Jig's up on ice-fishing aggravation

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By Dave Orrick, Pioneer Press
Posted: 12/07/2013 02:44:52 PM CST | Updated: about 19 hours ago
http://www.twincities.com/outdoors/ci_2 ... ggravation

ON MEDICINE LAKE -- The temperatures are only barely above freezing. And the wind is biting.

It's not the worst weather for trying to tie a fresh jig on light line, but it's not far off.

But my monofilament easily finds its way through this odd-looking jig. With a few twists, loops, saliva and pull, it's secured. A slight adjustment to the setup, and now the jig hangs perfectly horizontal on the line -- an elusive arrangement that many believe improves panfish action.

Doug Erbeck glances at me with a satisfied look. He was right: This is about the easiest way to affix a lure to line without a snap swivel.

The jig I'm using is the Fisherbeck Easy Threading Jig, and Erbeck is its inventor.

The tale of the lure is a classic story of Minnesota basement tinkering, and the onset of ice-fishing season is the right time to showcase such a yarn.

Erbeck, 78, a native of Superior, Wis., is a retired veterinarian. Or another way of saying he's a fisherman with time on his hands. And his hands were getting cold tying on jigs for sunnies and crappies, especially during ice-fishing season.

"I had been using some jigs somewhat successfully, but it was so hard to get the paint off the eye of the jig," said Erbeck, who lives in Crystal. "I finally ended up getting a candle and needle to make a hole. But, of course, on the water and in the ice house you just couldn't do it. Not when it's that cold and not with those tiny little eyes (holes) in (ultralight) jigs. I thought: There's gotta be a better way to do this.

"So I started tinkering."

A baseball-sized hunk of clay served as the canvas as he and son-in-law Marty Stone of Arden Hills "monkeyed around with it a bit before we got the balance."

The shape is what makes the Fisherbeck unique. It's a bullet-shaped jig with a smooth-edged eye -- a tunnel, really -- from what could be called the dorsal area to the front. It's a fairly gaping passage, and that's what makes getting the line through it easy.

Getting the balance right -- by where to place the hole and how much lure body to put where -- allows the lure to hang horizontally. This is not unique; competitive ice anglers, especially in Europe, have been eschewing vertical presentations for years, often tying lines directly to shafts of hooks. But Erbeck said he was unaware of this trend, and, in fact, the Fisherbeck is one of the uncommon examples of a horizontally suspending teardrop-style ice jig that can be found locally.

It can't be found many places. Here's the list: Harty's Boats and Bait in Plymouth, Frankie's Live Bait and Marine in Chisago City, Vado's Bait and Tackle in Spring Lake Park, Capra's Outdoors in Blaine and Big B's in Plymouth.

And, you can buy directly


Doug Erbeck, 78, displays the first prototype, made of clay, for the Fisherbeck Easy Threading Jig in his home in Crystal, Minn. The actual lure is made of tin and much smaller. (Pioneer Press Dave Orrick) from Erbeck when you see him at various shows. But not the biggest shows. "I can't afford their prices," he said.
Saturday, Erbeck was scheduled to be hawking lures at Winterfest in White Bear Lake. He'll be at the Wisconsin Ice Fishing Show next weekend at the Patriot Center in Rothschild, Wis. If that's not on your itinerary, the lures can be bought at Fisherbeck.com; $5 gets you three jigs.

Erbeck also can boast his lures as nontoxic, a national trend in fishing tackle that has been slow to catch on in Minnesota. Ice fishing is one area in which lead-free tackle has gained a toehold because the lack of casting makes the lighter weight of many lead alternatives less of a concern. Fisherbeck jigs are solid tin, and each weighs slightly less than one-sixteenth of an ounce.

Although his sales volume remains modest, Erbeck said Fisherbeck turned a corner last summer. "We are actually in the black now, and that allowed us to put some money back into the company to get the white ones." Those would be the white glow jigs, the second color offering to the original orange.

Beyond balance and easy threading is the question of whether the jig can catch fish. Erbeck claims his lures can weed out bait-stealers and target only larger sunfish, and he has photo albums attesting to hefty panfish hauls.

During our outing of a few hours, during a fall cold front before the lakes froze, I'm not sure anything could have cajoled the sunnies to turn on. I was impressed with how well the Fisherbeck jig cast, and I did pull a largemouth bass out of some weeds. Watching the lure in the water, I have no reason to think it wouldn't catch messes of fish.

And so it happened when I checked back with Erbeck after lake ice had formed.

"We've been catching some really nice bluegills out here on this early ice," he said. "Now is when we should've gone out."

Dave Orrick can be reached at 651-228-5512. Follow him at twitter.com/OutdoorsNow.