Artifical Baits

[motley man]

What is a good plastic bait for panfish, perch, sunnies, etc.

[BartmanMN]

Little Atom Nuggies and Northland Bro Series plastics work well for me.

[hovermn]

I use little atom plastics with Wolfram jigs, and custom jigs and spins plastics. The nice thing about Little Atom plastics is they're scented. Coupled with 3 sizes for the most popular styles, it gives you a wide variety of choices.

[PerchJerker]

Ratsos are easy to find and work great, I use them a lot. Little Atoms are a favorite of mine but are harder to find.

[gill man]

Since getting turned on to the Little Atom plastics I have literally not bought grubs, and I think I hae been using them for at least 3 years now. The wedgies work great, but don't stay on the hook quite as long as the nuggies. I use the Micro Nuggie if the fish are fairly neutral, and the regular sized Nuggie for active fish or big suspended crappies.

The Nuggies with the ball will catch a LOT of fish before they need to be replaced. The Wedgies will catch a lot too, but not like the nuggies. A small piece of wedgie can be great when the fish are shying away from bigger profiles.

I have tried most of the Little Atom plastics and have caught fish on all of them, but the Nuggies and Wedgies seem to be what I always go back to.

I'm sure there are other great plastics out there but the Little Atom stuff has kept me happy.

gill man

[hovermn]

The wedgies are by far my favorite. The slightest jigging or light vibrations in the jig head give the tail a very life-like action, and most days they out fish live bait hands down.

[BartmanMN]

Thorn Bros and Big C store carry little Atom plastics if you want to try them.

[StillwaterAaron]

I love the wedgies!

I barely use live bait anymore. I can catch fish when others are struggling to get bites. It also allows you to keep fishing instead of rebaiting every time you have a short bite. The way you put the plastic on the hook can make all the difference also. Take your time rigging them on and they will last a good amount of time and catch you a lot of fish.

[hovermn]

Something I've noticed is that with live bait, I'm usually hooking the fish in the lip, they take it gingerly. With plastics, more often than not, I'm reaching for my pliers because the fish has inhaled it.

[Eric_Kruger]

google kjb plastics top of the line stuff bottom line prices!

EK

[gill man]

Hmmm, those KJB plastics have some neat looking baits too. Free shipping for orders over $10 is a selling point.

One thing I like about the Little Atom stuff is that they are scented. I'm guessing the KJB plastics are not scented? I wonder how adding a few drops of the Little Atom scent to a bag of KJB plastics would work.

I love my Little Atom stuff but KJB has a few unique things I would be interested in trying.

gill man

[MN BassFisher]

Got my order of KJB plastics last week, real nice stuff. I've yet to test it out through the ice though.

[jmvsmv]

Berkleys has a 1 inch fish fry in their gulp alive collection, about 1/2 inch is body and the other 1/2 is a thin little tail, that is very pliable and has a lot of movement when being jigged. Caught a lot of fish early ice last year with them, didnt use them as much as I would have liked to later in the year fishing deeper water.

[Ed Carlson]

I'll spill one of my secrets here, here is a tip for you do it yourself types.

I buy the Little Atom C-9 scent oil ($5), and I make up my own selection of yummy scented ice fishing plastics.

(A little bit, a few drops, go's a long ways.)

I get out a small cutting board, a safety razor blade, and go at it. Most guys/gals have a bounty of assorted plastics on hand, in colors they like, to make up a selection quickly and cheaply. Different plastics will have different actions when slices thin, it pays to tinker and find ones that you like for on the ice.

Once I have found a selection of various types and colors of plastics I like, I cut them into the sizes and shapes I wish.

Then I put the various sizes and shapes into StrikeMaster Bait Pucks, and add just enough of the Little Atom C-9 to get them nice and oily, stir them up a bit, and seal up the pucks for later use.

They pickle in the puck, and are nice and smelly latter on when needed.

[chris63]

gill man,I've had some luck with twister tails mostly but haven't had much luck with the "micro"size plastic baits.How do you fish these baits effectively?Do you jig aggressively or just twitch or somewhere in the middle.I suppose it depends on the fishes mood.I'll keep trying as new challenges are what fishing is all about!c63

[fishersofmen]

Anyone ever use the Sparkle Nibbles or Crappie Nibbles?? How do they work?

[gill man]

Chris, it sounds like an easy answer, but I fish these however the fish want them presented. I'm usually pounding them with short, fast quivers of my rod tip. I suppose it's a fairly agressive presentation, but they will also catch fish when the fish need to be finessed. I've caught them on plastics when even small jiggles would spook the fish (watching them on a camera). Those days just very slowly raising or lowering the bait produced strikes. The plastic tails move so easily that it doesn't take much for them to quiver.

The plastics I use quiver pretty easily and are scented, so they basically do everything a grub does. For the most part, I don't think I had to change my jigging style when I switched from grubs to plastics. One bit of advice I would give is make sure the fish are biting when you first try them. I know a couple guys that used them for an hour, didn't catch anything, and got discouraged. They didn't catch much when they switched back to grubs, but they felt better using something they were used to. I caught fish on plastics the fist time I used them and haven't looked back!

I caught probably 40 fish on a single Micro Nuggie tonight. Much more durable than grubs!

gill man

[gill man]

One more thing, make sure the plastic rides horizontal in the water. I almost always use horizontal jigs like Optic Stealths, Mud Bugs, or Fatboys, so I want the tail coming straight off the back of the bait, and the bait and tail to sit horizontal in the water. If you use vertical hanging jig, you'll still want the tail horizontal. This makes a BIG difference most of the time.

If a fish nips the jig and doesn't get hooked by pulls the tail down from horizontal, I usually have a hard time getting bit again unless I reel back up and make the whol package horizontal again.

gill man

[tsande00]

I had very good luck last year using Gulp Alive - the fish fry style. (Also scented, accidentally spilled a jar in my tackle box!). They have that little needle tail that hangs down and flutters about when jigging. Worked very well and was able to catch a lot of fish when nobody else could get a bite.

I'd like to try some of this Atom stuff too.

[icekid10]

Little atom and gulp alive are my main plastics. I use nuggies, wedgies, the gulp alive waxies, minnow head and the fish fry. I wanna get some 1 inch minnows in the gulp alive product! I also have used 2inch power minnows and atomic tubes, these are power bait products. I mainly use plastics the only time i will buy minnows is when my buddies get them for the perm shack fishing eyes with either tip ups or dead sticks.

[opsirc]

never had much luck with the gulp

[reinhard1]

i also use gulp products. among the one's that have been mentioned, the gulp minnow heads were productive for me for perch, walley, and trout. i put them on a small jigging spoon and they work very well. now i still use live bait. and i do use real fish heads, but when the fish are active these gulp fish heads are my go to bait. good luck.

[icekid10]

With any plastic it is all confidence. I started using them when waxies were on fire and I forced my self to switch and havn't gone back.