I live in Minnesota and do some Ice fishing in the winter months. For those not familiar, we will drill a hole 6-10" in diameter through the ice and then jig for panfish/walleye/pike. Most people use live bait on a jig or hook, like minnows, suckers, shiners, or small grubs. Lures range from plain jigs to jigging spoons and the like. Over the last few years a few different type of lures have hit the market. Based on what they do, I am wondering if you Bass experts think they can be applied to summer fishing.

The Lures I am speaking of are the Salmo Chubby Darter and the Lindy Darter. They look like pretty much any crankbait, but without the bill. They sink when dropped in a hole and will dive away and outawrds as they fall. Dipping and diving, a swimming down type of action. In the winter you can only fish vertical, so that is what the bait is designed for.

My thought was tossing these baits around docks. Essentially the action is similar to a senko. Cast the bait near a dock, it will sink, dive, and swim it's way to the bottom. With a simple twitch of the rod, it will come back up, then swim back down on slack line like a fleeing/dying baitfish. I am not sure if others have tried this or not. Just based on what the lure does, it seems it could work just fine on Bass. I did see a youtube video where a guy just did a cast and retirieve with the Lindy Darter on spawning bass and it seemed to work for him. I was thinking more around docks.

Anyone ever tried it? Heard of it? Think this might work? I know we are all looking to throw an effective bait, but also a unique bait fish havent seen. Thoughts?

-you can just google search "chubby darter" or "lindy darter" to see a picture. The computer here at work crashes when i try and use the functions provided.

Thanks,

I often find myself wondering where certain lures get their "roots" and in this particular case a trap type lure. I found this article on the Bayou Boogie written by Jim Porter and he reference something similar to what your describing. Below is an excerpt from his article:

"I once researched the origin of the Bayou Boogie. My old notes and fading recollections reminded me that they were first hand-carved from cedar and redwood and were specifically intended to be imitations of small baitfish. In actuality, the idea for the design came from lures developed for jig fishing through the ice by northern anglers. These lures wiggled side-to-side when jigged up, and the lures' weight made them sink on a slack line. At some point in the evolution of fishing, an innovative angler wondered, that if the lure worked while going up and down, why shouldn't it be equally productive when towed through the water while trolling, or pulled along with a reel? That sounded good, but the lure was not quite designed for those applications. It was not stable and was not controllable. In looking at today's Bayou Boogie and similar modern lures, that early angling innovator's problems and the eventual solutions are obvious. But, stability and holding an underwater running position were the hard nuts to crack."

There is no date on that article that I can see, but my guess is, it was written before that Senko type lures came into existence. Based on that statement, they were trying to get a similar lure to track fairly straight, hence the trap type baits. Based on what "was" produced back then, and what the Senko type bait does now, they may have missed the boat, not altogther, but in a sense. That lure back then, pretty much does exactly what you're talking about.

I say, you're on to something that I may try in the near future. Let me know how it works. Fish it like a Senko and report back.

its basically just a lipless crank, like the cotton cordell super spot or rat-l-trap. even though the shape is somewhat different it acts the same. i have personally tried vertically jigging them in winter and it does work. as for open water, lipless cranks are a great search lure no matter how you fish them

Without knowing anything about those lures, I'm confident you'll get action if you throw them where there are fish. I've always held the theory that if a species is willing to hit artificials, it will hit a wide variety of them

As far as multiple species, I target bass, but there's not a lure I own that pike and pickerel won't readily hit. Walleye will also take a variety of lures, but they're not usually where I'm looking for my bass and they're less widely distributed around here.

While it's not the same lure youre talking about, I found the Trigger X Big Moe makes a decent topwater plastic. If you rig it upside down, the tail will make a good commotion and it can be worked pretty slow too.