes no sense to me to rent a sleeper at LOTW because everyone knows you might as well have your lines dry at dark on LOTW. Cuts your productive fishing time in half. A friend and his wife were on LOTW the same time we were on Red. Yeah they caught 30 plus but out of 30 3 were borderline keepers and all Saugers. The rest were all 8 to 12 inch Sauger. They left s soon as it got dark.
If I’m paying for a sleeper I want to know I at least have a chance at night.

Thanks for the input on tipping Rapala’s with minnow heads guys. Sounds like I can go either way I wanted to make sure I wasn’t wasting my time by killing the action of the lure with a minnow head.

Jigging Raps sometimes. Half the time when I bait I use a 1″ long piece of minnow tail rather than a head. When you twitch the Rap it rocks back and forth and shakes that tail like a swimming minnow.

Slab/Ripping Raps no. I have a buddy that swears by putting Eurolarvae on the tail hook of a Slab Rap for walleye. I have tried minnow heads and it really seems to disrupt the action/glide.

One trick I have been using this season is Pro Cure Bait Wax on hard baits that I can’t/won’t tip with bait. Sometimes I put it on spoons, too. The walleyes haven’t been jumping out of the hole because of it, but I think it turned a few lookers turned into biters. I’m a big believer in scent for bass, so I tried this, if only to cover up my scent.

http://pro-cure.com/store/bait-scent-products/scents/bait-waxx.html

I got a two-pack on eBay for $18 and have used about 5% of it so far this winter. It goes a long way. Trophy walleye and minnow blend.

thaddeus wrote:

I personally tip the treble of a jigging rap with meat and don’t tip rippin’ or slab raps.

Same here. Tipping Jigging Raps with a minnow head works really well. Can’t say the same for Slab Raps.

Ice Cap wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Do your self a favor and pass red and go to lotw.

It makes no sense to me to rent a sleeper at LOTW because everyone knows you might as well have your lines dry at dark on LOTW. Cuts your productive fishing time in half.

To me a sleeper on LOTW makes sense only because the resorts running bombers out don’t get you out until 8 AM and are back to get you by 4:30 PM. To me you have a good window before 8 and after 4:30 to catch fish.

Just thought I would update. Was up on Red Wednesday and left Thursday morning plan was to stay until Friday but the snow at home had me leave early and get home and shovel and do some plowing.

So I tried both rippin’ and slab raps both with and without minnow heads at different times during the day. Seems they would call them in but no one wanted to commit and hit the darn things. No dead stick action at all never a nibble. They were acting differently from what I’m used to seeing at Red. They would show up on the graph coming in to take a quick look and then quickly moved on. None of this laying on the bottom and following your bait up and down the water column. Just kind of passing through and not a whole lot of them just a occasional passer by but active.

So I switched to a smaller Buckshot tipped with minnow head which seems to be my go to lure up there or a blood line jig but I wanted something that made some noise. Went with a gold chrome color so they were going to see it and hear it. This seemed to attract more attention but still no hits. I fished this well into dark but with no takers I decided to switch it up again.

Almost reached for the slab Rap again but then noticed I had a couple of those new Lindy jigs with the glow stick that snaps into them. I had a gold color one so what the heck give it a go. I will say once you crack that glow stick make sure you shake it up good and work it over pinching it hard for a minute and you will really get some glow out of it.

Drop her down and start jigging fairly aggressively and 15 minutes later had my first fish a decent 14″ eater. I seen him on the graph and within about a second of seeing him he was on the hook. He slammed it hard. No playing finesse he just hit it.

About a half hour later. Same thing. Shows up on the graph and just slammed it. About the same size fish. Had I gone back to a slab Rap would I of had the same result? I will never know now. But that was it for the night. Set up the rattle reels and was hoping for a little noise during the night but no takers. Can’t say I was surprised because I never had as much as a nibble on the dead stick all day and night. They seemed to need the noise, flash and action to entice them.

All in all even a slow day/night in the middle of the week on the ice beats the heck out of working!!

Tundra lures work great on Red also if you want a lighted lure. Last weekend trip Jigging rap caught more fish then my red buckshot. Used a white number two jigging rap and anything that came by hit it also bonus nice perch on it.

Hoyt4 wrote:

Tundra lures work great on Red also if you want a lighted lure. Last weekend trip Jigging rap caught more fish then my red buckshot. Used a white number two jigging rap and anything that came by hit it also bonus nice <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch on it.

Thanks for the tips. I haven’t been able to find #2 jiggin raps here locally only #3 and 4’s. I only have the lighted Lindy’s but will check the Tundra’s out as well. It’s always a guessing game. Would I caught those walleye’s on Rap’s? Don’t know but when you’re catching fish you’re not going to switch to something that didn’t work a few hours ago to find out.

Go on to Rapala

Promo code JIG20 at checkout 20% off jigging raps right now.

Hoyt4 wrote:

Go on to Rapala

Promo code JIG20 at checkout 20% off jigging raps right now.

Excellent! Thanks again!