PM moves me to action...

[Garry2Rs]

I got a message yesterday asking about a lake that's a few minutes from my place. It's quite rocky and poorly marked. This year I was only there once, back in July. Somehow the morning had gotten away from me. I had intended to go fishing, but got started on a recipe for lasagna using cabbage instead of pasta...Now it was 1:30 and a case of going somewhere close or staying home...since it was on my mind, I decided to give the lake another try.

 

This lake contains SM Bass and Musky, but the locals complain that it's hard to catch anything except Rock Bass...

Boy were they right! Working the shoreline, docks and rocks etc. with a wacky 4" worm I hooked a RB on 8 or 10 consecutive casts...

The first SM. I caught was in front of a dock, in a little deeper water than the RB's. I tried to cast to more deep rocks etc. but the RB's hunted me down...grin. Moving out into the lake I fished around the first group of islands that I saw. I was still getting some RB but the ratio was now more like 50/50 or 60/40 rather than 1 in 10...hahaha.

This might have been because the open water was more attractive to SM's than the sheltered bay I had come out of, but it might have also had something to do with my changing baits...

 

Last spring, when I was gearing up for Crappie, I bought a tiny set of curly tail minnows that attached to an odd looking combination spoon, jig head. It's made by Berkley and is called a " Blade Dancer."

I never got around to trying it on the Crappie, but yesterday I thought it might be fun to toss it to the RB. The whole bait is only two inches long, the plastic minnow representing about 75% of that. The spoon is set at an upward angle, sort of like a diving lip in reverse...The minnows are skinny and painted as exact replicas of live fish, except for the curly tail...On the retrieve, the spoon flashes and wobbles while the plastic does it's curly tail thing. The hook is soldered on with a large blob of lead. When you stop cranking, the bait dives. The angle of the spoon causes it to circle and glide as it goes down. In this size it is very light, so I had to crank slowly, or it would rise to the surface...

 

On the first cast I hooked an RB, as expected, but on the next three or four casts I caught Small Mouth, including the best fish of the day. This was a two pounder that grabbed the skinny little two inch bait!!!

As I said, the little curly tail minnows are painted up very realistically, I wondered how important that was to my success when an RB bit the tail off...Removing the wrecked minnow, I replaced it with a plain curly tail Crappie grub, just to see what would happen. Later, I also tested a Crappie size tube...It was a short test, but I think they worked just was well as the fancy minnows.

I know that I have seen this bait in larger sizes. I will take a look around CTC etc. today to see if they have any left. I recall seeing some with 3 or 4 inch pike minnows, but the tail wasn't curly, it was natural looking...Perhaps powered by a larger spoon, it wobbles and swims...It doesn't look like something that will work as good as a curly tail to me, but I will buy the kit anyway. I think a larger spoon-jig head will swim a regular curly tail grub or 4 inch worm in a very interesting way.

Garry2R's

PS:

The lasagna was great...grin.

[mooseroo]

I've used these before with some success on SM and panfish... I like the motion they give and will try your suggestion on using with a curly grub.

[Jer]

Glad I could get you motivated Garry, hopefully you gave all the rock bass sore mouths...

[Beans]

I saw those yesterday on the Berkly site when I clicked on icefishing baits...kinda reminded me of the jack spoons they use for perch during the winter...nice to know they work...I understand they come in a package of 2 spoons and 5 bodies for around $3.99