Waxies vs Mousies

[stretch1975]

Which live bait should i look to get?

[Jeremy airjer W]

Have you tried plastic?

[stretch1975]

Have you tried plastic?

No. Any recommendations? Just got back into ice fishing after not doing it for a while.

[Jeremy airjer W]

For crappies and blue gills I love to use little atom plastics. Wedgies, micro nuggies, and squidjees are my favorite. Purple works well on the lakes I fish but they come in lots of colors. I hear pepper pumpkin is a good color as well.

For larger crappies I have had great success with gulp alive micro twister tails in both black and white.

I started using plastic to prove to myself they didn't work. The last time I bought live bait for myself was probably three or four years ago. For my boys it was this spring. My boys wanted to fish with waxies. After I out fished them on plastic they are hooked!

If you can catch it on live bait you can catch it on plastic. There is a learning curve but it is worth it in the end. Plastic is always alive and ready when you need it!

[goblueM]

i like the little berkely gulp fish fry too, they look kinda like mousies

[stretch1975]

i like the little berkely gulp fish fry too, they look kinda like mousies

What color do you use?

[Jeremy airjer W]

I'd start with white. Try to mimic the natural color of the live bait. If you feel adventurous grab another color and see if it works.

[goblueM]

I use green, and white. Buddy uses orange with success. They are pretty cheap and last awhile, grab two or three colors that look good!

[hydro]

Can you even get Mousies anymore? They used to be my "Go-To" bait years ago. I like them because they are kind of like a leather maggot with a handle (tail).

[Deitz Dittrich]

plastics do work great at times.. But when in the need of a bait, I will got with eurolarve.. I know you asked waxies or mousies.. but euro seem to last longer. .come in different colors and have a great action to them when hooked properly.

[reinhard1]

yes, euro larva all the way. good luck.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

I like to have both on hand Wax worms and spikes (Euro). I've tried the plastic bait and seen them work, but never ever have I seen it out fish live bait.

I could see it happening though when you're on a school and they bite on anything, but when that happens a lot of the time you can just drop down a small bare jig and they will bite on it. The bad thing about plastic bait is you need to constantly be jigging it to get them to bite. When the fish have a little lock jaw in them live seems to be the best bet.

One other tip or thing I like to do is carry a jar of berkley crappie nipples. Then I throw 2-3 down the hole to get some sent in the water. It's like chumming in the pannies.

[Jeremy airjer W]

+ 1 on the crappie nibbles!

[stretch1975]

I will carry a mix of plastic and live. The guy i am going to fish with uses euros and waxies.

[Pat Burch]

I like to use waxes and euro larvae for most panfish application. I have had several occasion later in the year though when mousies were by far the dominate bait for crappies. Mousies can be a little harder to find at bait shop. Most shops carry the wax worms and euros (spikes) but not many carry mousies request that they order some for you.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

I ususally order my live bait from vadoos, but I seen the other day that they didn't have the spikes in multi color like they use to did they discontinue it? Where can a guy get colored spikes now?

[Agronomist_at_IA]

+ 1 on the crappie nibbles!

It works great, the only time I get upset is when a guy sees the pannies eating the crappie nibbles off the bottom. Usually they still bite on the bait I've got down, but then I have to throw a couple more down.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Red and blue euro larvae were the hot live bait for me and my buddies this past winter for crappies and finicky perch. They worked better than non colored euros or waxies when fished side by side. Best suggestion is to get a small assortment of waxies, euros, meal worms, crappie minnows, and plastics, so you can switch presentations until you find one the fish respond to!

[stretch1975]

What is a good HSOforum to order colored euro larva from?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thorne Brothers... thats where I get mine from. I think you can get them from Vados as well.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

What is a good HSOforum to order colored euro larva from?

I've had great luck with vados and Jada bait. Vados has about all the different ice fishing bait and the mixed color spikes, but doesn't seem to have them at the moment. Jada has ice fishing bait and free shipping, but doesn't have the colored spikes so I don't order from them all that much.

Between the two I've had excellent bait delievered to my house and never had a problem. Vados is usually a day or so to get the bait to NW Iowa since it is in MN, where jada takes about 4 days to get to NW Iowa since it is farther away. I believe it is in wisconsin somewhere.

[Gunflint Guy]

What is the best way and temp to keep spikes alive all winter?