I've never caught anything on the CD and only a few pike on the Rapalas. Caught a ton of fish on spoons and live bait. I have heard from others that they work on first ice and when the fish are aggressive.

i like to use whatever the fish are biting on at the time..depends on the mood of the fish and the action they are hitting that day.

using either lure i'd say people would catch more fish if they slowly kept pulling up on the lure and make the fish come up to hit it.

normally if you get excited and see a fish on your flasher and continue to jig it or drop it at or below their level they are gone...then you'd just blame it on the lure.

So what are the best producing colors for the jigging raps and chubby darters? If you had to choose just one of those colors what would it be? I usually do well with the perch pattern but that probably is because thats all I use!

For crappies at night ... CDs any glow pattern #3. Haven't tried red or blue yet.

picked up 2 CD befor our last rip to red last yr. We had great luck with these. I originally picked up the largest I could find for ripping for northerns but ended up picking up alot of eyes and no pike. Cant wait to hit the ice this yr and try them in the metro waters.

There is an other bait that you might want to try by HALI, AATTU. They make a balance jig similar to rap but they have better colors and glow treble hooks on them. Size 2 1/4" is my fav. works for big perch and crappies at night.

What is everybodys favorite color Chubby Darter for crappies?

I just picked up two Chubby Darters at Sportsman's Warehouse. Redtail shiner and Real perch #3 for an experiment with crappies. I tend to fish crystal clear water and felt that the glow lures may be too flambouyant. Both Scheel's and Gander Mountain had very little selection. I will post my experience with these patterns in the near future.

What size jigging rap do you guys typically use for walleyes?

I have a got a handful of jigging raps and shad and haven't caught jack with them, but admittedly, I haven't given them much of a shot. How do you work them, quick jigging or a slow up and down?

i still havent cought a fish on my chubby darter!

I use the WSR05 jigging shads most of the time. W5's and W7's for the jigging rap, I've caught eyes on the smaller ones too.


I snap them up and let fall, jiggle them or a slow up motion with a quick drop - basically I'll do whatever the fish wants to get a bite. Some days they require a full minnow to bite, but most often just the head. It took me a while to build confidence with the Rapala ice products, now they are some of my top lure choices.

IMO if you want to gain confidence and improve your success with these types of lures, a flasher of some sort is critical (vex,marcum,hb, etc). It will save you the frustration of whether or not fish are there, and help you understand what type of lure action the fish are responding to.

You have to keep working at these lures before you gain a lot of confidence in them. Part of the fun for me with fishing is getting confidence with different types of lures/presentations. Gets boring doing the same thing all the time (probably for the fish too 8-)

last year the cubby darter save my butt because my lowrance gps went down the hole in 27 fow on mille lacs and the only way that we could get it was with a darter and have caught a lot of fish on them. so in my book they are the best all a round piece of tackle you could have

Jigging Rap hands down... Chubby is way out its league in this show down!