Jigfishn10

You're into "soldier" golfing huh Rhino?

For whatever reason, I have more success T-Rigging, but I do rig wacky style as well.

Nice fish Goose52, did you use a fast retrieve or a yo-yo type of retrieve? We still have soft water here, I may try and get out on New Years. Congrats on your outing.

Probably on a buzzbait...LOL I hope you and your family had a great Holiday, Matt!

WTG freebie! I've been trying to take advantage of the warm temps, but have not been able to get out there. Perhaps I should get a 2012 License and some non-tox jigs and hit it on Sunday!

You too Mike! I'm glad I got to to know you this year and hope you have a great new year.

There are so many that I like, so it's hard to post a fav. I do like the way the bayou boogie hunts.

Merry Christmas to you and your's from me and mine.

Not sure if this would help, but electrical wire. Pull/strip the wire out of say a 12/2 or 14/2 wire. Flexible and pretty strong. Just a thought.

I'm guessing lures like Rebel, Heddon, Excalibur, Bomber and others use Excalibur hooks because Lurenet owns them. Rapala and Storm would have VMC hooks because Rapala owns them. I'm assuming it would be cheaper to use a product that you have price control over.

Looks great! Thicker skirts will give you a slower ROF than thinnier ones. I'm never really confident how a bass will react on any given day, so I'd rather be armed with a thicker skirt at first and thin out as I go. As far as rattles: I'm not a big fan of them. You're more than likely are going to bump that jig into something which will be more than adequet from a noise perspective. JMHO of course.

Jig & Uncle Josh Pork Rind, tubes and yo-yo'd trap type cranks. For some reason I like the pork rind trailer for cold water bassin. Yo-Yo'd traps really imitate baitfish dying like no other hard bait because of it's nosedown weighted design. Tubes will spiral down like a dying baitfish. Deeper water is generally the rule, but don't overlook shallower water with vegetation (what's left of it) present.

ROFL...Good one!

I caught my PB about a week and a half after ice out this year. I had just made a spinnerbait in which I tied on a rabbit strip (zonker strip for the fly tyers here) for a trailer so I wanted to try it out just to see if the rabbit strip had any action to it. I took only my rod and that spinnerbait and spent about an hour when I felt like I snagged. I usually reel right thru most snags with a spinnerbait, but for some reason I popped my rod tip and low an behold I had a fight on my hands. I had no scale but it measured out to 23 1/4" L x 21" G. BTW, the rabbit strip had great action for a trailer.

9 times out of 10 I walk it like a spook or a sammy. I use a quick retrieve (as fast as I can walk it) at first to see how the fish react to it. If no takers I slow down. I don't usually stop it at all, but have used a stop and go retrieve on occasions. This goes against the grain a bit, but I start the cadence up as soon as it hits the water and found that I get more hits that way then letting it sit until the water rings are gone. Hope this helps. Oh, I do one more thing. If I'm looking for a really slow retrieve, I snap the rod tip down hard and let the bait seal under water...it can be deadly at times.

DVT is right. I made jigs in the past and had priced up a bismuth alloy and it was about 5X more than lead. I remember pure bismuth was more and I can't remeber how much that was. I did the research a couple of years ago, so I don't know what this alloy costs today. You have also got to factor in not only the 5X cost for the material alone, but if you want a 3/8 oz jig, you need to make one the size of a 1/2 oz one (assuming you're using a mold made for lead).

Wow JF, I forgot about that one. If the Woodwalker was still being produced, I think it would have made that list. Nice post!

Spit'n Image and Bayou Boogie. Still being produced but perhaps lost a lot of popularity. The Spit'n Image I have was produced by Excalibur and is now produced by Heddon.

This post is on point! Great post Chis! If you're feeling creative, try this blade configuration on a tandem: Remove the large rear willow and small front colorado. Attach the willow to the clevis and colorado to the swivel. Man, bass love that spinnerbait!

I would be very interested in fishing some more of these. If you guys wouldn't mind me participating in some of the 2012 outings I would be more than appreciative?

I like a 6'0" moderate - moderate fast action with medium heavy - heavy power rod for dog walking. My reel is a 6.3 : 1 gear ratio. I still use 17# mono b/c I like the additional stretch for striking fish along with the flex of softer action rod tip which allows the fish to take the lure down further. The 6'0" rod is a lot easier for me to dog walk than a longer rod and with those types of baits, casting long distances is no problem. I would say start out with with different rod lengths and see which one you're more comfortable with. Good luck and let us know what you end up with.

Will do, ww2farmer. Thank you.

ww2farmer, we're not giving slack line, what Buckeye, meant was reeling down on the line to feel resistance. I respectfully disagree with a hookset on every occasion because there are too many variables. Sometimes that "thump" is a snag and if you set the hook with noone home, you risk the rest of your presentation. Should you be able to subtlely get thru that snag in my experience, you can get another fish. if you swing away, that opportunity is gone.

It's much better than what he would give you, right?...J/K To be honest, I use your technique more often than not, especially for strikes that happen that way. The first strike I would do exactly what Cliff did, and then I wait for the line to tighten up on any subsequent strikes...Fool me once and you won't get a chance to fool me again, type of thing. May not work for some folks, but it works for me. You're not gonna get em all the time, but your technique atleast, IMO, increases the odds in your favor.

LMAO...I had no idea...I can understand your frustrations now...LOL