Some jig styles, like the Flyer from Lindy-Little Joe (218/829-1714), allow a horizontal swimming motion. These baits can be effective with a variety of plastics, including curlytails.

For pike and lake trout, Smith likes minnow shapes. “I call ‘em soft thump tails,” he says. “The end of the tail is bigger and heavier than the rest of the tail, so it produces a heavy vibration. Fish feel it and see it.”

Rick Wood, another lake trout addict, catches lakers from clear shallow water with a Mann’s Jelly Hoo, a minnow-shaped plastic, fished as a dying baitfish. “I don’t use much weight,” he says. “Just enough to get it to sink. I want it to glide and look like it can’t swim well. If it’s too heavy, it doesn’t look alive. Get the motion just right and it can make you believe it’s real. Those fish hit it with no hesitation.”

Scent impregnation is important these days. “Garlic, salt, fish scent, whatever,” according to Smith. “They hold onto it longer than plain plastic.” Berkley (877/777-3850), for example, makes a variety of scented Power Baits. Storm (952/933-7060) also has a new line of scented plastics with ice-fishing potential.

For predators like walleyes and pike, Smith favors plastics over livebait in many instances when he’s jigging. “For one thing,” he says, “it lasts longer. I can get more aggressive with plastic, too, and it won’t fall off.”

Meanwhile, In-Fisherman Editor In Chief Doug Stange and In-Fisherman Founder Al Lindner have long relied on a plastic tube coupled with a jighead for lake trout and pike. They slide the jighead inside the tube and work the bait by lifting and letting it fall, then jigging the bait to make it look and act alive. Pump the bait up and down consistently, and it swims and darts in a circle around the hole. The boys have caught hundreds of fish with this bait and often rely on nothing else.

Stange: “Noteworthy, though, is that we really rarely catch that many walleyes with these baits. The traditional flash lures and swimming lures do a better job of triggering walleyes.”

How to Work Plastics

In general, Smith says “I’m looking for that same tail kick I get out of my maggots, as I work a piece of plastic.” Because plastics are so visual, we believe they often are at their best during the day, in clear water.

Sabota, who uses plastics mainly for crappies and bluegills, says he always starts with a jig or hook that allows him to keep the whole package in a horizontal attitude as he fishes it. Genz often talks about the importance of a horizontal presentation, especially when the fish can clearly see the bait.

The key, according to Sabota, is to “keep that little tail sticking out away from the jig. Then, just the slightest movement of the rod gets that thing quivering. I think it imitates a small swimming minnow. Actually, I don’t care what they think it is, as long as they eat it. I vibrate my wrist, but it’s not as rapid as the pounding maneuver Genz likes. Get it to kick; that’s the key. That jig has to kick, so the plastic quivers.”

If Sabota gets a bite but doesn’t hook the fish, he immediately reels up to check the plastic. “If that little tail gets stuck to the hook or the body,” he says, “it won’t hang out there and quiver. When it’s like that, the fish won’t take it.” Plastics have been so good to Sabota that he rarely uses livebait for crappies.

Finally, this trick from “Iowa Mike” Salzman, who puts Berkley Power Bait Nibbles in his waxworm container, closes the top, and lets the scent of the Nibbles permeate his waxies. “It works,” Smith attests. “It just gives livebait a little more aroma.”

*Mark Strand, a freelance writer from Woodbury, Minnesota, is an excellent winter angler and long-time contributor to In-Fisherman Ice Guides.