Blase baits Revisited

[papaperch]

So again on Tues night I set out for another try at walleye that broke me off last week. After 3 hours of no action I finally get it thru my thick head.They ain't there tonight.

Go to favorite crappie spot. get all set up lights on and out and again zero.
finally about 1130 pm get crappie on jig. Shortly there after one on a minnow. Then I sat there doing nothing again. Time for drastic change in presentation. Fish there on screen but ho-hum about what I am trying to feed them.

Tie on a Rapala ripping rap in a shad finish 2 inches long. Get several fish but all on the small side. I then turn to a heddon sonar the 1/8 oz size that nobody but me liked. Nary a hit on them. Then go 1/4 sonar that I make nickle blade , recessed eye and dotted like a shad. Most fish are flashing at 21-23 ft on my Garmin. I let the homemade sonar down watching it on Garmin. Lift slightly and instant crappie. It was the on for about 3 hours. Unfortunately most of them were small. Of the 11 keepers I brought home 9 were caught on the sonars.



The two on left are the Heddon 1/8 ouncers. One of my favorite ice lures. One in the middle the orange one caught a few. But the winner for the evening was the shad spotted one on the right.

So today I get all fired up and make these for some backup ammo



Have shad spot them and hang the double hooks on them.Yep I prefer the double hooks instead of the trebles. One of the thing I hate about sonars is how they tangle. The double hooks facing outward at each end seem to tangle a lot less for me. I am not painting the nickle body just the lead formed around the head.

I am going to have to get me another Sony camera. It took a lot better pix than this Canon.

 

[Kdog]

I'm a die hard blade bait user. Sometimes, theres just something about them that erases lockjaw. I use a lot of short shank trebles to elimate tangles and did fing some #8 mustad 7790's that work very well on my 1/4 and 3/8 blades

 

[papaperch]

Little better pic showing finish better.

 

[AtticaFish]

Nice report. That walleye is haunting your dreams huh! I still have the walleye fever from spring, but don't think i am even going to bother trying for them (on my little waters) again until the temps cool way down. Been skunked on several of my last late night attempts.

Never have fished blade baits much because most times i am casting from shore rather than working vertical. On the ice is all vertical though. Think i have 2 in my ice tackle box that are the Cicada type? Would have to dig them out to be sure. Honestly do not use them often on the ice simply because i do not have much confidence in knowing how to use/jig/rig them. The smaller ones look interesting. Do you pour them all yourself papaperch or are you buying them blank (unpainted) from somewhere?

 

[Fatman]

Love blades!! just wish the blanks were cheaper!!

 

[papaperch]

Russ- I am pouring them. All I buy is the blade inserts. As FM says I wish the same. One good thing is you lose very few of them vertical jigging. Some guys do cast them but I never had any luck doing that. Vertical jigging whole different ball game.

yeah that walleye getting away like that stuck in my craw. I almost never fish for them on purpose. But that dude fired me up a little.

How I rig blade baits. Using power pro line as main line I tie a swivel on end of power pro. Next comes leader with crane swivel at one end and berkley cross snap at other.

 

[Airstreamfield]

Those look good, can you powder coat the blade or is it to smooth?

About how much do the blades run?

 

[jiggerjohn]

Great looking blades! But, I too, might be the only other that enjoys the 1/8 oz sonar! I well remember fishing West Branch a bit later in the fall with ole buddy, the late Earl Cartwright, as we lowered homemade blades to edges of creek channels at the mouths of bays near the main lake, and getting really nice strings of largemouth bass! Seems the homemade blade baits were always more productive than original sonars!! As to casting them, when the SONAR first came out I was gifted with one by my grandmother and took it and very little other gear off to college; near campus was a nice little natural lake & a fast retreived, waking sonar over Spring weedbeds got me many HARD striking surface bass!! Very fun bait to fish!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Having decided to be a single fixed hook jig purist I ignored fringe "jigging" stuff like slabs & blades which are outfitted with treble hooks which I detest. But after witnessing local bladers outfish me with em, particularly one guy who having raved the merits of blades tied one on and got a nice wally ON THE FIRST CAST! decided to take the plunge & took the opportunity to purchase a seldom seen Pro 205 1/4 oz. Zonar mold on eBay. I share PapaPerch's preference for double hooks over trebles so bought a bunch of Mustad 7826s on eBay also. Yesterday got my ship of zb-s blade blanks from Barlows and discovered they DIDN"T FIT the mold, and I'd either have to grind (slightly) the blades or the mold to fit. Anyone else had this problem and what was your solution?

Also, it seems #6 & #8 hooks are preferred, is there a reason why larger hooks, I'm thinking #4, aren't a good choice?