how do you fish a chubby darter?

[CALVINIST]

Never used one before, so I want to know what works best for people.

[Jim Hudson]

Pretty easy lure to use Calvinist, a basic lift drop hold swimming motion is the best thing for the darter.

For the best action, I use a 28" to 32" medium action rod, with the reel spooled with a 10lb test superline or 10lb mono, with a small crosslock snap to attach the darter to the line. This is key for the lure to get proper action, can also achieve this with a loop knot, but the snap makes for easier color swaps of the lure.

If in a spot that fish are around, but you need to call the fish in some. Slowly descend the lure, until right about to bottom. Hold the lure. A lot of times the fish will move in just from this movement. And if a fish moves in quickly on the descent, work the fish from there, by just twitching your wrist rapidly, not big movements but kind of just squeezing the rod to get your wrist moving to impart this rapid movement. The lure will have a shimming action and just slowly pull the rod up and away from the fish to try and seal the deal.

But most times, there will be no fish that comes in. And you need to draw or call them in. Just flick the rod tip up with a movement of your wrist, moving the bait about a foot or so, and let it fall on a semi-tight line. I usually do this two or three times initially. The fall of the lure is a great trigger, the bait rocks back and forth on its fall, again shimming, giving it flash and profile to the fish. Most fish I encounter, usually come in and devour the bait on the fall as such. But some just slide in and need to be worked from here. A constant hold at times is enough for them to take the bait, kind of a stare down and they cant resist. But most often then not, by moving the bait away as noted above or by hopping the bait with very short movements of your wrist will make em eat.

Some loose interest too, but usually can be called back numerous times through the lift drop technique and then drawing the bait away from them. And some, they just move on.

One thing to remember, this bait is an aggressive bait for aggressive to neutral fish. If the fish are off, its time to look for a different technique to trigger em. At times, it could call for running a dropper off the front hook keeper with a smaller offering to seal the bite. They were interested in the profile of the darter, but wanted something else to trigger em.

Hope this helps and if you have any more questions, let me know.

[CALVINIST]

That helps alot, thanks Jim!

[hanson]

CALVINIST-

Jim is right on the money with what he said.

I would also suggest lowering your lure 3' below the ice or so and practicing your jigging movements and watching the lure react to them. You can get the Darter to swim wide circles around your hole if you repeatedly jig at the right time of the drop. Also watch how the Darter wobbles back and forth on the fall. You need to let it drop on a somewhat slack line to get the right action on the drop.

These lures are fun because a lot of time when you go to jig again, a fish already inhaled the bait on the fall and you set the hook into a brick wall.

[Hardwaterjigin]

This is just the info I was looking for as I was at Cabela's and they had a bunch in the bargain cave. I think I paid $4 apiece but since a bunch of guys on here were talking about them I could not resist the temptation. Thanks