Chris

Freeze our butts off trying to fish! lol

I fish a variety of lures and tackle so i don't have many that i can say this is the best and there is no other no matter the conditions but a jig. I would say that the strikeking pro model jig is the best.

Now I define attracting quallities as the way it looks, size,color,rattle,water displacement, and movement. Triggering qualities as what makes the fish bite like eratic movement or when it deflects of stucture.

Back to swimming a jig another thing that i do is add a swivel and spinnerbait blade to the hook. I put a rubber stopper over the split ring of the swivel to help keep it on the hook. The bait acts like a roadrunner.

I don't think there is a stupid question. You can turn the pork backwards and work it off or just twist it while pulling and the pork will twist off. Uncle Josh came out with a jig that has a safty clip on it for the pork that might be an option if the pork is getting on your nerves. With this jig you can put on or take off the pork easier than a regular jig.

Chris which do you feel is more important ? Attracting or triggering qualities. Well....If a bait has alot of attracting qualities and no triggering qualities the fish are attracted to the bait but might not hit it because nothing in the bait caused it to be triggered to bite it. If a bait has alot of triggering qualities and no attracting qualities the fish might be triggered to bite it but are not attracted by it. Meaning they will not search out to find it unless its infront of their face and react to it by its triggering qualities. Triggering qualities are more important in clear water than stained to murky and attracting qualities are more important in stained to murky. In clearwater they need to see it to hit it. Stained to murky they need to hear it to hit it. Is one better than the other? Sometimes bass use one quality more than the other but i feel that both are important it just depends on the conditions.

Ok lol...The great thing about plastic is that you can match your skirt more often than pork. The new trailers that are out have salt and garlic in them. Salt was one of the main factors of why people used pork. Pork also has more life to it than plastic and is more flexable in colder water than plastic. plastic tends to be stiffer in cold water. Pork feels more like something alive because its a natural material. The fat on the pork acts like an oil slick much like spray scents. Pork also lasts longer than plastic trailers.(even cyberflex ones)Pork also holds scents longer than plastic. Pork floats and you can counter balance your jig better than plastic. Pork comes in some of the same styles as plastic (look on uncle josh webpage). I use both and feel there is a place for both. To say that you never use pork your missing out on one of the best trailers you could use. It is a proven fish catcher. Many soft plastic now have pork in them for that reason...pork catches fish!

For me i break out the flipping stick. If im just looking for some quick bites i might pitch a fry or senko but if i am needing weight i flip a jig. I feel that i up my chances to catch a bigger fish with a jig and when my livewell is running thin one fish may make the difference.

I like and use light jigs in late fall early winter just because of the fall rate of the bait. I also feel that by this time they shy away from larger offerings and a lighter smaller profile jig fits the ticket.

bquittem:" im not a big fan of pork". I wish there was more people like you that don't like or use pork. lol it just means more fish for me which is good. So please people boycott pork. Pork is bad plastic is good!(side note: To those who use pork like myself we know why its better don't we)lol

I don't use this jig i spoke of to fish on the bottom because it will grab everything on the bottom and get hung up. If im going to use a jig like a jig, i use something else. Your not limited to just this jig i have used a strikeking pro model jig that was 3/8 oz and swim it and caught big fish doing it. Weight=depth

Glenn .......You can still get them. http://www.toledotackleusa.com/banditworm.asp Its under crock tail worm Its the same worm as a gatortail.

A weed walker is another great bait for this stuff. Its like a plastic spoon with a blade on it. You use it by buzzing it ontop of the weeds.

What style jig or jig head do you all use? Why does that style make it better than others?

When its crunch time and money is on the line and your livewell is looking mighty thin What do you grab to save the day?

I would say that most of my big fish this year 5 lbs or better came on black and blue jig and pork, 2 different kinds of spinnerbaits both with pork trailers, creature bait by yammamoto. Past years most came on crankbaits.

i should write a book lol

You need to figure out the mood of the fish some days they want a drop bait like a worm that drops to the bottom and is worked on the bottom. Some days they want something that swims. I depends on where they are positioned in the lake some days they are hanging on the bottom some days they are maybe suspended. Thats the first key. The next would be where they are. You need to figure out if they are hanging next to the shore or out on the break line. Sometimes they hang on wood only or weeds. Sometimes it just an irregular feature. The next key would be color then action. Depth is another thing you need to figure out. I would start fishing right next to the shore with soft jerkbaits then a crankbait or spinnerbait a little further out. Try to fish the zone from the shore to about 5 to 10 feet out. If that don't work try fishing the bottom in the same zone. If both don't work then you just elminated a bunch of water. Now fish deeper. Always check back from time to time to see if any fish moved up into the shallow. Also if you do catch fish in a zone check the time of day. This will help in forming a pattern.

Another bait i like is the zoom brush hog. There have been times when thats the only thing they will hit.

Try using lures that are chrome in the clear water. A smaller rattletrap might be the ticket just make sure you count it down to different depths to see where they are hanging at. If you use a jerkbait, crankbait, or spinnerbait remember to try to fish it fast in the clear water so that the fish don't get a good look at it and react to it. A soft jerkbait like a zoom fluke jr. or a baby bass assassin ,might trigger some fish also. Read up on my swimming jig post, the jig i talked about in that artical might be another option. If your catching fish on your grub then change around your colors to something more tansparent like a smoke, watermellon, or greenpunkin.

*Something that alot of people don't mention is rattle. Can a rattle make a difference if a crankbait catches more fish than another? I feel that it makes a big difference. I have sat in a boat with someone throwing the same bait and i was catching 3 times as many fish as the other guy. The difference? It could be that my lure was tunned perfect and his wasn't or that my bait had a different rattle or both. To begain with if a bait isn't tunned right the bait will never reach its deepest depth and it doesn't have the maximum vibration. It also has a hard time going through a tree without getting hung. For me i like a lure that has a deep tone rattle. I am bad about going though a whole rack of crankbaits just to get one that rattles the way i like. I feel that it is that important.

I use several different kinds and styles of spinnerbaits for different times of the year or water clearities. I am always tinkering with things either changing blade sizes or cutting down the arm of the bait or bending it or adding weight. If i am burnning it i use a double willow leaf spinnerbait and i take a rubber core lead weight and take out the core and pinch it on the shank of the hook. This also works if you want a smaller profile bait to fish deep. I like to use a short arm spinnerbait with a single colo blade for slow rolling. Hank Parker's classic spinnerbait is a great river bait i also use it when i need to slow it down a little.

Here is my line up of rods i use for different lures. I use a 6'6" or 7" med/heavy action for my crankbaits. If you throw alot of light crankbaits a medium action is better. I use10 lb test line mostly unless i am fishing alot of laydowns then i beef it up to 14 lb test. For spinnerbaits i use 14 line and med/heavy action with a faster tip. For flipping and pitching i use a 7'10" flipping stick a 7' with 65 lb braid or 17 lb test if i am fishing sparse cover. My spinning rod is medium action with 10 lb line the rod is 6'6". / reels i use for cranking have 4 bearings and are 6.3 to 1 gear ratio/for spinnerbaits i use 5 to1 gear ratio/ flipping 6.3 to 1 Hope this helps you out? General purpose rod would be med/heavy action 6'6" or 7",reel would be 6 to1 ratio. (if i was to choose one for everything)

When i read an article years ago about swimming a jig i never gave much thought to it. Then i read another and started thinking that it might be a great way to go behind someone fishing a spinnerbait and pick off fish. So i made my own jig just for swimming. My thing was i didn't like the position of the line tie. So this is what i came up with. I took either 1/4 oz or as light as 1/8 BPS xps weedless grub head and put a northland limber-legs holographic skirt on it. I then add either a white zoom swim chunk to it or a white bitsy tube. When i use the tube i cut off the head then push it over the collar of the skirt. All i do is reel it like a crankbait. This is a big fish bait that works great on flats or counting it down in deeper water. I made my own because i felt that if i took a normal jig and swam it the skirt would not have much life to it. With this jig the head swims with the nose pointing down and the skirt has great action to it. The trailer helps make the bait have even more action. This bait swims like its alive. Like a shad! The hook is light wire so even on a long cast you can still get a hook in the fish.

there was a computer game that wasn't that bad flw outdoors