G3Steve

Wet the knot with saliva before cinching down! Also, the force you use to cinch down will depend on your line strength. If using light line, you could be pulling too hard, stretching and weakening the line.

I've had the most confidence in exposed hook presentations. My favorites are a white trick worm on a shaky head and a wacky flick shake on a dropshot. What are you guys using?

Just wanted to give a shout out to Mike at DVT. I had a Shimano Cardiff that was dunked on the beach while surf fishing and I got fine sand all inside the reel. I sent the reel out to him from California on Wednesday. He received, cleaned/lubed, and invoiced me on Friday. Saturday, the reel was mailed back to me and I get it back on Monday. Door-to-door, coast to coast in just 4 USPS days! If I had send the reel out on Monday or Tuesday I would have gotten it back within the week. Awesome. Reel came back in great condition and ready to hit the surf again! Thanks Mike, you rock! http://www.delawarevalleytackle.com/ Steve Don't forget to tell him you found him on Bass Resource to get 10% off your order.

I use 12 lb, but I use an all around cranking stick and don't crank too much heavy cover. If I did, I'd probably go 15lb.

Exactly what I was thinking. If that tail is much larger than what's on the craws and shellcrackers than I'm thinking it'll have killer action on bigger swim jigs.

I have a Curado 301 and it will do what you need it to do - small to medium sized swimbaits, A-rigs, etc. I haven't tried the other reels but I'll go with the rest and say that the Abu and Daiwa are probably going to be just as good. Personal preference rules here.

Yoyo-ing a senko? Interesting way to change it up. Congrats on the new find, and thanks for the idea. I really dislike throwing senkos, but this seems like a less boring way to fish em. haha!

Cross lock sounds like what you're looking for. You mentioned using it for swimbait hooks. Are you using them for texas rigs too? You'll be losing sensitivity any time you don't have tension on the line. Moving baits should be no problem though. Before speed clips, I used Luhr Jensen Duo Lock snaps without issue, and they were virtually weedless, despite the little hook sticking out the side. The bait itself was more likely to snag grass than the snap itself.

Hey Loop, good to see you over here. It's Steve from SJB. I use Norman speed clips too, but only for cranks. Everything else gets a san diego jam knot. Good for mono and fluoro. I've found a super easy way to tie it that takes about 5 seconds. If I ever see you around I'll show you how.

I spoke with Mike Siebert today after he got back from his trip. His goal was to use a similar rod/line setup and see if he could duplicate my experiences with the poison tail jigs. He used an extra heavy action rod with 30 lb braid. The result? He lost at least two fish after bringing them boatside, one of them an 8lb+ who spit the jig once came to the top. I think he got tired of losing fish, so he switched back to his regular jig rod, and heavy action Loomis with 15lb fluoro. Every fish was pinned as expected. Though this was small test, I do believe that it has telling results. The stiffer rod and no stretch line somehow prevented the hook from penetrating the fishes' mouths. Both of us are baffled as to the exact reason why.... A heavier rod and braid would logically yield more positive hooksets. One thing I did notice was that he said the fish were lost once they got to the boat, meaning that they held the jig in their mouths til they were near the surface. I did notice the same thing happen with two of the fish I "set the hook" on. After I whacked 'em, they shot upward, and once they got to the water's surface, they spit the hook. I'm going to go back and try a lighter powered stick to see if I can finally get these jig heads to work for me. I just wanted to give a shout out to Mike from Siebert Outdoors again. He took the time to test the jig/setup/hookset for me, and even gave up a world class bass, all in the name of providing awesome customer service. Thanks Mike! I'll let you know how I do next time I go out with your jigs.

Thanks for the help Tom. Lots of great info. I'm not sure if it fits my case, however. I'm using a round bend hook and fishing from shore, casting to 8-12 ft. Bites came at the end of the cast, maybe 100 ft, and as close as 30 ft. The bass are fighting AFTER I set the hook, though the hook points are obviously not connecting. Hahaha.. I've had that happen with sub 1lb'ers. Had one fly out of a floating mat and smash into the outboard.

iabass8, I am using Siebert's poison tail jig, which uses a 4/0 heavy flipping hook. I posted a picture of the exposed hook a couple of posts back. I use the dx 745 as my dedicated jig rod as I also use it for pitching/flipping heavy cover. Like I mentioned in my first post, I have no problems with hookup ratio with arky heads, so I'm thinking more and more that the problem lies with a combination of the shape of the head, angle of the eye and my hookset. Tom, I don't lock down my drag, and line is played out on each hookset. The fish are getting the jig in their mouths, that's for sure. I'm fighting them for 6-8 seconds, keeping constant pressure before the line goes slack. This tells me that they're holding on to the jig, but eventually (literally) spit it out mid-fight. I spoke with Mike from Siebert earlier this afternoon and he doesn't have problems with hookups while dragging the poison tail. He said that he would try duplicating my mag-heavy/braid setup tomorrow and see if he had the same results and would let me know. How's that for customer service?! I was already impressed with the quality of the jigs, but Mike is willing to give up some of his fishing time to follow up with a customer. Awesome. Thanks Mike, you rock.

Sam, I was thinking it was the eye, due to the angle caused by my hookset and the fact that the jig is on the pond bottom. I was thinking maybe I should try a reel set instead. Reel down until the rod loads up, ensuring that the jig is near the fish's lips, then set the hook. Same as the hookset Zona uses for football heads. Kevin, in the instances above I was just dragging the jig, and the bites came when the jig was paused. The last bite I had I waited after the first bite, until the fish started swimming away, to set the hook. That didn't work either. Mike, I just left you a message. Jeff, you were right. Most of the skirt material was at the top. I was trying to get the white strands to show at the bottom, so I didn't stick the hook directly into the center of the strands. I think I have to lay the strands differently in the skirt tool. Thanks for catching that. Here's another photo of the jig showing how much of the hook is exposed above the trailer.

Thanks for all the replies so far. The jig I'm using is a 3/8 oz ROUND BEND, 3 skirt tabs (which I think is 66 strands), and a 3.8" keitech. RW, I was thinking of using a slimmer skirt, but wasn't entirely convinced that the skirt would hinder hookups that much. I might try that though. The Menace is on my shopping list. I've tried the shellcracker, but I wish it had a bigger tail. Are you listening Big-O? CPB, this setup is my everyday jig rod (casting, flipping, pitching), so it's definitely not too heavy. That's why I'm trying to figure out what other part of the equation I'm missing. Jeff, the skirt is distributed evenly around the hook shank. I think it's just the way the strands were laying which made it look top-heavy. Plus these strands seem to be stiffer than other colors, which gives this one more "oomph". Smalljaw and Kevin, I am using round bends. I just have more confidence in them, both with jigs and with T rigs. Smalljaw, so you're saying that dragging a poison tail shouldn't create a problem with hooksets? Mike, I'll be calling you. Steve

First off let me say that I fish "regular" jigs every time I go out. They are my confidence bait. Last year I got into swim jigs and I was catching some nice hogs on the Dirty Jigs California swim jig, and this year I wanted to make my own. So I bought some poison tail jig heads from Siebert and put together some skirts and threw on some 3.8" Keitech Swing Impact Fats. The fish seem to like them pretty good, but so far it's only when I'm hopping and dragging the jigs.... trying to emulate feeding baitfish. Now here's the problem - I'm losing every fish that bites. I'm using the same hookset as I do with arky head jigs. Up and over my shoulder. With arkies, I have nearly a 100% hookup ratio. I really don't remember the last time I lost a fish on an arky. I tried with the weedguard trimmed and untrimmed, and it didn't make a diference. Setup is a Dobyns DX 745C, 50lb braid. When I feel the bite I immediately reel down and whack 'em, and I do feel them fight for a few seconds before the line goes slack. As for the bait, they're definitely not biting just the tail as the bait in still in good shape. I'm wondering if these poison tail jig heads need a different type of hookset? Are poison tails not meant to be dragged? All other bites I've gotten on the California swim jig were when the bait was moving. Could it be Siebert jigs themselves? They seem to be great quality and I bought a bunch of them so I want to make them work. Maybe I'm setting the hook too hard with the mag heavy rod and braid? What should I do? Here's a pic of the bait for those interested.