Finessing not just for Bass

papaperch

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Mar 28, 2010
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If you NEVER use live bait these will not help you. But if your like me and will do anything LEGAL to catch em read on

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At first glance these might appear as just another harness. But if you look closely they are tied with # 8 hooks and smaller. The blades are also on the small side. Some just have a simple small flo bead on it.  I use these when normal sized baits or live bait on plain hooks are not producing. Though small in size I have caught some big fish on them. The biggest fish I ever hooked on them was a huge muskie at Lake Milton. I say hooked because that 4 # leader just could not handle that boy. I use blades as small as 00 and even those small little propellers blades. They all produce and are simple to make. I pre- tie mine and store in  re-sealable plastic bags. Gives me something to do when I can't go fishing. I tie some micro harnesses that were tied with big bluegill and perch in mind. However the walleyes like to inhale the also. One thing I learned using and making these. Don't assume anything color or size wise. Experiment and note results. Use with minnow or small earthworms



These I use for ice fishing. To give you an idea on how small that pin min in the middle is on a size 10 hook. These are tipped with only 1 maggot or mousee. Have used just a piece of waxworm also. The smallest one here is on a size 18 hook. I use fly tying stuff on these such as caddis beads some times little bits of feather or fur. On occasion these mini lures can absolutely slay gills and perch. I would say crappie do bite on them but the small hooks don't hold them very well. I use these when i know the fish are there. But will not bite on what you would consider normal size ice fishing lures. Another caveat is if you use in water deeper then 8 ft. I would add a split shot up on my main line. Also hemostats are invaluable when removing fish from these tiny hooks.


I always make sure I have a variety of these pre-tied baits on hand. By going micro now and then it has helped catch fish that ignored standard offerings. I use braid for my main line. Then mono as a leader. When something gets tangled or broke off. It only takes a few seconds to get back in ball game. Sometimes  even really heavy pressured fish will hit these like they have never seen a lure. Not always but often going small brings big results.
 

AtticaFish

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Those are nice looking spinner bait rigs. I made some up similar to that to fish on a very clear reservoir near me. Plan was to find the big bluegill during late summer and early fall. I added a weight up above the swivel, tipped with a night crawler and fished them (drifted from my kayak) on the deep side of transition areas. Rip-rap to basin and the deeper side of weed beds. They worked really well, but had a hard time keeping largemouth and rockbass off them. Was not a bad thing, but just couldn't seem to get my target species. I had to down size my bait to a single wax worm and finally caught some bigger bluegill and even a few decent perch. That was several years ago, and not really sure what ever happened to those mini harnesses. They kind of slipped my minds, will have to see if i can dig them up.

One thing i did find was that to maximize the spin using the little blades and clevis right on the line, do not put a bead in front of the clevis and use the very smallest metal bead you can find to put directly behind the clevis. It allows less friction all around and will let the blades spin more freely.... especially those willows!

The ice flies look down right deadly.
 

duffy

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Oct 7, 2015
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Eastern WA.
Those bring back some good memories. Years ago when we first got married my mother-in-law would tie up some rigs like that for us and they worked like dynamite on perch & crappy.  She would sometimes tie them with a #4 hook and a huge blade like a #5 or #6 colorado and those didn't work quite so well, but the ones with a #1 - #3 and a #6 or #8 hook tipped with a bit of crawler would produce. If we used real small hooks then the sunfish were a problem. I do remember catching a nice bass with the larger bladed one while trolling it by some weed beds with a whole crawler on it. Those were good times!   Is that red/white ice hook just thread with epoxy on it or an acetate body? Looks like that would be killer.
 

papaperch

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Mar 28, 2010
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Northeast Ohio
Duffy -that is a white bead/ red thread and clear cure goo sealant. Like to clear coat some stuff to give it a transparent affect.
 
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