Go small or go home

[Hawnjigs]

Yah, if crappie are biting most anything will get bit, but in tuff times it seem smaller & lighter will better motivate inactive fish to bite. And yes, ties with the right materials can be surprisingly durable the same jig surviving several sessions still getting bit with much of the original material bitten off.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

I would imagine all of the materials mentioned would trigger fish strikes and as many strikes as the soft plastics I design. The action of the materials is all the same: a billowing, flowing, all-direction, subtle swish. But here's the crux of using light jigs regardless the material: being able to keep the lure at a certain depth and in a certain spot long enough thereby allowing the lure's action to speak loudest to fish just hanging out. (JiggerJohn knows what I'm talking about after he started using my straight, thin-tail spoonminnow that quivers with no rod tip action added with coincidentally the same strike-enticing action of fur & feather.}

Jigs as heavy as 1/16 oz must be retrieved faster in order to maintain the same depth unless jigged off the bottom. Light jigs can be worked slowly at a particular depth - from nearer to the surface, mid-depth. to nearer the bottom. Like Hawny indicated - location is everything! - in general or in a specific location. Great when fish are chasing prey or lures; not so great when in snooze-mode allowing minnows to pass close to their eyeballs.

The advantage of lures over live bait is especially seen when small lures with the right action annoy fish to strike given a lure's time-in-place. Float fishing and drop-shot presentations do so well at times for the same reason. First cast, maybe just a nip is felt; but many times the second cast to the same spot will work its magic but only as long the lure stays in place long enough to do its thing.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Yesterday, and for the past couple, the rainbow trout bite was only on,with my tiny, light jig VERY SLOWLY descending to bottom. As Spoonminnow tells us, it was vitally important to have a jig with its own subtle action derived solely from just the drop of a 1/32 to 1/16 oz jighead. Other anglers using bait or spinners appeared to do nothing at all. Yet the cold water, inactive trout could be goaded into taking a nodding type morsel such as Hawn's mink fur jig, Spoonminnow's thin tail, or a one inch mop jig, as long as these subtly active leadheads came into eyesight at a trout's bottom resting position.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Hey JiggerJohn, I won't take offense if you mention that your clown color mop jigs worked better than my natural mink fur ones. Provide details for others to consider.

And indeed most of the time slow as possible retrieves with light as possible jigs can make a significant difference in bite potential. As SM mentions tho relative to location which in my case requires heavier weight to sink & stabilize in flowing water and allow use of heavier gear for the size of predators present.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

HJ, you're right when it comes to using larger lures for larger fish even in flowing water. This traditional bass jig has caught a lot of smallmouth in the river I fish:

I routinely don't need to go heavier than 3/8 oz. - the same for spinnerbaits with or without trailers. My target areas are less-flow spots along the shoreline and on flats off the main channel. I lakes, edges are key: ledges, points, weeds, docks, etc. But as with most baits I prefer to fish, keeping lure longer in the strike zone is a priority.
Look at this tadpole video:
View attachment 653KwKy.mp4

That's why I design my lures to have a slow subtle action regardless of their shape and size. JJ has some tadpole design plastics I sent and will try them out. If anyone can catch fish on them he can!

 

[jiggerjohn]

Yo Hawn, Well, to be fair, our local trout lake, due to recent snow melt, has been high and murky. So I tied my ole dependable 1" chartreuse mop nub on the bottom of the hook shank,as usual, but placed a shorter flo pink,UV mop chenille on top of the shank. Yeah, I guess ,a clown look to it -but did catch trout's attention a LOT better than a natural fur. Now yesterday, the rainbows and brook trout were very picky -wouldn't go for anything other than the wobbly motion single chartreuse mop model,on a lighter, slower sinking 1/28 oz jighead. Trouble was, they were striking quickly and I had trouble stinging them -gonna now try your light heads with those sharp little no.8 sickle hooks that YOU've been doing so well with! Adding to the excitement, yesterday in the mail, Spoonminnow had sent me his brand new "tadpoles",with his usual ultra-active thin tail which the soon arriving bass,crappies ,and bluegills (as well as trout) are gonna love with the stop n drop retreive that we've been discussing!

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

RIP my good friend. I miss you every time I reread your posts/replies as well as your many emails.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Early Winter here it seems with my usual late season walleye canal spot iced over and nite temps with no breaks from line freeze conditions already bumping a month.

So yesterday took a chance on a warmish sunny day and tried a more briskly flowing water canal spot that hasn't been productive lately due to meathead harvest and was pleasantly surprised that a few fish were present and biting in the cold but ice free water. Took some search casting to find em cuz the usual deep pool smallies & cats had gone inactive + wallys don't stand a chance with even undersized fish being poached by the bucket brigade.

Started with heavier than usual 1/8 1/0 head with a 3" Twitchtail due to fresh spooling of stiff Sufix 832 8# yellow and eventually got 2 solid sticks & drop offs which I thought at first may have been carp snags since one exhibited a gold flash in shallow water. Decided to GO SMALL with a 1/14 #2 head and salvaged 1-1/2" tail segment off a Keitech boot tail on broken in Powerpro 8# yellow and found a pod of fish holding over a shallow sand bar in 1-3' water depth maybe warming up close to the south facing bank. 6 small wallys biggest 16" + 2 small perch were certainly better n nuthin.

Luckily both species are cold water active so hopefully some Winter defrost windows if any will allow revisiting. Today & tomorrow first Winter storm kicked in with red flag blizzard warning and it ain't fit for man nor beast out there.

 

[Arne]

@Hawnjigs so far blizzard has not made it here. Actually supposed to quit before it gets here. We will see, winds feel kinda like it except they are still from the south. Nasty cold drizzly yesterday came out sunny for a bit today but back to clouds and big winds. Glad you caught a few yesterday, counting the days til winter gives up. Soon the days start getting longer, makes a guy feel like it might eventually get over. Arne.

 

[Hawnjigs]

As mentioned walleye and trout will bite in cold water and flowage will retard ice formation.

So even in Winter there might be a few windows to get out and catch fish in open water.

And nope, I never have and never will get out on the ice.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Started at a heavy pressure canal spot 3 am cupla hours before sunrise today, and bite is picking up. Only got a single 16" wally on a high vis 3" pearl Ripple Shad but switching to a 2" pearl Creme Scent Rib Shad made a big difference with 19 & 23" + 4 shorts wallys, 3 smallies, & a catfish.

So yah, 2" baits on 1/14 #2 heads are the place & time ticket, starting late May it'll be back to 3" 2/0 on heavier gear for the big lake pigs.