jigging raps

[james_walleye]

I've Always Been A Spoon Guy For Eyes Under The Ice. I Never Have Confidence In Raps But I Want To Try Them More. Just Looking For Tips For Once The Fish Is On The Vex. You Hold It Still? Move It At All?

[fishwater]

I get most of my hits while the bait is moving, mostly on the fall. Lots of times you can get them to hit on the pause, but the fish hit harder if you keep your bait moving imo. I have had success using raps stationary too, rods in holders or on a deadstick. I've seen letting the rap sit in the sand be the go-to trick. You never really know.

I do 3 primary cadence types with jigging raps for enticing walleye. My first would be a full snap, pulling the bait up hard, dropping the rod tip, then simply letting it fall and settling. More of a fish call, sometimes they fly in and smack it. The second uses a more controlled lift with attentive tip tracking on the fall, at times this will be a controlled decent. The third, used less frequently is a flutter, controlled up and down, typically shorter movements. As always you want to entice a chase whenever possible, so taking up line as you oscillate your bait is essential too.

[tunrevir]

It sounds cliché but let the fish tell you what they want. Experiment with your jigging cadence but I have found that a slow lift with a little jiggle similar to spoons works to trigger fish or after a series of lift drops just letting the lure come to rest w/o any movement at all prior to beginning a new jigging sequence can be deadly. Sometimes banging bottom causing a disturbance on the bottom a lift fall and hold can be a trigger. Experiment and have fun. You are trying to recreate a wounded minnow, a fleeing minnow, a feeding minnow, a minnow at rest that is clueless about a nearby predator, a nervous minnow. Visualize these scenarios and what that might look like and recreate them with your jigging.

Tunrevir~

[kfk]

I agree with tunrevir. Try different cadences and let the fish tell you what works, but many times for me, something like 10 seconds of vertical jigging followed by 10 seconds of just letting it hang motionless can be deadly or some variation of it. Like he says too, banging it off the bottom to puff up some mud occasionally helps trigger bites also.

They're my go to bait while ice fishing and they also work great in open water.

I usually tip the bottom treble with a minnow head.

[Deitz Dittrich]

As the two others have said above, you really do need to let the fish tell you what they want.. A few suggestions, Dont over bait the lure.. It works best with very little bait on them. Bottom content will let you know if you can crash it into the bottom or not.. Sometimes slower pulls work best.

[RuKiddingMe]

Couple weeks ago up on Red Lake my go to bait was the jigging rap - blue shad - tipped with a minnow head on the center hook. I was able to bring the fish in with lift fall motion, and once in awhile pounding the bottom to stir up a little dust and then once I had a fish on the flasher I would have to hold it perfectly still until I felt the tap tap then it was game on and the fish had the whole lure in it's mouth. As with any spoon or jig you'll have to play around with the action until they respond, if you have fish around it won't take long to pin point what they want or if they even want anything.

[fshhntfootball]

This year up on LOTW was the first time I experimented with artificial jigging baits (Lindy Darters) and boy was it fun/interesting! Both days that I used one, I would drop it down to a few feet off bottom, and would see fish come up to look at it. Once I knew they were there I would keep raising the depth by about a foot each cadence, and it seemed once the bait go to about 6-7 feet off bottom they would pound it. Sometimes I would try something new in the cadence to see how they reacted. More often then not the line on the vex would be gone, but it was a learning experience thats for sure!! Also something I found was that I would pick up 4-5 fish quick with the darter, and then nothing. Switch to macho minnow with shiner head, 4-5 more fish. Hour or so later that would die off and they would hit the darter again. Like the others have said, experiment until you find what those fish are looking for.

[magic_minnow]

Do you guys cut the front and back hooks off with a wire cutter? I feel that it works better....isn't too bulky...but that may just be me.

[kfk]

I don't cut any of the hooks off myself but I have heard of it being done. I've never found any reason to do it.

[centralmnguy]

I always do a short pause on the drop & usually get a bite or a bump on the bottom treble. I tip the front hook on bottom treble with a minnow head. Don't be afraid to drop it down to bottom & bounce it a few times to stir things up...as others have mentioned I think its on the drop that triggers them to bite. If you have a cam or access to one I recommend you use it to watch your jigs & how they swim & jig...this has helped me out alot. If the fishing is slow I will just set my cam up & test out a bunch of my lures & jigs to watch how the action is with them.

Good Luck!

[DrJuice1980]

Ive began to use these for open water and love it. I feel it is the drop that entices a bite. I would not cut any of the hooks off.

[jvm1]

What size do you guys prefer?

Seems to me like the smaller ones work better

[kadier]

I caught this badboy and a bunch of other nice fish on LOW a few wknds ago using the smallest rap with a chartruse firetiger look to it with a minnow head on the middle hook. they smoked em. if they are going to hit it, the front and back hook are what i was getting them with. it was an effn blast all fish that weekend came off jiggin raps

[kfk]

Yeah, they work well! Nice fish Kadier.

[fishwater]

I use mostly W5's, W3's are also common. The W7's are walleye sized too, but need a heavier rod than a typical setup. I use W7's on the river, the sauger like them.

[hydro]

Did very well on Winnie for jumbo perch last weekend with a small yellow jigging Rap. At first it was working well but the end hooks kept getting snagged on the bottom of the ice or the transducer cable and lost several fish. All of the fish I was pulling up were hooked on the center hook so I cut off the front and back hooks. Worked much better that way.

I do replace that wimpy center treble with a bigger treble or a single hook, depending in what I'm doing. I always bait the center hook and that's how I connect on the strikes.

[centralmnguy]

Tried the new uv tiger color...outfished my regular firetiger jigging rap 2 nights in a row.