# Small "Marmish" Panfish Ice Jigs



## c. j. stone

Google Marmish, quite interesting site! I like to make my own lures if I can do it w/o a lot of screwing around. Someone told me about these and said they work great thru the ice even w/o bait! Been trying to duplicate them(for personal use!) I did see some tungsten ones on ebay, unfinished, for cheap. Has anyone tried to reproduce them?


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## AtticaFish

I've made something similar by crimping split shot on to a slightly modified Mustad 3366 hook. Bend about 1/8" of the eye/shank down and then crimp and shape a split shot. Powder paint and cure..... have not had a shot fall off a hook yet. I like to use them since the business end of the hook is pointing at a downward angle, not completely horz. or vert. I do dress some with kip tail or other fly tying stuff and catch fish, but have much better luck on the ice if there is meat attached. Here are some pics of what i've made......



















3 on left are traditional jigs, others are split shot heads...









About the only 'lure' i have been able to catch fish through the ice with some consistency without having bait attached has been a tiny spoon jig with a red bead fly. These are actually tiny willow blades with an extra hole, solder filled on the concave side, single 3366 hook. Not sure why, but the bluegill and crappie really like the little red fly......


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## c. j. stone

I've made some similar, small jigs with crimped, round splitshot. They work as well as any purchased ones. Those round heads of yours look very interesting- just wish someone made/sold an "apple seed" shaped splitshot! Then I'd be in business! Have tried some very small tapered(rubber worm type) slip sinkers without much luck. Might try to make a "plaster" mold of one of the actual lures and locate some hooks similar to those you used. Like your willow blade lures a lot. I also do some creative things with the small willows. One lure I make is soldering a small gold hook(gold seems to accept the solder better) onto the con-caved side of the blade. I hold the hook in place with a small clip and solder the hook eye into the blade adding solder to fill the inside of the blade to obtain the weight I need. Solders with a small amount of silver work best for me. These duplicate a popular blade lure on the market generally used for crappie and perch usually tipped with a maggot. I paint these with modeler's enamel, then clear both sides to keep them bright by using nail polish.


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## fishintechnician

Attica could you post a pic of the back side of your spoons?? I am very interested in these. Would like to try to duplicate


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## Big Joshy

a few other things you might look at are tungsten beads.
here are some tiny ice jigs I made years ago with dry fly hooks and tungsten and glass beads. They work very well and are great for clear water bluegill.
 

Also they make slotted tungsten beads in various shapes that you can position to make jigs and things of the sort with a little bit of ingenuity. If you just do a search for fly tying tungsten bead you will find all kinds of things that will get the imagination going. Including tungsten scud bodies that make a mean ice jig also.


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## HappySnag

fishintechnician 
this is the web

http://www.jigcraft.com/index.html


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## Skippy

You mite want to try tipping those small jigs with the small 1 inch gulp minnows. I was sort of surprised how the gills and crappies sucked them in. They even last for at least 5 gills before there to tore up.


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## AtticaFish

Don't think i have any pics of the back, but may get them out later and take a couple if i remember.

Back side doesn't look like much, painted same as the front. To fill it with solder, i simply clamped some hemostats over one of the end holes and held it horizontal over an open flame to heat. Then just touched the solder to it until the 'cup' of the blade was full. With the right kind of solder and getting it really hot..... the solder becomes liquid enough that it stays nice and level and will need minimal touch up to clean off any burrs. Sometimes tapping the hemostats while it was hot spread the solder. Take it away from the flame and it cools enough in a few seconds that you can set it down...... or dip into powder paint.



fishintechnician said:


> Attica could you post a pic of the back side of your spoons?? I am very interested in these. Would like to try to duplicate


I ended up using a metal punch at work to put the extra hole in them. Getting that hole where it needed to be was toughest part.


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## PapawSmith

AtticaFish said:


> Not sure why, but the bluegill and crappie really like the little red fly......


Not sure why, but I really like the little red fly, too. I have ice fished for pannies for many years and never had much luck with anything other than good small jigs tipped with bait, but these look like they would really work well on their own. I don't believe I've ever seen anything exactly like them commercially this small for pan fish, are they your own concept? I'd like to have a whole tray of them in red, orange, and chartreuse. My three best colors, always.
Very nice work and a very productive looking jig, nice job.


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## AtticaFish

CJ Stone - My apology, seems i have hi-jacked your thread.





PapawSmith said:


> ......I don't believe I've ever seen anything exactly like them commercially this small for pan fish, are they your own concept?.....


Doubt the concept is original...... I have always had better luck with dropper hook spoons rather than the fixed (soldered) hook spoons. Since i mainly fish for panfish through the ice and had a hard time finding tiny spoons (with holes at each end) started to create my own from willow blades and just added the solder as weight. I make some with a 2" dropper line to the hook also. After reading a few In-Fisherman articles about red bead spoons for perch up on St. Claire, i started playing around with the idea of something red for attraction on the hook.

This general idea:









Crossed with this:









I have not come across something exactly the same as these for sale anywhere, but never really looked specifically for them. www.ficiousjigs.com has some lures for sale called baby zits (pictured above) that are the same spoon/hook setup, but without the red fly.


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## PapawSmith

AtticaFish said:


> CJ Stone - My apology, seems i have hi-jacked your thread. .


And I helped, but I'm going to continue for a minute. I have seen and fished the fixed hook and dropper hook spoons, and seen several varieties, yours just look good for some reason and the red fly is a nice addition. 

As far as CJ Stones original question regarding Marmish jigs, sorry for being complicit in the hijack and while I do not make any of my own lures I follow this forum regularly as I'm impressed at the talent and imagination of a lot of these guys. Another good source to see patterns and styles of these types of small jigs that you may want to replicate is the "your bobbers down" site that sell FISKAS and Wolfram jigs. This is where I get most of mine and I have a good deal of success with them. Amazing the difference that tungsten has made in the ability to deliver small presentations in clear and deeper waters.


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## c. j. stone

No problem, gents. Always glad to see the creations others are coming up with for panfish lures. I have made most of these but with not quite the quality of finish you guys are doing! As far as the the red bead jig/blades, I also saw the perch article. I use a slightly larger gold Aberdeen hook soldered to the blades. I cut the eyelet off first and fit the bead onto the hook bend loosely to keep it away from the heat(plastic melts!), paint the blade, push the bead against the blade and use Super Glue gel to keep it there. Otherwise, if the bead is down, moving on the hook bend, seems it takes away too much of the "hooking area" of the hook. 
I did order the unfinished tungsten Marmish knock- offs from ebay. Should be getting them this week.
UPDATE-received the tungsten jigs in evening mail. They look just like the wolfram teardrops/apple seeds. Now to paint some up and have them ready for ice season! Looking at some websites to see what the popular colors/patterns are. Plan to add red beads to hook shank on a few. Some of the ice sticks at Wft swear by them! Most fished w/o bait.


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## c. j. stone

Before painting, I added a tiny red bead with gel super glue to some, white on a couple others by slipping the bead over the hook bend and pushing it up against the lure body then glueing. I've been painting these with nail polish. There are vibrant colors and even glitter polishes available at dollar stores pretty cheap. Painted a few bright colors, and some in earth-tones. Pretty sure natural little critters in the water that the fish feed on "aren't" bright! I added two-tone eyes and tiny dots(with Testor's enamel by tipping a needle into the enamel-seems to stick well on the polish) to some in white, yellow or black depending on the base color. After everything dries/cures thoroughly for a couple days in the air, I add a coat of clear nail polish quickly( if you "dwell" on it, the clear polish will smear the enamel dots!) This final coat adds a shiny surface and seals everything in. Try not to get too much coating on the tiny hook eyes(can be reopened with a needle if need be).


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