Welcome to InFisherman's Strike Zone.
I'm Corey Schmidt, InFisherman Editor-in-Chief.
And today, like we're going to be doing in the coming weeks and months, is we're going to be talking about some of the coolest lures that, you know, a lot of us just don't have an opportunity to fish.
There's so many lures out there, so many great lures.
We're going to shine the spotlight on just some overlook stuff, some just some cool stuff.
It's right in the middle of the ice season here in the North Country.
It's getting to be that time of the year where a lot of anglers start thinking about panfish, bluegills, crappies, perch.
And I'm just going to show you three or four different jigs and lures that I've used and relied on over the last 20
30 years, some of these baits are of Russian origin or even Latvian origin.
Now, they're fishing for different fish than we are, but they're also fishing for very particular fish sometimes.
And so, I'm going to start with something that probably not too many of you guys have seen it.
Maybe if you have, then you're lucky.
This one is made by
Bentley fishing.
It's called the Bentley Tarantula.
There's a company called Fiscus that I'm going to be talking about quite a bit today, also, and they make a version called the Fiscus Tungsten Devil.
Now, as you can see, this is a really unique looking bait.
So, we've got basically a tungsten weight and it's streamlined like a torpedo.
So, it sinks straight down, sinks really fast.
It's great for deep water perch, deep water crappies.
And then you've got these three little hooks, and they're free swinging.
So you can put a plastic tail.
I like to use like a Fiskas micro.
Nuggy or just any real thin, slender plastic on each of those hooks.
Of course, you can put a little larva on each of them.
When you drop this down to the bottom, these hooks fold up, and we'll show you this in the tank so you can see what it looks like.
But it basically just plummets straight down.
The hooks fold up like that.
When you stop, they drift back down.
And every time you jig that little jig, it's just a beautiful
Just a kicking action and flutter.
It almost looks like a little miniature squid or octopus down there.
Honestly, one of the greatest perch baits I've used to the ice, especially when the fish are a little
Bit deeper.
This is a, you've got different size hooks on these.
Some have 14, some have 12.
This is, I think, a 10.
They're pretty flimsy little hooks.
Use something like a panfish toothpick pick or a really small forcep because you can break these hooks fairly easily.
But again, this is just an incredible little bait.
Again, you don't have to always use bait because these little red attractor beads on here will get bit.
And the other thing that's worth mentioning is that when you get a bite on this jig.
These, because these hooks are free-swinging, it moves and it pivots right into the fish's mouth, so there's no resistance there at all.
So, again, Fiskas, tungsten, devils, you can find them at yourbobbersdown.
com.
They've got all the good cool Fiska stuff, all the stuff that the tournament guys are fishing.
So, give these things a chance for any deepwater panfish, deepwater perch.
Incredible little cool lure there.
So, we're going to just continue on this theme of just super cool, kind of off-the-radar jigs.
And we got another one from Fiskas.
I don't know how this thing has flown under the radar.
Fisk is N24 balance, they call it the Gil Getter, and I'll explain why.
If you've ever fished a jigging wrap, you fished what they call in Europe F
A balance.
It sits horizontal, stationary in the water, and you've generally got hooks on both sides of the jig head.
If you've been on tough bluegill bites, you know what happens a lot of times.
The fish will come in and they'll nudge the head of the jig a lot of times.
They'll kind of just push it or move it out of the area.
The N24 kind of came on the radar when it helped win a couple of national NAIFC ice fishing tournaments a number of years ago.
I believe it was in either Michigan or Wisconsin.
That they were using this little jig and just clean it up.
And again, it's just a tungsten head, so it gets down fast.
But what I also like about it, beyond the fact that no matter where they bite this jig, you're going to hook them.
Is that you can put plastics, you can experiment with a plastic or live bait like larva.
I've experimented with like little TPE like Z-Man style plastics that float.
So you can change the angle that the jig falls by changing the buoyancy, like I said, using live bait and plastic, mixing plastic, one type of plastic with another.
And you also get a different kind of spiraling action on the drop by changing those different baits.
So you can, like I said, and the look.
You can change the look and the action based on what
Jiggy, or what plastic you use.
So, again, I really like just really fine, wispy plastics.
Wedgies are great on a jig like this.
It's pretty straightforward.
It doesn't have a lot of action on its own, but you can change that whole spiraling and the pivoting and how the jig moves again based on the plastics and things you're putting on it.
So it's just a matter of
Very efficient jig, hooking every fish that bites.
And in tough bites, boy, this is going to get you a lot more fish on the ice.
That's the Fiska's N24 Balance Gil Gitter.
And I know some of you guys out there are probably doing this already.
You know, we use hair jigs a lot all through the open water season, spring, summer, fall.
A hair jig, a little marabou or a little bunny strip jig, any number of different fur and feather materials on the back of a jig head.
Are about as money as it gets when it comes to panfish.
And for some reason, I've never figured it out.
When the ice forms, everyone puts the hair and the feathers away.
And I don't know why that is, because these things can be one of the deadliest little baits under ice for bluegills, crappies, and perch.
Big crappies, really.
If you can't get them to eat anything else, they will put on a little micro maribou jig and you'll catch them.
So
One little kind of refinement to the whole program, and this was kind of started by some anglers out in Michigan.
Probably the only area that I know there's a pocket of anglers that are really into using the hair.
There's a guy named Barry Williams in Michigan.
He's got a website called Spooky Spiders.
And what he's done is combine tungsten with hair.
Now, the reason that's so deadly is because tungsten, of course, is heavier than lead, so it does a lot of thumping and it really activates those hair fibers a little bit better than lead.
You just get a little bit more movement when you're when you're kind of pounding that jig, and even when it's sitting still, if you're using Maribou especially, you just get this little
All kinds of different layers and dimensions of different movement.
Whereas with plastics, you just kind of have a one-dimensional or a two-dimensional movement.
Whereas with hair, you've got things happening all the time and it just looks like something alive.
Again, tungsten combined with hair.
You know, I tie a lot of my own stuff.
It's pretty simple, especially if you're just dealing with mariboo.
You can easily do it yourself.
VMC's got these roach, these tungsten roach jigs, which are really probably the only ones I know of.
I think Gyrotackle has some as well that are very good.
The Strider Fly, I believe it's called.
That's a great-looking moor.
I haven't tried a chance to use that yet, but
Anyways, when you're on a tough bite for panfish, you don't need bait, you can use hair, big crappies, perch, and bluegills
If you're having trouble catching fish, try here.
And I'm telling you, not only does it work, but you don't have to rebait, you don't have to put new plastic on.
Pretty durable stuff, so you don't have to take your gloves off, get your hands cold.
But don't put away the hair when the ice forms.
One other thing I forgot to mention, besides using the hair on like a jig head, is you can just use a lot of the traditional trout flies you may already have: nymph patterns, emerger patterns.
Like midge midge emerger patterns that look like a little seronymid or a midge fly, or I'm sorry, a midge larva, which is a bloodworm.
Those can be excellent.
Fished on a dropper.
So, in other words, you don't need weight.
You could just use a regular fly.
You anchor the rig with a heavier tungsten or a regular jig head, and above it.
A foot or two, you've got a flyer to tie it in, and most places this is legal now.
You can do two to three droppers in addition to your jig head.
So, just another wrinkle or another use for these hair jigs, it's really great at times.
Okay, I'm going to give you guys one more, and this one might be a little more familiar to some of you.
If you've read Infisherman Magazine, we've written about this for quite a few years, actually.
But it's that whole series of what we call through-headed tungsten jigs.
So you've got basically a tungsten jig or a ball-headed design.
Instead of a traditional line tie, there's actually a hole in the center of the jig.
that you run line through and you tie a knot like a like a uni snell knot or a markham knot.
I wanted to talk to you guys about this jig because this remains one of the most overlooked, once again, jigs for panfish.
And it was really brought on my radar by Mike McNett and Tony Boschold.
We won a bunch of NAIFC championships years ago, and the gold disco ball jig was the one they always talked about as the money winner, the one that always caught the panfish, the tough ones, when nothing else would.
would produce.
So the deal is with that gold disco ball in particular is it's it's faceted like a disco ball.
So no matter where it is under water, if there's any amount of light from any angle, you're always gonna get a little reflection or just little micro
Flashes off that jig head because, like I said, it's faceted, so you're always getting light shining off one surface or another.
So, that's one of the talking points.
The other thing, overall, gold by itself is just a really overlooked color for panfish.
So
If you're really on a tough bite, try a gold jig, if nothing else.
But the other thing with these through-headed designs that's so cool is the knot system that we were going to show you.
Again, it requires not a traditional knot, but the knots are really, really simple.
It's just if you know how to tie a uni knot or a snell knot, you can do this.
And what's neat about it is that the knot itself is recessed.
It's not on the nose of the jig, it's around the collar.
And what happens when you put that knot around the collar, that's the snell portion, you've actually created a little micro keeper for your plastics.
So you can
And what I do is, I'll leave a little bit of a tag end.
And if you thread your plastics on, and that's what you should be doing for your plastics in the winter, thread them on just like you're threading them onto a jig head or a Ned rig.
But use that little line for your keeper.
And if you want, you could even do a piece of super glue on there, and that'll hold it on forever.
And the real story that I've kind of missed here.
The need to be horizontal.
And so that's the real story with these three-headed designs.
So you've got the line coming out, the top of the jig head
You never have to reposition your knot to make sure your jig head is riding horizontal.
What actually people say horizontal, most of these jigs they ride slightly hooked down, what happens
But that's what you want because that's hooks in perfect position to define a spot right in the upper lip of a bluegill or whatever.
So, you never have to reposition your knot.
You've got a jig that always rides horizontal.
You can put plastics, live bait, whatever you want.
Learn to tie that uni snell knot.
Some of these European designs, these Russian designs, they're hard to find.
The best source for these, yourbobbersdown.
com, there's also a website called Sportsman's Direct.
com.
That's not Sportsman's, it's Sportsmen's Direct.
And they've got a bunch of these European styles, these true heads.
So, give all these different things a try.
It's something different, and that's ice fishing.
It's a lot of fun experimenting with the different baits.
So until next time, in Fisherman's Strike Zone, we'll see you on the water.