Ice fishing has always been about using the smallest of jigs, small worms and small plastics. Sure, they work, and at times they are the only things that work. However, on a recent trip to catch some crappies it was proven again that big baits can, and will catch more fish than smaller presentations. I was using my favorite ice combo at the time for bigger baits. I have the Jason Mitchell Black Meat Stick in the 36 inch version. I have paired this up with a Lew's Speed Spin reel. I like to use spoons or the new Tika Flash when hole hopping for deeper crappies. I can fish this combination so quickly moving up the down the water column as well as from hole to hole finding the next group of hungry fish. This day, like many this year, the bigger baits are what the crappies wanted on this day. The catch rate was so much higher on the bigger baits compared to jigs. There was one stretch of the morning that I did not even need to tip the baits with spikes...they were that attracted to the larger baits. Another thing that using larger baits does is to keep away the smaller fish. Smaller crappies and bluegills didn't' mess with me for the most part, allowing me to focus on the bigger marks and catching fish that I wanted to catch. On this day the crappies were holding about three feet off the bottom of the lake, utilizing my Vexilar FLX38 in the zoom mode made it so easy to pick off these crappies. Medium power 1 with the 180 frequency was fantastic for seeing nearby crappies and getting my bait directly above them. Give it a little shake and gentle ride up...the crappies couldn't resist.
It was a fun day on the ice, my equipment made it so enjoyable to fish, almost too easy? It was great and everyone in the group had a great time that day. Don't forget to think BIG when ice fishing, it might just get you a few more bites, and bigger ones too.
