Small Fish from Shore at Night on Jigs

[Hawnjigs]

Glory days of Summer are done, and there is only a single spot with any chance of catching fish from shore within my comfort range of an hour drive from home. Normally productive canals connecting 3 reservoirs are shut down and even the crawdads in remainder pools croaked. Tragic amount of smallies especially are history.

Luckily the aforementioned high pressure spot is being ignored as fished out by the daylight meathead bait dunkers, but my usual tactic of slow twitching jigs at night is scratching up a few stray wallys, saugeye, & smallies. A few means a single wally per hour, which I still pursue every night as better n nuthin. Always alone.

Mentioning because I've discovered a plastic tail that outfishes all my others. In fact sometimes I can throw my entire arsenal of normally effective tails without a bite or with only a very occasional vague bump, and the switch gets bit. As mentioned tho, its not a hot bite, just an occasional few & far between fish on the line.

First time I tried a Zman Elas-tech bait, and the just right size Opening Night color 2-1/2" Slim Swim surprised me. Had to contrapt a special 1/8 oz plain ball 1/0 Gami 604 jig head to hold the soft squirmy stuff on the jig head, as it slides off too easily on my normally grabby double cone Hooksup holder collar. 6 or 7 glued 3mm plastic beads on the hook shank holds the bait very securely and the claim that the stretchy plastic (silicone?) resists tearing is true. I can keep catching fish with the same bait remaining intact until snagged and lost.


Actually last night was a surprising unusually prolific bite, 5 wallys + 5 saugeye + 4 smallies. Nothing big, & altho I only C&R a few wallys were decent keep to eat size at plus or minus 20".

Anyone else experienced the unique Zman baits?

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Nice catch especially way after my bedtime! I've been casting more swimbait tail lures and doing well. I'll bet the Zman has a great action.
(Of course you could have made a wire grip using the method I posted not long ago to keep that or any lure from sliding down.)

 

[hookup]

Zman Elas-tech bait,

Took me a long time to warm up to elaztech. PIA to hook, don't like using super glue, won't stay in place on a jig

But with all those issues, last year I finally started throwing it and now use it allot. I've caught 100s of fish on the same bait. Just remove it at the end of the day and put it back into the container it came in. Don't let it stay in contact with other soft plastics or your rod blank or you'll be posting a rant.

Stuf''s pretty much indestructible.

 

[Hawnjigs]

What Z-mans are you using in what color(s) ?

What jig heads are you using to mount them ?

What species have you caught in what sizes ?

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

FYI: How to make a wire grub grip that works for all plastics:
start with 24g coated (floral) wire, wire cutters and thin nose pliers:



Cut a pc. as shown and hold it across the line-tie post:


Wrap one side tightly around the post with small pliers:


then cut it close to the post leaving one side:


Bend the remaining wire as shown which you will swing into the grub body:


No matter how small the jig, the I attach the grub grip:




It never affects the strike regardless the size of lure or fish and without using glue that damages the lure.
The plastic will stay put for as long as the the grip is in place.



.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Good idea, could be a money maker for you but you'd need a patent or others will cut into your biz with their knock offs. Do your plastics eventually get torn off by more vigorous pulls and fights?

My bead stack holder collars work well for me & I'll stick with them since its my own personal design. One advantage is determining a bite from an inanimate bump the plastic slides down off the collar on a tail pull. No prob just slide back on & good to go, especially with near indestructible Plas-tec.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Do your plastics eventually get torn off by more vigorous pulls and fights?

Action tails may get ripped, but on the whole, the lure stays intact and up on the jig for many fish - including fish caught when the lure is reused.

If I have no choice because a specific jig weight/hook size is only available with the lead barb that holds the lure up, I depress it flat with pliers and cut it off with wire cutters. Better to have a bare jig hook than one that destroys the lure after it's used one time.

bead stack holder collars

Got a photo? First time I've heard of it. Interesting....

 

[Hawnjigs]

Re-posting from an earlier topic before my Mavica cam became obsolete. Pic beads are 3.5mm & 3 mm, current version bead collars use 2.5mm beads for 2" plastics and 3mm for 3" including Elaztech 2-1/2" minnow. Note that the hook barb is honed down to allow beads to pass over. Nowadays I only use honed barbs for my 99+% C&R pursuits.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Thanks. I remember that. Just didn't know it kept the lure in place.

 

[Hawnjigs]

After bout 2 months of steady use the 2-1/2" Z-man Slim SwimZ opening night color has been well tested and proven as my go-to confidence plastic for smaller wallys & wipers. Those are my favored target species and bycatch includes a few available smallies, cats, buffalo + uncommon crappie, & yellow perch. Attractive color, durability, quivering action even at very slow speed all work for me.

Homemade glued bead stack collar works well for me, but lacking that build capability not sure what the best option is to affix Elaz-tech which as mentioned has a very different composition compared with "regular" soft plastics.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

quivering action even at very slow speed all work for me.

Number 1 in my book!
It seems fish do what evolution has programmed them to do when it comes to strikes - those involving live bait and those that respond to specific lure actions. Quiver is one of the best and most trustworthy actions a lure can have - especially at low retrieve speeds with pauses. Many different hard and soft baits demonstrate that quiver. Skirt pulsation, flutter, flair & collapse is another example of a lure action that make skirted jigs and spinnerbaits bass angler favorites.

It's fun to speculate what it is about a lure that made fish attack it starting with a lure's action. Soon you start choosing lures based on their actions first and foremost followed by the speed and depth(s) they work best.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Indeed quiver crosses over into other lure types - cranks, blades, rattle-traps - altho I don't use any of em those that know how demonstrate excellent catches of walleye & wiper with all of the above.

Guys who know how to use tied jigs (aka doll flies here) will keep up with or sometimes outfish other types of lures

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Ah, the doll fly: pulsating fluff.

Here are a few more based on action profiles:
Zara Spook: violent back & forth waddle creating surface splashes
curl tail grub: tail flapping like a flag whipping in the wind
NOTE: not all curl tail shapes produce the same action - some are wide, some have a thin attachment
Kut Tail worm on a light jig: darting action and slow drops with pauses
Senko wacky rigged: tail rotation and body roll as it sinks
deep dive crankbait: violent back & forth waddle along with clanking hooks (and rattles if present)
Mepps spinner: strobe-lke flashes
spinnerbait: strobe-like flashes and pulsating skirt
Mann Shadow minnow: the closest in action to a minnow I've ever seen, gliding along with slight tail-fin action
Sassy Shad and other boot-tails: thumping tail that imparts a body quiver
Jitterbug: large waddle with cupped blade splashing & swishing
Buzzbait: triangular in-line blade swish that imparts a pulsation to the skirt

.... just to name a few chosen for their unique actions matched to conditions fished.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Obviously you've tried a LOT of different lures & studied the habitats & conditions when/where they are most effective. I realize you enjoy contrapting new variations of existing designs & colors, but if you were to simplify what would you consider bare minimum essentials that could catch your preferred target species anywhere anytime in USA inland waters?

 

[Thinkingredneck]

Obviously you've tried a LOT of different lures & studied the habitats & conditions when/where they are most effective. I realize you enjoy contrapting new variations of existing designs & colors, but if you were to simplify what would you consider bare minimum essentials that could catch your preferred target species anywhere anytime in USA inland waters?

Don't forget the good ole beetle spin

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Beetle Spin: small flashing blade that imparts grub body vibration along with the flapping curl tail.
I've used the B. spin with a 2" thin stick and caught fish.

There are many small soft plastics that will catch fish anywhere any time. One that has proven itself is a lure that was accidentally discovered stirring hot plastic for pouring.
I lifted the tablespoon and noticed a film left on it. So, I laid the film on a tile and cut the shape of a minnow. To thicken the body, I dipped the forward half 4x, allowing the body to cool between dips.
I call it the Spoon Minnow = a thin flat tail that flutters slightly with the least motion. It has even worked under a float.

If I had to choose one lure, it would be the thin flat-tail grub rigged on ball head jigs 1/64-1/16 oz. Here are a few other shape and rigging variations (nose hook, dropshot hook) :

A super thin wire leader was used (3rd from the bottom /ruler shot)) to prevent pickerel from stealing the lure like this one:



I don't need to go through the process now that I've found injection molds online that produce 6 lures at a shot. The body shapes are a bit different, but the thin, flat tail action/profile is key!

 

[Hawnjigs]

When I first started using soft plastics long ago a very successful one was Venom Lures Reaper which appears to be similar to your namesake "Spoonminnow". They resembled juvenile eels and skippers which were primary forage in Hawaiian nearshore ocean habitat.



I was only able to procure a sample of, forget, at most 100 after which Venom insisted that I purchase dealer production lots. They were imbued with a stinky fish powder similar to original Power Baits. With limited shelf lives, those scented lures were eventually discontinued replaced with more commerecially viable sanitized versions that IMO were not nearly as effective bite getters.

Since the Spoonminnow thin flat flutter tail appears to be fragile, would be perfect for an Elaz-tech version.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Not fragile at all. Been a long time since I cast the Reaper. Have them lying around somewhere.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Natural minnow colors I like but need a longer 2-1/2 or 3" version. Thin flap tail looks closer to the Spoonminnow than the ribbed Reaper.

Shad Reapers - Leech Style Crappie Panfish Finesse Fishing Lures

Our 2" Shad Body Reapers have a flat leech like tail which produces great action when swimming or jigging. The Shad Reaper is great for all Panfish and Crappie and are great fished under the ice too!

moondogbaitco.com

 

[Hawnjigs]

Have you tried casting with scent powders? Side by side testing results were definitive back in HI - conventional soft plastics were ignored and stinky versions were hammered.