Vertical jigging Master

[redear]

jiggerjohn, how is ole red doing? has he made it home yet?

 

[jiggerjohn]

Hi Redear, I just got off the phone with Red, who's still rehabbing the fixed knee in the hospital. He's feeling terrific, the doc feels they hit a "home run" with the success of this surgery, and Red is tying flies and jigs in earnest at his hospital bedside in anticipation of outdoors shows he'll be participating in soon! He was tempting me a bit by describing some new, natural, reddish colored wool that some Amish friends just gave him -might make for some very sweet jigs,I'm thinkin !! Also we discussed how a very slow stop n go retreive is killer with his shorter satin/wool ties below a sensitive float ( I like a thin porcupine quill) for shallow spring bluegill ;hey, we have Dec gone, and part of January out of the way ; we'll be fishing any day now!!

 

[Fatman]

Glad he's doing good!!!

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

I wish him a fast and complete recovery and he's out fishing soon.

 

[redear]

Jiggerjohn, thanks for the report! and also the info on fishing these jigs below a float, I fish like that alot and was wondering how they did like that.

 

[CrappieHappy]

Glad Red is healing up and doing well. I will try this style of jig in the near future...

 

[Hawnjigs]

From JiggerJohn

View attachment 7

 

[redear]

great looking flies!! I have two little questions, where are you tying the line too, and how did ya make the little wire with the ball weight. and how good has it been catching fish? ok, that was three questions. lol

 

[jiggerjohn]

I've been successfully experimenting with the above photo'd idea for a bit now with Red's FLY and it looks pretty slick in water &action. I was schooled in this concept during the 70s from a prominent panfisherman, named Dave Goforth from Greensboro, NC, who gained national attention from a Homer Circle article in Sports Afield for his never fail "meatgetter " lure.Dave's panfish lure was a very special ,easy functioning little spinner and weedless fly combo that took him years to perfect; but ,after a while, he switched almost completely to small calf tail jigs which were even deadlier he found(with his meat concept,of attaching a 1" sliver of freshly cut panfish flank). Then he got into,with his continuing perfectionism, what he called a "pendulum lure", roughly like what is pictured above, which proved better than both of his other preferred lures! He "ran out of time" in getting this into exactly what he was searching for,however. I recently found it took Red's buoyant wool body& awesome fly combo to get it working just right, plus "Giant Bass" author, Bill Murphy's idea to gently,slowing DRAG a light lure across bottom ruble(rather than hop it) to get maximum attention from bass, especially. Also was thinkin this can get me over the pesky thin layer of bottom moss that some local lakes possess, which often fouls my boolies! Anyway, the weight & lever arm swing down as in a pendulum, especially after contacting a log or rock and kick that motion into the fly, which then will "shiver" (especially Red's fly) for a few seconds while resting.The ball weight on the wire arm seems to slide around rocks & stuff, so should tends to be more snagfree than a solid jighead. This is my light tackle solution to the pro bass guy's "new" expensive "rage", the so-called "jika rig"!!

Redear,I tie to the top (big end ,where fly is) of the snap, and had the ball arm rigs handmade by another great, late fisherman friend, who was also tinkering with this idea-he soldered them together. I make mine from paper clips and put em into a jig mold to pour the balls on (you can also use an old , soft-hooked jighead with the point removed and bent to form the loop!).Some of my initial experiments with this bottom dragging, light jig tactic was used previously on Ohio's productive Berlin reservoir, in checking clean underwater bars for bluegill & crappie in late spring -only problem was, we couldn't keep walleyes from devouring our tiny jigs!!

 

[Fatman]

The little wire with the ball on it looks easy enough. You could get some fly tying hooks with extra long shanks, straighten the whole thing out put an L shape to it and put the end of the wire in the eye socket with the eyelet below the shank groove. OR

Make up a bunch of eye's on wire and put them in backwards. I'd put a little L shape in the ball area just to make sure the ball head doesn't slip off. you'd definatly have to trim off the overflow into the eyelet slot though.

If we don't do anything this weekend cause of the rain I might just fire up the pot and try this. I have plenty of the duo lock snaps!!!

If I get to it I'll post it up!!

 

[papaperch]

Not trying to step on this great system idea but I would think a short leader between the duo clip and the fly would enhance the movement of the fly itself. Thinking like 1 1/2 inch to 3 inch leader like on search lures. Maybe its already been tried and scrapped.

But I would have to try that. Like I said I can never leave anything alone. Even if its perfect LOL.

For those of you that have wire benders the little fulcrum weight should be easy to crank out the little wires for the weight.

 

[redear]

great post jiggerjohn!! and thanks for the info too. I stopped by joann's fabrics on the way home from work this morning and picked up some more satin in other colors. such as Ivory, bright yellow, lime green, light pink and black. also got some pearlized sheer material in an almost clear version, with a holographic pearl look to it, this stuff is more expensive than the satin but I only bought a 6" wide strip about 40" long, also got a new pair of sisscors for cutting the fabric, they treat me real good in that store, very customer service oriented and they will work their butt off for ya cutting all those small strips of fabric for just a little money. Oh, and my mom gave me a little satin she had and it was a little different than the stuff at joanns, it has a black backing and the front is silver/gray looking shiny. there were some great metalic gloss looking fabrics at joanns that tempted me too, but I resisted not knowing how they would work out, they were right beside the pearlized sheer fabrics which also come on a bolt. there were two variations of the pearlized sheer, a smooth finish, and a crinkle finish.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Redear, That metallic gloss fabric should NOT be overlooked - Red uses this for his inner flash strands-in fact, he puts it in over the wool, even before attaching the satin strands! The ole man prefers this even over flashabou and other highly touted(expensive!) fly tying type flash material !! He gave me a few patches of gold metallic, and ,wow, it is BRIGHT !! By the way, Red has been home from the hospital since Thursday and tying up a storm -he can walk without a crutch now and sounds like a million bucks!

 

[Fatman]

JJ - Good to hear Red's home and tying up a storm!!!!!! Just tell him to go easy on the knee he doesn't want to have to go through it again!!!!!!!

Do they have a stock number of color number for what you guys are buying???

 

[redear]

JJ, that is great newsw about ole Red!! glad to hear he is doing good. will have to make another trip to joanns for the metallic stuff. Doug, the satin was at one end of the row of bolts and the pearlized sheer and metallic were together at the other end of the same row, don't know if all stores are arranged the same, but the pearlized sheer didn't have a sign to show where it was , it only said it on the tiny label on the bolt, so I had to ask about it, these sheers and metallics are more expensive, but just buying 6" strips will get you out of there pretty cheep. with my bad legs and bad balance I should have carried my cane in there, think they wondered if I had been drinking, lol, but again super nice and helpful girls and lady's in there for sure. also plenty of threads in there, and also the sulky brand mylar tinsels on little thread spools.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Fatman, Even Red doesn't know the names or stock numbers of exactly what he uses! He goes by looks to see how something goes on the jig. Usually if he sticks to his basic wool& white satin he catches the heck out of crappies (Pymatuning was way down in water level this year -most said it was drought& drawdown, but I think it was just the sheer amount of crappies that Red took reduced the level several feet!!!), but SOMETIMES,he said, color can make a huge difference! He usually goes with whatever Linda, his wife, brings home for HER sewing! I've found in my own tying of Red's bug that a bit of white satin as a good base, then a few strands of another color of satin (I love blue) gives a very vibrant effect!

 

[StumpHunter]

I have been testing the satin jigs spider rigging and tipping with a minnow. I made these rigs for minnow fishing and wanted to see if the catch rate is better on the jigs with satin or on the rigs with no satin on the hooks. I need more time on the water but the results are looking good right now.

I'm using the 1/8 and 5/8 jigs on the bottom for the added weight and a single hook on top. I am also testing the red sickle hook against a gold hook, right now the gold hook is doing better than the red sickle but I have only been out two times using these rigs.

Thought y'all would be interested in these rigs.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Stump, A nice clean, sleek look to those jigs!! In your experiments, try a little clump of wool on the hook shaft ,too (Red says that makes a huge difference!). Please keep us informed on the results of your testing!!!

 

[papaperch]

Jiggerjohn and anyone else that is interested :

My idea about tying off a leader on your rig was a bad one. Regardless of length of leader it make the fly float up side down. Your rig as pictured makes the fly float correctly. Anyway used thin galvanized wire for forming the pendulum which seems to work well.
I tank tested the specimens pictured below to ascertain if the leader idea was a good one or no.

One of my big dislikes is floating jigs in that they float upside down also. I have always contended that it allows for more missed bites. Friends of mine that love their floaters always told me I was being anal retentive. But confidence in whatever a guy is using is very important also. I just never felt confident because of the way floater jig head acted beneath the surface. When I pointed out how many fish they were missing on a particular day they always wrote it off to " short strikers ".

So this will be another thing I will be trying this spring.

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Very nice rigs Stump and Papa, I bet they both are going to work great this year. I need to run out there again and see what other materials they have that might be of interest to me. Last time I was there was before Christmas and had to wait in line just to have material cut. Hopefully it WON'T BE BUSY next time I go.