Shad Dart Aha !

[Bucho]

I don´t have an upside down mold yet, just a few pricey samples I ordered for trials. BTW not much time for experimenting at the moment, giving out samples tomorrow for a guy who takes them testing together with a fishing magazin reporter crew, similar stuff on the weekende, web shop about to open at the same time etc.

I will keep an eye on it though as I really liked the action of just that single worm in my bath tub. These sure make for great worm and sandeel pattern. Must be great for trolling, too.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Finally got to observe the water performance of dart jigs in my usual fishless Wailoa Pond, both lead and tin 1/8 versions with the pictured skinny Boa-DNA tie. The lead head dart casts farther at a full 1/8 oz. on 4# mono, but the same size tin 1/12 oz. actual weight dart appears to dance more vigorously, like comparing seniors and young uns on a dance floor. I thought there would be more sideways dart movement, but mostly the dart action is vertical, kinda like a nodding bobblehead doll. The vigorous jig movement appears to have attractive potential for tropical salties and maybe moving water trout but won't know till I have actual fish present to field test.

 

[ragged edge]

Very nice Hawn!

 

[Bucho]

Took some of my new casts out for field testing yesterday. The shad darts are fine, I love the "dirt" action as some japanese rock fihsing ad puts it, the usd version dives sharply down after every twitch, with a nice slight wiggle at very high trolling/retrieve speed. Won´t breach even at 3kns


Unfortunately, the tin I bought is rock hard. It showed that due to some antique-tin-cup fashion back in the 70ties, the metal marked here is flooded with tin that seems pure with a nominal 95% but the rest is antimony (=hardener). Just received real, 99.9% pure tin at a concerning 30€ a kilo (20$ a pound) which is yet to be tested in the WJ mold. What I had with me then were lead usd wobble jigs that I tipped with lugworm for ultra light flounder fishing. Just like the garfish, the flounder we have here are rather small, a 12" specimen is a fish you don´t see every day - and great fun on ul tackle!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Bucho, your USD dart looks terrific for deep or bottom drag presentations. I like the original dart with upward plane hydrodynamics for keeping above bottom. Is that a 2x hook in the USD?

I would guess the USD Wobble shimmies more than the original design? Light tin should accentuate the action. Nice job fitting it with the 2x hook and supported leg to prevent hook spin in the casting.

Your field test looks promising - good luck!

 

[waynesburgjay]

That garfish is kind of neat looking, we have some smaller gar in our river just haven't been able to keep a hook in their hard mouth.

 

[Bucho]

Nice job fitting it with the 2x hook and supported leg to prevent hook spin in the casting.

Thanks for noticing, I found out the hard way (after a dozend casts) and fixed that foot myself. The shad darts are poured on what Gamakatsu calls a "Jig22" hook, light wire one. The pattern aims at perch, gars, makerel and asp, nothing much of an opponent. Even if it gets me a nice brown, that would be on light tackle. Will use it on the usd flounder jig head too, as I was having penetration issues on the ul rod. Fish threw the hook on the surface several times.

There´s not much of a wiggle with the wj, hope that will change with the tin and a prop. Even so the broad lip activates a lot of body material, I used it on a worm pattern which didn not score yesterday but has some potential.

@Waynesburgjay:
jep, they usually don´t stick unless you get them in the lower jaw, or hook them from the outside, or both such as in this case. They attacked the jig many times, following it over quite some distance at trolling.

 

[toadfrog]

You need to hook up to some of our Gar . These things get over 6 ' 20 lb Gar is not unusual . The teeth are very large . Brother they know how to use them . Shiny lures that dart like yours are good . They seem to bite shiny lures, pearl white . A specific lure sold here has a soft squid looking head and pearl white soft nylon rope combed out in to a tail . The filaments get tangled in there teeth and they can't throw it . Try using the rope on your lure if you want to target just the gar .

 

[Bucho]

They sell "garfish-silk" as a hook substitute here but it gets stuck so badly that C&R is often impossible as the bill breaks and the fish gets sqeezed too hard and too long.
Most people are rather annoyed by those gars, when they come inshore on their spawning run in late spring they drive you insane as the lure is constantly under attack, no way to detect a seatrout bite.
Some eat them , some eat only the upper filet and throw therest away, personly I let them go and just enjoy a little fight here and there on light tackle.
I understand alligator gar is a different story, saw a small one in Costa Rica last year and some documentary about fishing them, that would be something... heard they stock them in those monster-fishing-park ponds in Thailand, together with those massive south american giant catfish and so.
Definetly one of the coolest fish to catch in fresh water.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Field test report:
Despite weedy conditions, I stuck with Boolies for the first 2-1/2 weeks of my WY trout jigging and did OK, tho the fouled props were really tedious to clean and seriously cut into actual effective lure presentation time. Finally I gave the 1/8 #4 hook Aha! dart jig pictured a try and was pleasantly surprised with an excellent session of 7 quality fish 14-22" which was exceptional for #s and size this year. So, I can say that the shad dart will catch trout, tho the mediocre three 12" catch the following day suggested that the dart may not be as consistently attractive as the Boolie. Nonetheless, the forward eye mod was less prone to weed fouling and the upward plane front face helped keep the jig off the bottom. The 1/8 size was fine for brisk flowing river trouting, but perhaps downsizing to 1/16 or even 1/32 darts would be better for still water presentations.

 

[Bucho]

Good to hear they catch trout and that you had yourself some action! Just finished a prototype for shallow, weedy baltic beaches including a weed guard from 15lbs Mono, melted to the head and then cemented with UV Glue



When I posted the pic with the 3 modulated versions on Facebook, I made contact with a steelheader from michigan. At first, I suggested to get his jigs crafted here in the States, together with a link to the beginning of this thread. But to him it was important that the jig was small and balanced since it was about float &fly. The resulting custom work for skirted 1/16th and tin and 1/32 lead jigs looked like this, to be fished with a stone-fly creature bait as trailer




Happy to get some insights into this technique unknown to europeans, I made a full dressed variation and tested it in the kiel canal which holds stocked rainbows and migrating browns.


I was only trying to get the depth right when I got a (missed) take from what seemed to be crabs moving slowly on the ground but when the wind calmed turned out to be the skulls of 2 massive mullet in the 10lbs range, the most sought after salt water fly fishing game over here, way to go! Tried it with some wax worm, too, crazy action! The other day I was field testing jigs in a put and take lake, which is quite an industry over here. Normal jigs that caught me wild browns failed completely since the stocked rainbows are so degenerated they can`t handle food that quickly tries to get away from them. But wiht the float&fly know how, I hope I gained some leverage ont that issue.

 

[LedHed]

Hj - great report on your jigs

Bucho - outstanding tyes

 

[Hawnjigs]

Very creative apps beyond traditional for the dart heads, Bucho. The eyes and paint jobs look very fishy, did any of your prototype ties work best?

 

[Bucho]

Thanks! Haven`t fished them yet, apart from the mullet incident. Neither has my customer. Been busy - and still am - testing flounder jigs. The usd wobble jig head is a total disapointment with respect to trolling - it doesn´t wobble at all and hangs at an angle that kills the propeller at times.
As a flounder attractor however, its nothing short of a gamechanger. The other day, a charter boat captain I know outfished his customer with them 20:4. The other guy used 2 rods with flounder spoons and 2 hooks each, the most effective method known for that purpose - untill now. Its a perfect platform for an artificial lure. Thats a big issue over here, those small mouthed flatfish we have are normally only taken on fresh bait which is troublesome to get. Any form of "canned" bait/lure with reasonable results would really be something and sell like hot cakes.
I don´t usually sell heads, but one of my customer here is an avid fly tyer so he got some from me and tied this worm pattern on regular heads. He got some fish with them but far more missed takes on that thing, since it is hand-long and the flounder have such a small mouth. Now my approach is to leave the attraction up to the jighead and shorten the "worm" to a size that will hook the fish at first nibble. More testing tomorrow, I´m really ancious!

 

[waynesburgjay]

Nice work, I like them colors.

 

[Hawnjigs]

So called action jig heads don't seem to do much on a steady tight line run at bite speeds. Enabling full movement potential requires tekneek, generally crisp short twitches with slack between. Dunno about USD, but the RSU Wobble can be made to noticeably zig zag shimmy in 1 or so inch darts strung together with proper rod work. With a minimal low drag tie of course.

 

[Bucho]

I know, but I have to keep it simple here. 95% of my fellow fishermen haven`t seen a hair jig in the first place - ever! They need to see and feel some action on a steady retrieve to "buy" it, literally! The RSU version, poured light and lead free, with a simple wing of craft fur, on a short sickle hook and a large propeller is a very promising lure for night fishing for canal zander and browns. Nice shallow run and a really nice swing at a steady retrieve.
Zander (=walleye) strike zone is just a few inch over the ground on daylight but at night they get active and rise. They can then be caught on pricy crank baits etc. - but most people lack the expertise and confidence in that.

An affordable jig however that can be fished in any given water depth and angle over the embankment, determined by just the retreive, that has nice soft matrerial and would even catch you an occasional nocturnal large brown here and there, all of that happening at night so you can pull a short after-work-trip even in the dark season.... I can see a potential for that.

 

[Bucho]

Just got some nice customer feedback on the float&fly steelhead shad darts, used with large stonefly creature bait trailers. Language is a bit harsh, but the guy´s 100% C&R

I slaughtered the steelhead this morning on Frank's death darts
I caught 16 there were 12 other anglers fishing where I was fishing in between them they only caught one

 

[Hawnjigs]

16 big trout or steelhead sounds like a blast! That looks like a Power Bait helgie - is it scented? What were the other anglers using?

 

[Bucho]

That thing is a custom job, too. No scent, straight plastic and 3 pair of molded in rubber legs as far as I know. He mentioned something about other anglers using too large jigs and too bright candy-colors. Talking about marabou "overwhelming" the fish. He´s very happy with the subtle colors, says they would make a difference.

Since he knows I´m not interested in plastics nor north amarican steelhead fishing all together, I don´t want to spook him with too many questions. Happy with what I learn from him as it is, hoping to make good use out of it for my local adaptations.