If a bite can be called hot when it’s 20 degrees outside, I definitely got to enjoy a hot bite recently. While ice-fishing in central Minnesota, two friends and I caught five species of fish on YUM Wooly Curltails and Vibra King Tubes.
I knew that 1 ½-inch Wooly Curltails and 2-inch Vibra King Tubes had been gaining ardent fans among northwestern ice anglers and that this highly effective tactic had been gradually working its way east. Therefore, when I realized I’d be spending time on the ice, I carried a good stash of YUM "crappie baits."
Having found fish right away with a portable flasher, I decided to rig up a chartreuse silver flake Vibra King Tube. I strung the tube on a 1/32-ounce jighead, sprayed it with YUM Attractant (shad flavor) and dropped it into the hole.
Watching the flasher, I could see my tube falling slowly through the water column – toward fish, which were just off the bottom. Then I noticed a line showing a fish moving up, so I flipped the bail as the two lines were about to converge. Within seconds I felt a tick and set the hook with a gentle snap of my wrist. A moment later I was pulling a crappie through the ice.
My friends, veteran ice anglers, began the morning using more traditional offerings. However, it wasn’t long before one decided to try a YUM Wooly Curltail. We ended up fishing till after dark, and he never made another switch – although he did have to tie on a new jighead once, after a big fish broke his line.
In addition to crappie (crappies, as they say in Minnesota), we caught walleyes, bluegill, yellow perch and even a couple largemouths on YUM crappie baits. Both bass came from the same shallow hole where a fish broke my friend’s line, so that might have been a larger bass – or possibly a pike.
We experimented with tipping our jigs, trying minnows, half minnows and wax worms. However, the straight Vibra King Tubes and Wooly Curltails outfished the same offerings tipped with natural bait on that particular day. A fresh shot of YUM Attractant did seem to help convert lookers into takers.
Ice fishermen traditionally have fished mostly with natural offerings or metal lures, but that is beginning to change. Anglers are discovering the virtue of YUM with Live Prey Technology through the ice and enjoying the coldest hot bite of the year.
Hope to see you out there!
Jeff Samsel
Other fine ice-fishing products from Lurenet.com:
-Cotton Cordell C.C. Spoon, Little Mickey
-Cotton Cordell Gay Blade
-Silver Thread Trout
-XCalibur Tg Drop Shop Weights