CrappieNOW writer Scott MacKenthun shows off a healthy crappie taken under the Minnesota ice with “spikes” rigged for what he calls, “the Medusa effect.” (Photo: Richard Simms)
Crappie Basics: Rig Spikes for the “Medusa Effect”
by Richard Simms, CrappieNOW Editor
Scott MacKenthun is a Minnesota fisheries biologist AND a CrappieNOW contributor. A fish person can’t live in the Land of 10,000 Lakes without loving ice fishing. MacKenthun is no different.
He recently gave me – a Southern boy – a lesson on fishing the hard water. Lesson number one was about the bait – a little creature called a spike which I’d never heard of, at least by that name.
MacKenthun says spikes are basically maggots, also called wigglers or Euro larvae. They are normally white, like wax worms, but they are often treated to turn pink. You can even buy them in rainbow colors.
On our first-ever venture onto the ice, MacKenthun gave my wife and I a lesson on rigging spikes for what he describes as a “Medusa Effect.”
