12-01-2012, 05:44 AM
I am originally from S. Dakota and have chased walleyes year round there. For ice fishing, we did alot of jigging...
Swimming lures like the Jigging Rapala or the Nils Master worked either tipped or not with a minnow head. Jigging spoons like Swedish Pimples, Kastmasters, Crippled Hearing and numerous others seemed to work best tipped with a minnow head. Both of these lures worked near bottom consistently hooked fish, especially during dawn and dusk. My favorite was a Northland Airplane jig tipped with a whole minnow. It has an action that is similar to the jigging rap in that it will dart up and to the side when jigged up, but will then circle as it is dropped back to rest.
In S. Dakota, we were allowed 4 lines per person. We usually fished live minnows under a float anywhere from 6 to 18 inches off the bottom in holes that we were not jigging in. Unfortunately, no use of live minnows in Idaho!!!!
Open water consisted of pulling plugs or crawler harness/spinner combos, tossing crankbaits or jigs tipped with minnows, crawlers or leaches to structure or even using slipfloats tipped with minnows, leaches or crawlers if they were tight to structure. If live bait was not available, using plastics such as power bait, gulp, etc worked as well.
Hope this helps,
Paul
[signature]
Swimming lures like the Jigging Rapala or the Nils Master worked either tipped or not with a minnow head. Jigging spoons like Swedish Pimples, Kastmasters, Crippled Hearing and numerous others seemed to work best tipped with a minnow head. Both of these lures worked near bottom consistently hooked fish, especially during dawn and dusk. My favorite was a Northland Airplane jig tipped with a whole minnow. It has an action that is similar to the jigging rap in that it will dart up and to the side when jigged up, but will then circle as it is dropped back to rest.
In S. Dakota, we were allowed 4 lines per person. We usually fished live minnows under a float anywhere from 6 to 18 inches off the bottom in holes that we were not jigging in. Unfortunately, no use of live minnows in Idaho!!!!
Open water consisted of pulling plugs or crawler harness/spinner combos, tossing crankbaits or jigs tipped with minnows, crawlers or leaches to structure or even using slipfloats tipped with minnows, leaches or crawlers if they were tight to structure. If live bait was not available, using plastics such as power bait, gulp, etc worked as well.
Hope this helps,
Paul
[signature]