Cycle-Time Walleyes

The Jigging Rap has long been one of my favorite ice lures. Maybe a bit of historic perspective will set the stage for points about the presentation process we all need to consider to be successful on the ice.

Raps were popular among a handful of the best ice anglers in the Iowa Great Lakes Region when I began ice fishing seriously in 1971. Lauri Rapala, the man who fashioned the first Rapala Minnow in 1936, and his son Esko crafted the first Jigging Rap (called the Jigging Minno) in Finland in 1961, and 7,000 were apparently in the U.S. that winter.

We don’t know how long it took to sell that first shipment. Sales didn’t take off until the mid-1970s, when they were written about in Fishing Facts magazine.

By that time we were fishing the third-generation Jigging Rap, which, although sleeker in design than the original, had a more tubular shape than the present-day rendition. I have given the original a swim in our big tank, although I’ve never fished with one.

The original had a beefy body like a Countdown Rapala, but otherwise everything is basically the same—plastic tail and single hooks snoot forward and tail back, the treble hook hanging below the center of the lure. Specifically, though, the original had a straight, flat piece of plastic glued at a slight angle under the tail hook to give the lure its swim. The next two generations had a V-shaped plastic wing set under the tail hook, while the present design has the wing above the hook.

Weighted with lead to hang horizontally, the line tie centered on top of the lure, this design is called a “balance jig” in Scandinavia. Several different companies, including Nils Master, tried using that terminology to describe their balanced jigging lures in North America—Rapala tried too at first—but we think we know better than the Finns, and certainly the Swedes, and would have none of it.

The Nils balanced jig called The Jigger became known simply as a Nils Master and never became a great seller even though it’s a crackerjack lure that fishes similar to the Jigging Rap, but with a bit more profile at the head end.

Nils Master also introduced a topnotch balance jig called the Jigging Shad, which has a shorter bulkier design representative of shad and young-of-the-year bluegills and crappies. Jigging Shads are available at various online outlets. They are a solid option in shad- and panfish-based waters, including waters with perch. Rapala offers a similar design, the Jigging Shad Rap. It’s a lighter lure that also fishes well at times. HT Enterprises also sells a similar lure called the Quick Strike Minnow.

An interest I pursued after joining In-Fisherman was to trade fishing magazines with European editors. It was easy to see that many of the ice-fishing countries had lure designs that were much different than our standard designs in North America. Yet there was almost no attempts to import those designs, although we did get several versions of Pilkie spoons—and of course the Jigging Rap. Today, obviously, on panfish fronts we have many tiny jig designs for panfish.

It’s easier with the Internet today to see what’s going on across the Atlantic. Nils Master is a brand name of the company Finlandia Uistin Oy (­nilsmaster.fi). Their “Rotinkainen” is a design that would murder perch here and trigger walleyes and pike at the same time. Meanwhile, the “Nisa” is balanced jigger with wings that give it a slow glide. Speaking of “slow glides.”

Ron Weber and Ray Ostrom imported Rapalas into the U.S. until a new era began several decades ago. In a conversation with Ostrom long ago I asked about Lauri and his feelings about his Balanced Jigging Rap. Lauri, I was told, thought the design was perfect, one of his favorites—just the right combination of size and shape per weight. The original is old school by comparison to today’s design. Still, it had a nice swim, up and to the side in a slow glide.

By comparison, the third-generation design fished faster than the first, the swim up and off to the side much more “darty-dart,” the profile of the lure modestly reduced and more streamlined for a quicker total swim time during the up-down-to-the side-and-back cadence that I’ve always thought of as a “cycle.”

Cycle Time

Speaking of cycle time, most anglers don’t associate Buck Perry’s thinking with ice fishing but the fundamentals apply perfectly. He said depth control and speed control are the two most important variables in lure presentation.

Think about everything we do with our lures for a moment and all of it has to do with depth control first and speed control second. The Jigging Rap is considered by most anglers to be a more aggressive lure than most spoons. That alone is and has been fodder for many articles. Still, it’s easy to see that fundamental lure design affects the working speed of an ice lure, although the angler also exerts control over the process.

You also see that a fundamental design change alone, given its effect on the speed at which a lure darts and glides is bound to affect performance. That’s what I’m getting at with the changes in the Jigging Rap design; which leads to a larger discussion of how lure designs for walleyes developed over the years; and what’s available and triggering walleyes today.

On the depth control side of things, consider some of the presentation options we’ve added to our repertoire—beyond the simple lift-fall-pause—that are affected by depth control. Perhaps the most important has been the realization that working a lure up and away from walleyes in order to get them to move up to get the lure often changes their attitude and, ultimately, gets them to bite.

But for this article let’s stay focused on lure designs. I said that the third generation JRs fished a little slicker than the first gen. The #9 of that third-gen Rap era was a big producer of big fish for me and other anglers who were not timid about fishing with bigger lures. The #7 was more typically a hot ticket for overall numbers of fish. The #9 in particular didn’t look that realistic setting in your hand, but it had a beautiful swim and a nice profile once it came to rest.

Another important factor about the bulkier next-gen lures I discovered somewhere along the way—you don’t always have to just lift-fall-swim the lure and let it pause to attract walleyes and get them to bite. With just the right wrist nodding you can make the lure roll slightly side to side in place, giving off attractive vibrations and flickers and flashes like a minnow about to swim off.

That move alone, after a fish has moved in, following a lift-fall-pause, often triggers fish. So it was lift-fall-pause, nod-nod-nod-nod-nod-nod, pause. Then repeat the nod cadence—and perhaps repeat it again, before doing another lift-fall. Many times, as you watch your electronics to see how fish are reacting, it helps to do the nodding cadence as you gradually lift the lure, taking it slowly away if fish aren’t responding.

Another move is an even-more-aggressive nodding or shaking or pounding—I’ve always called it shaking—to get the lure to frantically roll side to side, giving off even more flash and vibration. This move rarely triggers fish on its own, but it can be used to call fish in. Use it in place of the lift-fall-pause routine or in combination with it.

I think an important part of the sound and vibration that goes with this move is created by the snapping of the line in conjunction with the lure movement. So you might lift-fall, lift-fall, lift-fall-pause; then shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-pause; shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-pause, as an attracting maneuver.

This also works well at the end of the nodding process described above, adding it just before transitioning smoothly into another lift-fall-pause. So, something like this: lift-fall-pause, nod-nod-nod-nod-nod-nod, pause. Then another round of nods—so nod-nod-nod-nod-nod-nod, then immediately shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake, lift-fall-pause.

This, too, is a realistic rendition of the movement a preyfish makes as it begins to swim off. Again, this move rarely triggers fish on its own but it helps to predispose fish that aren’t quite ready to bite to bite during the next round of triggering movements, after another lift-fall. Sometimes you have to think a bit ahead, like a fighter using a move here and there to set up the next big punch.

The present generation of Jigging Raps has a sleeker, thinner profile that cycles a bit faster through the lift-fall routine. The main difference is that the present-gen #9 doesn’t roll and flash so distinctly on the nod and shake. The #7 still fishes well like that because it’s lighter, so I spend a lot more time fishing the #7 than I used to, sometimes sliding down to the #5 for smallmouths and largemouths, trading up to the #9 for pike and lake trout, and using the #9 on big-walleye waters that also have big pike or pike and lake trout.

With all these balanced jiggers, unless I’m on the ice to catch smaller fish for the table, I don’t tip them with minnow parts—and, indeed, I often remove the treble hook. If you’re working these lures as described, bigger fish and even smaller fish are going to try eat the thing head first or tail first. Often, the treble is just a distraction.

Slower Cycling

Several years after the new-generation Rapala introduction, I suggested to several manufacturers that there was a need for another balanced jigger. I suggested keeping the present designs (they filled a solid niche), but also noted the need for a lure that cycled slower—something with a slow glide after the lift-fall.

Rapala didn’t move in that direction until they introduced the Jigging Shad, but others did, the first noteworthy option designed by In-Fisherman Photographer and Digital Director Jeff Simpson, who whittled his way to a prototype that became the Salmo Chubby Darter.

He showed me half a dozen different renditions over the course of a year. He worked with Gary Snyder, who once ran Jig-A-Whopper, to name just one company. At that point Snyder was heading up Salmo in the U.S. These days he’s back at it again, with his own company, the most prolific ice lure designer of all time, so far as I can tell.

The Chubby is a major design change that catches walleyes wherever they swim. It’s a comparatively light lure with a shape like a war club, treble hooks hanging forward and at the tail, line tie anchored in a position dorsally on the head so the lure shimmies and shakes on the lift, then swims with a slight wobble off to the side as it drops slowly and finally circles slightly and drifts back below the hole.

Rip it hard for more vibration and a more pronounced circling downward swim. It fishes best in straight lift-fall mode, but you can also add nods during the pause. Because it cycles so slowly it’s one swimmer that walleyes hit at times on the glide from the side back to below the hole. Most lures are attacked after they settle back in place. I hope Salmo re-­introduces larger Chubby options, because the one available now is a bit small for bigger walleyes.

The Lindy Darter adds another option to Chubby category. The Darter swims in the fashion of the Chubby, but it’s heavier so it cycles faster and also has one of the loudest rattle chambers on the market. If I were in charge at Lindy I’d also do a model that’s silent. The Chubby is silent and, no surprise, one option or the other—rattle or silence—can be better at times.

Lipless Cranks

Anglers have been fishing lipless crankbaits like the Rattlin’ Rap for walleyes for decades, but I don’t know of any part of North America where that lure and others became a popular part of the winter presentation process, until the lipless phenomena took hold on Lake Winnipeg.

The lure that started it all for Roger Stearns, one angler due credit for spurring the process, was the Livetarget Golden Shiner. It sounds like a bucket of bees on the lift, yet swims with a slow-gliding wobble on the fall; so there’s intense vibration, sound, and flash at play on the upstroke, and less-pronounced vibration (a light wobble), little or no sound, and a bit of flash involved on the fall—a relatively slow cycle time.

Most anglers seem to group these lures based on the sounds they make, but I divide them into two categories based on cycle time. Lure speed and depth control are the paramount factors at work. Sound can be important but often isn’t paramount.

The first category has already been mentioned—lures like the Livetarget Golden Shiner do a slower swim on the fall and have a slow cycle time. The other category is characterized by cranks like the Rapala Rippin’ Rap, a lure that falls almost like a slab spoon. So, with the Rippin’ Rap, there’s lots of vibration, sound, and flash on the lift, and then a straight fall with a bit of knuckleballing to it—a fast cycle time. You might say the Rippin’ Rap fishes like a lipless crank on the lift and a spoon on the fall.

Of course, we also divide spoons, which we won’t discuss in this article, into similar categories—on one hand, spoons like the Acme Kastmaster, with a quick up-down cycle time, compared to spoons like the Custom Jigs and Spins Slender Spoon, which lays on its side as it falls, slowing the fall. Fast cycle time. Slower cycle time. As I’ve said, depth control and speed control are the paramount parts of the experiment. Lure size, vibration, flicker, flash, sound, color, and other factors are secondary overall, but still a factor.

A few ice cranks in the slow-­cycle category include the Livetarget Golden Shiner, plus their Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Gizzard Shad, and Crappie. Yo-Zuri offers the Rattlin’ Vibe in a variety of patterns. It performs in the tank much like the Livetarget Shiner but has an even lighter swimming action on the fall. Meanwhile, the Salmo Zipper has a similar sound chamber and does a slow circling—no wobbling swim—on the fall.

Perhaps new-age bladebaits like the Sebile Vibrato should be placed here too. In-Fisherman Field Editor Cory Schmidt loves this option. It provides intense flash and vibration on the upstroke, before falling with a quick, flashy wobble. I’ve also fished it successfully in may waters, from Fort Peck to Last Mountain Lake, Lake of the Woods, Green Bay, and many natural lakes and a few reservoirs across the Midwest.

Keeping it simple, and not getting deeply into the presentation process, you should consider a few lures from the “slow-fall” category and also carry Rippin’ Raps in at least two sizes—the #5, at 2 inches and 5/16 ounce; and the medium #6, a 2.5-inch lure weighing 1/2 ounce. For big water like lakes Winnipeg and Erie, where fish roam widely and often need to be drawn in from a distance, maybe also pack the largest Rippin’ Rap, the #7, a 2.75-inch lure that weighs 7/8 ounce.

We’ve caught enough walleyes on lures like the Rippin’ Rap to confidently recommend them as an option in any situation where you might also choose spoons.

Lipless cranks aren’t just primary lures for trigging walleyes, they also work well to bring them in, at which point the fish might be better triggered with other options. Many anglers fish the Rippin’ Rap in conjunction with a deadstick set nearby. It’s a tactic little different than how I’ve long fished, using either a spoon or a Jigging Rap as my primary attracting and triggering lure, also in conjunction with dead sets.

Primary dead options include either rods set on buckets with the line tightlined to a minnow anchored in reverse on a light leadhead jig; or the same livebait-and-lure-and-rod option used in conjunction with a HT Rigger setup, or some other auto-set device.

This is an overview of one part of the presentation process. Spoons and bladebaits also enter the equation. The point is that cycle time factors greatly into accomplishing speed control, which, along with depth control, plays a fundamental role in our experiments on ice.

Obviously, various presentations can work at the same time. But in any given situation—and in ever-changing situations throughout day and over the course of a season—usually there’s an option that’s better than most of the rest.

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