Vertical jigging Master

[redman]

Jiggerjohn That's right those that catch the most fish never want to draw attention to themselves. They have the Technique down to a science and why bother others and have them bother you. We have a old black guy that always fishes the spring crappie run. A 12' flat bottom boat a old Johnson 15 HP with no hood that runs on one cylinder. A cane pole and bucket of shiners and he will flat out fill out a limit in no time. His technique is to fish in front of the boat at every tree for no more than 30 seconds. No trolling motor but uses a paddle and handles that boat better than I can with a trolling motor. Have adopted his technique with great success in the spring. You would never think twice about him but he is a great fisherman in the spring.

It comes down to your technique. Concentrate on it. Play your game don't try to get fancy and do something that your not confident in or capable of. When you do you set yourself up for failure. Confidence in your equipment, jig, lure,line and technique and you can be king of the water. Anyone can catch fish when they are on the bite but when they are slow and you can still fill a limit that is what separates the men from the boys. I am a believer in detail. If the detail is right My confidence is high and I will do as good or better than anyone out there.

Redman

 

[LRB]

Such A Interesting Post !!!...:icon14:



ML..

 

[jiggerjohn]

I was reminded in a discussion with another jig angler of yet another "Red concept" that our tiers here might prepare for during the 2013 season.Red often ties quite a few of his wool/flash/satin patterns as bead tipped FLIES (check his photos,posted earlier). In spring he'll work some of Pymatuning's sand bar ends by casting these weightless lures behind a couple of small split shots for bottom bouncing -the bulky, wool fly tends to ride up off bottom when pulled, behind the splits, and gives fish a good view and easy meal. Sometimes this is more efficient than using even a similar tiny jig (behind splitshots to get it deep), which still scratches bottom on a slow retreive. Or Red will work his fly in his more typical vertical fashion, by concentrating above on the feel of his SPLIT SHOT tapping the bottom, while the fly is free to kick around on its own. Early last season he put a friend & I onto this pattern, having previously discovered big bluegills were sometimes on the bars at 14-16', apparently desiring tiny black flies( Red ties a GREAT black fly!). My buddy & I worked the splitshot rig vertically and hit conditions just right one day -loaded a cooler with slab sized,great eating bluegills on the tiny no. 10 flies!

 

[Fatman]

Thanks for all the info Jigger.

 

[blt]

I would love to see more pistures.

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Finally got a chance to go to a fabric store. I picked up some wool roving which is 100% wool in two colors along with white and green satin. Once I got home I always put new materials under a blacklight to check their fluorescent quality if any that they might have. Natural wool does have a subtle fluorescense but what stood out was the white satin. I've never seen anything glow under a blacklight like that before. I tied up a dozen using the materials and took some pics. I'll post them on a new thread,don't want to hijack this one. I really like how the wool jigs look in water,nice subtle movement.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Jungle, Really glad to hear your blacklight findings!! The more we can explore a relatively new tying material (to most of us), the better our confidence is in tying & fishing it! I've noticed the same thing about the brightness of white satin -in fact, when I first ran saw Red's jigs a few years ago, the "glow" white, very minnow like look of the satin is what impressed me most. Only Red's careful explanation recently of the importance of the wool body has me thinking more properly in terms of the total combination. I'm looking forward to seeing your new pics; your ties are ALWAYS spectacular!! By the way, "bit", Red wants me up for another tying session soon, so I should have a few more photos to post,too !!

 

[Fatman]

The pics were great!!! Can't wait to see some new pics from Reds!!!!!!!!!

 

[redear]

jiggerjohn, I really am curious and would like to know how Red came about settling on wool for his jigs, I'm sure there is a story there, maybe a series of trials and errors, anyway next time you are chatting with him and the time seems right, maybe you could ask him for us. the satin thing is really interesting too.

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Good point with the beadhead flies as well John. Kinda like a micro/mini Carolina rig. A nother thing I want to try now.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Redear, Just got off the phone with Red,who, as usual, was tying a bunch for a rainy afternoon! I asked him about his initial use of wool -it was suggested by his wife originally who always had a lot of differant materials for her extensive home sewing.Red didn't know what to think of it at first, until he discovered how it could HOLD WATER, to yield a perfect minnow body!NOTHING he had seen before or since had this amazing ,expandable body water retention! Then he tested EVERY morning, and was amazed at the wool body's fish take -he'd test it against a partner who used various non wool jigs, and according to Red, no other bodied or fur jig, no twister tail, nothing could remotely match the wool (or "sheepskin" as he calls it). Like he says, if something flat out catches fish, he refines it even more over time and has the chance to put hours in on the water almost daily to determine what provides the absolute best catch rate. This is how the satin worked its way into the wool jig formula(again from Linda's sewing kit!), and Red has also hammered Pym's walleyes& cats (tho he prefers crappies over anything) on a longer version, and then taken this basic jig formula down to Florida (where he once worked an 18 yr stint as a commercial fisherman, and was known as the top pompano man during the 50s) to take inshore species 2 at a time (he often needed a quick supply of "bait" for big game offshore work!) anytime he wanted with 2 of his bright jigs fished in tandem!These days, you can imagine from years of practice (he has been living near Pymatuning since 1959) that Red can tie his special jig up in a little over a minute , and can see no reason to ever raise his jig card price of 25 for $30, with so little labor or material. As Red says "Yep, I could tie a very intricate jig, devoting over 12 minutes tying time, if somebody wanted a real fancy one, but I'd have to charge $4 each! What do ya want , anyway, FISH or an artifact?!"

 

[redear]

jiggerjohn, thanks for getting the story from him!! thats a good read for sure! I'm just thinking here, ya know after I retire and probably go on disability, there won't be as much cash laying around for ordering 100 bucks worth of kiptails at a time and such, so this pattern could really come in handy for keeping a guy going.

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

That's a lot of kiptails. A $10 bill with satin and wool would keep you tying for awhile.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Jungle, Good point about the fabric jig cost -as Red told me yesterday, "i like to keep things simple & cost effective - I SPRAY paint my heads white, a big bunch at a time on a cardboard slab, use basic aberdeen hooks (that have the benefit of straightening out in brushpiles & easily bend back to shape for instant reuse), get sheepskin (Red warns that not all commercial wool has the essential water retaining feature) free from a local slaughterhouse -they're glad to get rid of it, and have enough spare scrap fabric swatches laying around from my wife's sewing hobby to last a lifetime!" then he continues " Crappies don't care about neat or fancy ties, heck, when they're hitting good you can catch them on a clothespin!! But when they get real picky, well, the relatively simple sheepskin & satin will always trick em!"

Then, in discussing his beadhead FLY, Red explained that on some tough days this can be the only thing that they'll go for,fished behind a leading split shot. He is convinced that the wool's water retention has the fly NEUTRALLY BUOYANT(same weight & density as the h2o) ,thus a lot more active,slightly above bottom, whereas even a light jighead will drag along in sand or dirt behind the shot.He told me, with a chuckle, that if I try the split shot & sheepskin fly near deeper bottoms on my local trout waters during these low-bite colder periods, that I'll get "tore up"!!

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

jj, one of the first thing's I noticed about the wool is how it absorbs and holds water while testing them the first time. Even after taking them out of the water you can see that they are still full of water. I'm going to finally try them tommorrow,sunny and close to 50 for the high.

 

[Fatman]

Great info - gonna have to get a little container just for these jigs if they'll hold that much water so it doesn't end up in your jig box though.

 

[StumpHunter]

OK I have to make a run to the craft store! Some things you just have to try and these jigs and bead head flies are some I will be using soon. Great thread, keep it going!

 

[Fatman]

Stump - Make sure the beads fit on your hooks!!!!!!! or you will not be a happy person!!! LOL

 

[jiggerjohn]

On Red's bead fly -as Fatman suggests, it is sometimes a dissapointment to be all set up , only to discover that beads on hand don't fit the hook! This happened to me while tying with Red, when I was last up tying with him; "Don't fret" laughed Red, "It's just as good without that window dressing!" Or you could just string a single bead (or two or three for color& clicking noise)on a short section of mono and lash it fore&aft of the hook eye to give it an undersling(more like a jig!!) appearance like they do on "bouncer flies" (bouncerflies.com) !

 

[Hawnjigs]

Hmm, this split shotting a bead fly has got me thinking about the times when a castable on spinning gear jig was ignored but flyguys were getting bit by trout. I noticed that their tiny flies were split shotted for sink weight on a 6-8 foot long mono leader behind a "strike indicator" bobber so maybe us spin guys could split shot a fly straight to a light mono mainline and stay in the game?

Alternately, could a 1/64 #10 micro jig be substituted for the bead fly?