shaggy1224

i also have question to add. being a father of 3 i don't get to fish as much as i used to when i was single. as a matter of fact i haven't ice fished in 2 years. well i have some friends comming up from kentucky the end of the month to go ice fishing. well wouldn't u know it i can't seem to find my tackle box for ice fishing anywhere. if anyone could be a little more specific as to the types of jigs i should buy would would be greatly appreciated. thanx.

Champlain Islander

If you are fishing for perch then use some of these if you can find them. We call them bibbets here in Vermont and they are just painted lead jigs and you fish them bare without any bait. Fish them from right on bottom to about 5' up for most perch schools. When they bite they really take them. I have had days of close to 200 pounds of large perch using these lures. The barbs are removed so when you get the perch up through the hole you just dunk them in a bucket or on the ice and they come right off so you don't need to handle them. To get a big catch your cycle speed of hookup to getting back to the bottom is important. Perch are schooling fish and getting the lure back down to them keeps them there. Color really matters and most perch like orange and white or chartreuse and white or any other combo of bright colors. I use a quick clip on my line so I can change lures without retying.

shaggy1224

thanx champlain thats very helpful. it seems i had a dozen or so just like that. i'll probably go buy basically what i had before. seems things havent changed much. i was hoping there might be something new i should get. i'll just wander around the ice fishing section until i see something familiar.

Phil from Maine

Thanks for posting them CI, I do not fish for yellow perch or sunfish as we call bluegills and the like. But, I think some of those may work well on whitefish up here..

Champlain Islander

I do rarely catch a whitefish on the perch bibbets but they would probably be caught better using minnows I suspect. The perch bibbets are quite large, round like a minnow, heavy andprobably on a #2 hook or something similar and have no barbs. You let them go right to the bottom then work them within a couple of feet of the bottom. You fish them bare without bait. I heard Dave Genz the famous ice fisherman and inventor of Fish Trap portable shelters was in town doing some seminars. He met some of the guys out on the ice and they said he never knew about perch bibbets before. Must be a Lake Champlain thing. I bet if someone took some to the Great lakes they could clean up on slab perch. The perch slam them and I am not kidding. I buy the blank lures or strip the paint off old ones that don't work and then paint them myself with vinyl paint. The bluegill lures are smaller, light, flatso they flutterand are usually on a 8, 10 or 12 hook and are tipped with maggots.

Phil from Maine

Whitefish up here eat mostly snails and with the small paper like mouths they are sometimes hard to catch. Minnows will work some but mostly you will end up with stolen bait. I normally use a few smelts cut up in about 1/4 inch chunks. A small number 8 hook as well as a small sinker and jig it next to the bottom. So when I was looking at the bibbets you have posted. I would think some of them would work great on them. Now whenI am fishing for white perch, well you know, live bait all the way.