How did panfish/crappie and jigs come together??

[Pup]

I see that Harold Ensley's name's been mentioned. He was very iconic to me. Fished a lot of Mar-Lynn lures I believe.

Many people can remember a jig called a 'Reaper' that was made by the Mar-Lynn Lure Company originally. However, does anyone here remember the 'Tiny Tot' or the 'Puddle Jumper'?

Harold helped to popularize the use of ultralight spinning tackle for panfish and, especially, crappie while using these baits. Used Abu Garcia Mitchell 308s/408s on Conolon rods I think. Even fished for lake trout in Canada with these same baits and his diminutive, 5 to 5.5-foot long spinning outfits.

 

[LedHed]

"Oh man John - you left it a cliff hanger!!!!!!!!!!! " X2

 

[jiggerjohn]

Sorry,guys, for the "cliffhanger" - cut ya off and ran down to check to see if I still had a Bill Graham bucktail or one of Grace's black Tionesta jigs -yep, still have one of each! Fresh bucktail apparently lasts forever and they sure built the jigs like tanks in the old days! So to briefly continue the history & my bucktail saga....

But shortly after, I took my nice custom made black bucktails -I'd ordered heavy ones for muskie,maybe an ounce or 1 1/2 oz- and found the thickly tied bucktails could mimic a whole lot of differant hard lures,but do the job better! Unfortunately, as jigs were growing popular, new ,more colorful models became commercially available and I was lured into better looks rather than function. Maybe it was the way Grace always painted the long bullet heads with an ugly dark red shade with large white polks dots that turned me off!! (tho just maybe this is what turned fish on! But think she dipped em in common house paint! Whatever the finish is still on after 50+ years!!).

Anyway, every now and then, using differant lures/approaches I'd reach for one of the clunky old Tionesta jigs to see what it would look like by comparison (or, I suspect, to see,when bored, what huge casting DISTANCE I could acheive -those things,after all were built like arrows & very aerodynamic,helped by the heavy leadhead!). For instance, I had a period when I was concentrating on muskies& pike with the famous old wooden Suick plug, and one time put on a Tionesta jig to discover it was a BETTER acting,looking near surface jerk bait. Shortly thereafter on subsequent trips over a few years I began catching a TON (with little exaggeration!) of nice sized pike! Then, I had a period when I would mainly just troll crankbaits over structure(because current writing at the time insisted this was the "smart" way!!) -mostly just long boring stretches of fishless time taking a boat ride ,rather than "fishing". So one morning's muskie troll saw me tying on one of Grace's black jigs with a long bunny strip as an actionized trailer, and setting it in a rod holder while I held the "main" trolling rod ;you guessed it-within mines one of the biggest muskies of my career lambasted the "old fashioned" jig,almost taking the rod holder and tearing up that side of the boat to which it was clamped! But did I stick with this "new" trolling approach? (if I had, I'd be famous by now!!!).

Of course, I eventually came around to really enjoying my jig fishing by concentrating on ultralight spinning, 4# test line, and jigheads in the 1/20 -1/64 oz range to catch crappies,bluegills, trout ,bass. catfish, and carp. This was,at first , done with tiny twister tails and other plastics. Then, ANOTHER fellow Pennsylvanian reintroduced me back to bucktail jigs -the famous Bob Clouser by way of his famous "deep minnow" fly (with dumbbell eyes,it weighs between 1/20 and 1/48 oz, so is really a skillfully tied bucktail JIG !). This jigfly caught fish everywhere, and bigger & more often than even highly touted plastics ever did. But in talking to Bob and hearing of his first, extremely productive ties & outings -ya know what? Bob says they were as crude & ugly as my original Tionesta models!!(he just had to "pretty em up" so people would try them-musta worked as it's been the most popular fly in the world for 20 years or more!). Guess, ya just can't beat our basic jig,simply tied with bucktail or other natural hair!

 

[redman]

Jiggerjophn Man o man that was the way Cap's house was jigs hanging every where but the living room. Boxes and Boxes of cards of jig that had been completed. This thread has brought back so many memories. I have got emotional more than one this week end. What I wouldn't give to go back and relive some of those days. Those had to be some of the best days of my life.

Redman

 

[deathb4disco]

... It was around that time that 2 fellas from Iowa ,Lacey Gee and Erwin Sias, were active light tackle jig fishermen,who wrote what still is the best text ever on jig fishing,titled simple "How To Fish With Jigs".

JJ, you beat me to the punch! I still have a copy of that book.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Redman, Yeah,it's always fun to relive our past jigging experiences, and especially to reflect on how much better it coulda been if we'd only continually worked to refine the basics,rather than to go off on tangents! Since you remind me, I,too, eventually got hold of some of those wonderful Cap Kennedy jigs -forget what shop, but mail ordered them from some place in Iowa, I think. Took them on a trip to the ocean-Outer Banks in NC and fished the 1/8 & 1/16 oz models in shallow calm bays & harbors. Or, rather, set my wife up with them,while I smuggly used the latest, state-of-the-art, internally weighted , tail wagging soft plastic, exact minnow looking swimbaits.You know the story -my wife caught every type of fish that swim in those marinas,and a lot of them, while all I did was continually reel in cool looking ,untouched plastic minnows!

 

[Jig Man]

What a thread... Thank you folks for the history lesson. And isn't it a wonder how often white is mentioned!!!! We were talking about it just this weekend. I started jig fishing in the mid 60's and the only ones available in my small town hardware store where white, yellow, and black.

 

[Fatman]

Great thread!!!!!!!

 

[redman]

Jiggerjohn Thank you so much for taking me down memory lane. I kind of started it my Weekend Journey off with this thread for Quint Crappiejgr. http://www.jigcraft.com/jigcraft/showthread.php?tid=2756 These were most of the jig or lures as Cap called them that he tied. And as you have said they would catch fish any where and any time, This I doubted down here until I started you use them and started catching fish. Guess some times people lose confidence in there jig and ability to use them. The Blue Tail Fly is a proven Crappie getter any where it is fished. I have used it a lot down here and with great success. Just hope that you enjoy the posted thread as much as I did tying those old school jigs. Who knows they my be revived and as I have said in the passed every thing old is new again.

Redman

 

[jiggerjohn]

Redman, WOW! I went to those "rock-a-Roo" photos that you'd posted! Terrific ties,and I immediately recalled why these were always so special &effective -however, YOURS looked even better than I remembered! I still have some of those various colors in one of my boxes downstairs ( I'll dig em out today just to recall some of their "battles", but was reading in our local newspaper yesterday that one of our old favorite reservoirs, one I regularly work, is due for a "walleye explosion" this year,so will take these old time weapons!!).I did enjoy that long shank hook that these were tied on,never recall losing a fish, but agree with you about sickle hooks and sure would love a revival of this jig WITH sickle hooks!!

Of course since this thread is about "history" of jigs,and seems to have a mixture of our search for "ancient" jigs as well as from our youth in the 50s-60s-70s ( tho most will deem OUR youth as ancient history,too !!!), permit me to bore you with another story of a really nifty jigworks! I'd answered a small ad for a guy who said he could make you a personal jigmold of any style you'd submit, that could take any size or style of hook, for $15 ! Jack Murtha from North Carolina fashioned cute little wooden boxes,carefully filled with silicone molding material, in which he'd poured around your selected jighead. These were fantastic, retained exact detail, and lasted forever for the home tier (I still have all the molds I ordered and they still work perfectly!). As was advertised, due to the soft "rubber" of the mold I could put ANY hook in these things, even at odd angles for different effects ! Didn't even need jig hooks-just a straight one and a loose split ring would do the job! Until I met Keith from Hawn's jigs, with his truly superior line of jigheads& hooks, these home brewed jigheads were certainly all I ever needed.

But Jack Murtha was also a heck of a tier, and a great light tackle jig fisherman. He usually specialized in panfish , and just slayed them with sweet little gems that he tied with calf tail hair. He would triple coat his colorful jig heads,had very nifty eyes, and his wrapping job was flawless. He often used tinsel in with the short calf tail, and I'd put his jigs right up there with Cap Kennedy's ties! One time he fished with a fellow who had received national publicity( including feature stories in Sports Afield and Bassmaster) for the lure HE produced for big bluegill - a few trips out and the big name guy switched completely to Jack's jigs!! Murtha also liked to travel to the NC coast -same 1/16 and 1/8 oz jigs for the salt, 4# test on a light spinning rod, and would gently pop these calftails off the sandy floors of bays & surf -caught everything, but was often surprised with monster flounder,who loved his jigs! Often at the coast he'd work huge sounds ,whose back ends were mostly freshwater and just have a ball catch/releasing a combo of largemouth bass and flounder all day long if the winds remained calm enough to jig fish! As he often tod me - "Keep it simple-all ya need is just hair!"

 

[papaperch]

A few remarks back there somebody mentioned the " No Name " lure tied out in Washington. When it first appeared out here in northeast Ohio it became an instant hit. It was so successful that it spawned many , many imitations.

This was in the late 50's and early 60's. They were popular enough that I remember a shoplifting expert at our junior high school making a small fortune with them. If I remember correctly he sold them for .35 each and at the time they retailed for 79 or 89 cents each.

They were rather simple black and white ultralight jig. A tandem hook affair with a weighted hook , maybe 100th of an ounce but weight was flat on hook. The trailing hook was tied with white marabou. It came pre-tied on a mono leader. I used them but not often as I refused to buy the " hot ones " at school. I got a whole dollar for mowing a lawn back then. So even 79 cents was an exotic investment. When crappies when in shallow water I suspended underneath a dime sized bobber and played havoc on them.

While easy to imitate none of the imitations never worked near as well. Biggest rip off of an idea was the

NOt NAMEd lure printed just that way on package. To fool unsuspecting buyers into thinking they were getting genuine article. I do not ever remember catching a fish on one of those. I can't say when popularity of this lure declined. Seemed like every store had an ample supply of them around here. Then all of a sudden you did not see them anymore.

They rose in value and I have heard of guys having paid up to 7.00 each. Last one I seen anywhere was back in the 80's. I have heard the original tiers descendants still tie the no-name but I have been unable to verify this. See pic below

 

[Radtexan]

Great thread guy's...Really interesting history,and tales of some of ya'll experiences..

 

[Fatman]

PP

Yes they still do tie them - although it's in their local area. Have a bunch of articles on it but they won't scan worth a **** the print is so small.

 

[bombora]

Jiggerjohn and everyone, loving it. True oral/first person history! And the Bob Clouser connection is amazing. Have read he was trying to imitate the effectiveness of a small leadhead jig with his Clouser Deep Minnow???

 

[jiggerjohn]

Bombora, Actually in conversations I've had with Bob Clouser, his original Deep Minnow flies were merely thinly tied streamer flies -a very BASIC bucktail fly - that he jammed a split shot directly in front of the hook eye for better depth. Later a company sent him samples of the hourglass or dumbbell weights, that Bob figured he could lash to the fly hook and thus not worry about split shot attachments. Clouser told me that his originals were so shabbly that he almost could not convince his friend, famed Lefty Kreh, to even try one (Lefty asked when presented one, "Why didn't you finish tying it??!!"). But the darn thing caught smallmouth bass like crazy, and later Lefty notched over 80 differant species on it, all over the world. Now, Bob's dumbbell weight is essentially on the center of the hook shank,so it has an unusuall dipping action on the drop, but since everybody (particularly fly purists!) accused him of making a jig, rather than a "fly", Bob quit arguing with them , and thanked them for a compliment, stating that a jig is about the most effective lure ever developed!

By the way, Bob told me an amusing story about the time he was working a booth at a big flyfishing exhibition/show in New England. Now this region is well known as having the self-proclaimed "elite" of fly fishing - complete snobs abound! At his booth, Bob was cheerfully tying his Clouser Minnow while awaiting customers. One fellow stopped and asked what the heck kind of pattern he "thought" he was tying. Bob smiled and said "why the Clouser Deep Minnow,of course!" The customer looked again and exclaimed "Well you're doing it all WRONG!!" Never at a loss for words, Bob chirped "Well,ya know, I AM Bob Clouser!" The know-it-all shopper was stumped for a split second, then blurted out, "You're still doing it all wrong!!" and scampered away!

 

[redman]

Jiggerjohn which only goes to show that everyone knows your business better than you do yourself. Lols. Yes, Yes we are relieving part of the early history of jig tying. I am glad that you are I have had the experiences that we have. Am Grateful that you and I have been able to share these stories with the rest of this group. I hope that this will be kept in the annals of the Archives of the site so that future age my know what the early days were like. And what we went thur to bring this Jig Tying to the place that it is today. Not that we did it by our selves but help in a small way to bring it as far as we have.

The young around us are our future the older of us our foundation. Let us hope that we have built a strong foundation.

Redman

 

[AtticaFish]

...I hope that this will be kept in the annals of the Archives of the site...

Yes it will be! Making back-ups each day now so a repeat of the recent database fail event will not happen again.

 

[deathb4disco]

By the way, Bob told me an amusing story about the time he was working a booth at a big flyfishing exhibition/show in New England. Now this region is well known as having the self-proclaimed "elite" of fly fishing - complete snobs abound! At his booth, Bob was cheerfully tying his Clouser Minnow while awaiting customers. One fellow stopped and asked what the heck kind of pattern he "thought" he was tying. Bob smiled and said "why the Clouser Deep Minnow,of course!" The customer looked again and exclaimed "Well you're doing it all WRONG!!" Never at a loss for words, Bob chirped "Well,ya know, I AM Bob Clouser!" The know-it-all shopper was stumped for a split second, then blurted out, "You're still doing it all wrong!!" and scampered away!

I've heard that story before. The arrogance of some people is just amazing.

 

[deathb4disco]

It was around that time that 2 fellas from Iowa ,Lacey Gee and Erwin Sias, were active light tackle jig fishermen,who wrote what still is the best text ever on jig fishing,titled simple "How To Fish With Jigs".

I dug out my copy last night. It was published in 1970. It's brief (only about 60 pages) but it covers jig fishing for everything from bluegill to tarpon. Another good book is "Angler's Guide to Jigs and Jigging" by Kenn Oberrecht.

As for other pioneers in jig fishing, there's the late, great Charlie Brewer (inventor of the slider worm.) He wrote for the old Fishing Facts for years and popularized fishing a short plastic worm on a jig head. Chuck Wood is lesser known, but he was slaying Kansas bass on hair and plastic jigs back in the '50's. I've heard that he was the true inventor of the Beetle Spin.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Deathb4disco, I actually knew Charlie Brewer, did shows with him, corresponded, and I also wrote for Fishing Facts at the same time! YES!! He was one of the best jig fishermen of all time, and one of the nicest,most genuine,humble guys you'd ever want to meet! I remember (and still have) his very first Fishing Facts story, introducing his "do-nothing" method with his flat head jig - it hit the rest us like a bombshell !! He was a true pioneer -went off on his own and made discoveries ON THE WATER that really established light tackle jigging as we know it today. I continue to use his rods (his son runs the Slider company these days) and the basic,simple tackle set-up that he taught me. Charlie softly mentioned once,when pressed by a customer at a show we were working, that he alone had taken over 50,000 bass on his Slider jig!

And,WOW, archive status for this "history" thread! I hope others will add a bunch -would love to learn of Chuck Wood, and more info on the legendary Cap Kennedy!

Well, I'm hoping I'm not talking too much, but I do have a dynamite story to tell of a really amazing angler from back in the 50s and the unique jig he developed! I've corresponded with Glenn Lau (some may know the name from his famous Bass films) who fished Lake Erie during a 1950 era, when everyone considered the lake as a "dead sea" due to pollution. Even commercial netters (a big part of that problem) hung it up due to fishless days. But Glenn developed his "Lau Lure" which featured a unique pyramid shaped ,longish jighead with a tiny, nylon like,furry wrapped treble(colorful but prevented rock snags,too), and a small wavy spin blade on the shaft in between. Some may call it a tail spinner or a center-spin, but it was a true jig in every sense of the word, with that special head offering a unique gliding/diving into the depths. (in fact, last year Glenn wrote me from Florida,asking if I had any left-he had none and wanted a few for memories sake. Yep, I sent him several-he was delighted- but naturally I still have 2 or 3 left!!). Anyway, Glenn gave me this mind boggling data from his actual log book of daily trips he guided (remember very few bothered to fish and virtually no one was dumb enough to guide on a "fishless" lake!) : Using the Lau Lure only ,his best day was 800 POUNDS of fish-mostly walleyes,smallmouth bass, and white bass !! His AVERAGE weight per day (all conditions) was 250 pounds (again ,not individual small fish, but POUNDS!), and his worse day ever was a mere 60 pounds (gees, what I wouldn't give to get 60 pounds in a day in freshwater!!). He'd tell potential fishermen,seeking guided trips, that if they didn't catch fish on his lure they didn't have to pay -he NEVER lost that bet!! In fact, mainly due to Glenn's exploits, others started to rework the big lake, and a Cleveland newspaper jumped on such promotion by offering a substantial cash prize & prestigious title/trophy for a 6 week long tourney on Lake Erie,for whoever would submit and verify the biggest catch. Unfortunately for the rest of the field, Glenn entered , and though weather OFTEN keeps guys off treacherous Erie, submitted a properly documented 2900 pounds! Hmmm, ya know, maybe I should make a mold for that Lau Lure jighead!!