BEST Ice-Out soft plastic?

Bladerunner808 · Post by **Bladerunner808** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:44 pm

I live in southeastern PA, and I fish 3-5 days a week. (I work GREAT hours) March - October. In my experience February is useless here and March is pretty awful too. The first week in April comes and BAM - great fishing through the fall.

I am DETERMINED to have a good March this year. Yes, I use suspending jerkbaits to little avail. I want a proven soft plastic I can twitch, pause, and slow-roll through March to cure my Ice-Out blues...ANY suggestions?

angry john · Post by **angry john** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:41 am

you may want to try a hula grub. There are many other companies that make diffrent versions. Its like a soft jig.

DUZBASS · Post by **DUZBASS** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:03 am

super fluke

USA-RET · Post by **USA-RET** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:50 am

When I lived north, my Ice out bait was a jig and uncle Josh pork chunk worked over rip rap on the North east sections of the lake. More sun exposure on that section warming the rock and drawing fish in.

If you want plastic, I'd say any of the plastic trailers resembling a craw would be fine. I'd spray it was a nice craw-fish scent.

hobobob · Post by **hobobob** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:16 am

Try slider grub on a slider head. It will catch anything that swims from ice out till post spawn.

smalljaw · Post by **smalljaw** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:19 pm

I live in East Central PA, usually I get on the water by late Februalry but this year I was catching smallies in December on the susquehanna river, and I caught some largemouth the 2ned week of January, the 12th to be exact. I normally use jerkbaits and hair jigs but I got my fish this January on a River Rock Baits SM Killer worm so I'm thinking that would be a good ice out plastic. It is a 4.5" finesse worm I fished in 9 feet of water on a 1/16oz shaky head, it took a few seconds to get to the bottom but fishing that small weight forces you to fish slow. Try going to 4" to 5" finesse worm route and see how it goes for you.

cjtoad · Post by **cjtoad** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:18 pm

Single tail grub!!! 4" or 5" works best for me.

Bladerunner808 · Post by **Bladerunner808** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 4:51 pm

smalljaw wrote:I live in East Central PA, usually I get on the water by late Februalry but this year I was catching smallies in December on the susquehanna river, and I caught some largemouth the 2ned week of January, the 12th to be exact. I normally use jerkbaits and hair jigs but I got my fish this January on a River Rock Baits SM Killer worm so I'm thinking that would be a good ice out plastic. It is a 4.5" finesse worm I fished in 9 feet of water on a 1/16oz shaky head, it took a few seconds to get to the bottom but fishing that small weight forces you to fish slow. Try going to 4" to 5" finesse worm route and see how it goes for you.

I went to Penn State. You live in one of the most beautiful areas in the country. Love it there...

Bladerunner808 · Post by **Bladerunner808** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 4:52 pm

smalljaw wrote:I live in East Central PA, usually I get on the water by late Februalry but this year I was catching smallies in December on the susquehanna river, and I caught some largemouth the 2ned week of January, the 12th to be exact. I normally use jerkbaits and hair jigs but I got my fish this January on a River Rock Baits SM Killer worm so I'm thinking that would be a good ice out plastic. It is a 4.5" finesse worm I fished in 9 feet of water on a 1/16oz shaky head, it took a few seconds to get to the bottom but fishing that small weight forces you to fish slow. Try going to 4" to 5" finesse worm route and see how it goes for you.

How slow ... like the slowest cosnstant crawl imaginable OR super slow with long pauses?

Heronimo · Post by **Heronimo** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 4:15 am

I live in NJ and a guide I fished with on the Delaware for winter smallies said if my cast took less than 4 minutes to reel in- I'm fishing too fast. Go slower than you think and impart less action than you think you need.

smalljaw · Post by **smalljaw** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:23 am

Bladerunner808 wrote:
smalljaw wrote:I live in East Central PA, usually I get on the water by late Februalry but this year I was catching smallies in December on the susquehanna river, and I caught some largemouth the 2ned week of January, the 12th to be exact. I normally use jerkbaits and hair jigs but I got my fish this January on a River Rock Baits SM Killer worm so I'm thinking that would be a good ice out plastic. It is a 4.5" finesse worm I fished in 9 feet of water on a 1/16oz shaky head, it took a few seconds to get to the bottom but fishing that small weight forces you to fish slow. Try going to 4" to 5" finesse worm route and see how it goes for you.
How slow ... like the slowest cosnstant crawl imaginable OR super slow with long pauses?

Using a 20 size spinning reel I would make one full turn of the reel and then do nothing for 10 seconds then a half turn of the reel and wait, then a quarter turn and wait and then back to a full turn and repoeat. The reason for this is you don't want to use the rod to move the bait or impart action on it as it tend to move it too much so you keep the rod at a 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock depending on which way you're facing and use the reel to move the bait. That is what I do for water in the 30's, if it is in the 40's I will use the rod and give the bait a slight lift and drop and then long pauses in between, the upper 40's low 50's and I'm on a jerkbait. I do a lot of hair jig and jerkbait fishing for smallies in early and late winter but I will also try the largemouth in the lakes if the water is in the upper 30's and when I say upper I mean 37 and forget it, 38 and 39 degrees are the lowest temp I ever caught largemouth, smallies I caught down to just above freezing. So if you want to try a good worm just let me know.

Teal101 · Post by **Teal101** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:56 am

angry john wrote:you may want to try a hula grub. There are many other companies that make diffrent versions. Its like a soft jig.

This has been my best producer in March, what little production I've gotten. I'm in Washington and we wont be icing out for another 2-3 weeks if this low 40's weather keeps up. I have the itch, just no thawed water to fish!

njbasscat · Post by **njbasscat** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 4:31 pm

I like a three and a half inch tube bait with a 1/8 oz jig head inside fished painfully slow.

Bladerunner808 · Post by **Bladerunner808** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 8:24 pm

DUZBASS wrote:super fluke

What presentation? Weightless T-Rig twitched along bottom?

Bladerunner808 · Post by **Bladerunner808** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 8:26 pm

Heronimo wrote:I live in NJ and a guide I fished with on the Delaware for winter smallies said if my cast took less than 4 minutes to reel in- I'm fishing too fast. Go slower than you think and impart less action than you think you need.

I live on the Delaware... Cool. That is slower than I've EVER gone...

BEST Ice-Out soft plastic?

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