This one is hot….

On the lake very early this morning trying to beat the rain and found this guy needing attention so it got dunked…. And soon became the bait of the day.

Scheels has them in a close out bin in several colors, but this one is known to be a hottie. An inch and a half long, maybe 1/16 ounce, it has a real tight vibe action that accounted for roughly half of the fish I boated this morning.

We were fishing the Rochester area, early, and will confess we thought maybe we’d gotten dumb in our old age facing a day that, according to all the myths, was not supposed to be all that good for fishing: major league cold front, rain coming, super duty wind from the NW, fairly warm water. Nothing about the day was positive.

A crappie on the first drop was seen as a good sign by my buddy. Not so much by me. When said buddy caught another crappie on his first or second cast, my mood improved. This first spot gave up maybe 8 fish that went in the well and as many if not more that were returned. The wind got to be an issue so we moved to another spot that offered at least a little protection from the wind but much different conditions…like real deep water.

It took a minute at spot #2 to boat a double. Then another. Several singles were had so I decided to tie on this vibe bait and hoped to keep it at the level the fish were hitting at in this 30 foot hole. 10-12 feet seemed the hot depth with the plastics so I let out line to about 10 feet and made about three jigs when the first fish on it came. After maybe 20 fish I went back to plastics but soon had that vibe rod back in hand and finished the morning in a downpour that shut the fish off using this new to me bait. I’ve since been back to the local Scheels and cleaned up on the remaining baits in this color pattern and a couple others in the same size.

My largest crappie, the day’s largest crappie, was spot on at 13″. Lots of others between 11″-12″. Some decent sized sunfish hit plastics along with a nice white bass and three sheeps, one maybe 8-10 pounds. The plastics were some of my home-brews at 2-1/4″, purple or clear soft plastic with chartreuse tails. 1/16 ounce collarless ball head jigs. 3 pound Nanofil line on one rod, the one with the vibe had 3# Clam Frost braid. No leaders, tied direct to the baits.

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C’mon Jimmy. Don’t hold out on the details.

How did you do with the hot bait?
Numbers, size or both?

According to the back, they cause cancer.

I’d like to take them off your hands so you can avoid such a diagnosis.

(I’m aware with prop 65, everything in Cali causes cancer)

…or maybe just don’t use them in cali!

I’ve been using the Scheels brand swimbaits, with a 3/32nd ounce jig on a small interior river here in Iowa and have been having good luck on the smallies, with a few walters and northerns mixed in. I’m gonna have to pick up a couple of those rattle baits, too.

haleysgold wrote:

C’mon Jimmy. Don’t hold out on the details.

How did you do with the hot bait?
Numbers, size or both?

Using just the Rattle bait I caught around 20 or so fish. Largest was right at 13″, several at 12″ and 11″. The soft plastic I used to start the morning took all of 20 fish.

The first location fished topped out at around 17 feet deep. The second slid into 30+ feet only 20 feet from shore. The fish were anywhere from that 17 foot mark to about 10-12 feet down in both locations. The better fish were suspended and hit the shallowest while the shorts and throw backs all came near the bottom up to about 15 feet. Water temp was anywhere from 60 to 63 depending on location.

This website is wierd.

When I posted those questions, your post only had the 1st paragraph. Now your post shows every answer to my questions and plenty more.

Hoping to get out there and chase em around soon!

Good report. And timely. I’m headed to lonsdale to take the Vietnam vet and his wife out right now. I don’t have the exact bait but I do have similar

haleysgold wrote:

This website is wierd.

When I posted those questions, your post only had the 1st paragraph. Now your post shows every answer to my questions and plenty more.

Hoping to get out there and chase em around soon!

i when first read it same thing…..i went back to look for a picture then it was all there!!!!1

I found another of these baits yesterday in a smaller format, 1-1/8″ at 1/16 ounce. The one in the picture is the one I used and is 1-1/2″ at 3/16 ounce.

The action seems to be fairly tight wiggle as sensed thru the braid. I wasn’t able to determine the size or width of the swimming circle these things can make and in fact seemed to just wiggle like crazy and the lure was jigged. Thru the rod and line it felt almost like a mild electric shock would. Basically, every hit came as the lure rested after the drop and the hits were like they hammered it.

My partner and I actually hit this puddle to troll some crankbaits for crappies since there has been some reported activity while trolling those cranks. #4 Shad Raps in clown color has been reported to be a real killer. On our way to deeper water we stopped at a spot that last fall kept us busy on a couple days using the plastics mentioned. When we neared the deep water area where we were going to start trolling we decided to give the plastic a shot and never really got around to trolling cranks as the fish were nuts right where we were. I don’t think we worked more than 50-60 feet of deep water shoreline and hammered crappie, catfish, sheephead, and sunfish inside that stretch and the bite was aggresive enough that I switched to the vibe bait and happy I did. Barring a deluge or two, this puddle should just get better with cooler water coming.

haleysgold wrote:

This website is wierd.

When I posted those questions, your post only had the 1st paragraph. Now your post shows every answer to my questions and plenty more.

Hoping to get out there and chase em around soon!

I was using the phone to post the picture and a little written script, then I got on the computer to edit in the bulk of the written material which, of course, showed later. I can’t stand writing using the friggin phone. Tiny buttons, larger than the buttons finger tips makes for a bad way to post things. And the a-hole who designed the phone seems to think that allowing the phone to print what IT IS thinking instead of what I want to say just makes using it at a minimum and then editting in the rest is easier than the aggrevation of using the phone at all. I wanted to get the picture from the phone to the thread and used the phone to do that is all.

Question if I may. Were you vertically jigging these? I have both cast them and jigged them with good success on different species. Thanks for the post.

its funny Tom but i was at scheels last night and saw those too. i got a $50 GC just burning a hole in my wallet but those ripping raps never catch me any fish so i walked out empty handed.

i was out on the lake you were on last weekend and my daughter absolutely crushed the fish but using jigging raps. it took me about 30 trips on this said lake, but i got it figured out finally. now i got 3 to 4 productive areas that will always have fish on them. there is one breakline that goes from 6 feet into 25 or so and i have never not caught fish on it……ever.

my buddy is heading out there today after i gave him my coordinates but told him he has to release all my pets. i didn’t tell him what lures so he can figure that out himself.

for those that don’t use jigging raps or rippin style lures, you are missing out big time especially in the fall. last time out my kid caught 8 to 1 vs. live bait and i am perfectly fine watching her have all the fun.

robby wrote:

Question if I may. Were you vertically jigging these? I have both cast them and jigged them with good success on different species. Thanks for the post.

Vertical jigging. Its easier to keep them in the strike zone that way. Yesterday the fish were very depth focused.

Eyeguy, if you look at the one pictured you’ll notice the orange slashes on the sides and the chartreuse belly color. They have a purple back. There’s another purple backed color in the bin but they have purple side slashes. I’m sure the color will get fish, but I loaded up on what actually did catch fish. There are a ton of other colors with a lot of foiled bodies with color added.

Based on how the fish smacked these yesterday I’d say that the fish would/will pop just about anything a person drops down there including your Jigging Raps.

I thought for sure we were going to be wasting our time given the deep overnight pressure change and cool temps plus the wind made boat control a joke at times. The fish proved me wrong. The rain…. now that shut the fish off right now.

robby wrote:

Question if I may. Were you vertically jigging these? I have both cast them and jigged them with good success on different species. Thanks for the post.

they are meant to be used vertically and ripped up. fish will typically pick them up on the fall. i like to drive breaklines at about 2mph and when i graph schools, i will mark them and go back then spotlock right on top of the fish and unless you are fishing ultra clear water, the fish don’t spook much.

One of my favorite lures. I have had great success casting and vertical jigging these lures. One will want a softer rod for casting to help avoid ripping the lips of the fish. I see Tom B using these a bunch in his videos.