Jigfishn10

Presentation, concentration, location and patience

Leave the Senko home and just bring the lure you want to learn and bring different colors and weights. Fish it until the fish make you have confidence. One of these days the Senko won't produce. Atleast you have another "go to" lure to hit-em with. Then start the process again. I do like Crestliner's approach as well. That's a good strategy in my opinion.

VERY NICE JOB!

What do I need to look for in a jig?: Football head jigs really excel in rocky structure environments, Bullet head casting in grassy structure and arky style in heavy structure. These are not "set in stone" but a good base to start with. I personally don't mind using an arky head fan casting in grass or hopping one on rocks. What Colors when?: Black and blue is a good all around color to start with and in all conditions. My go to is watermellon candy/black. If the water is really clear I switch to smoke or bluegill colors and black with chartrueuce in murky water. What to do once it hits bottom? (I have seen in videos that 7/10 times the bites are on the fall): Loaded question. All I can say is experiment. Sometimes a lift drop retrieve and then fine tune the tempo. In colder water S L O W and I would drag instead of hopping. Sometimes you could swim it like a slow-rolled spinnerbait. What weight for what situations?: Just enough so that you can still feel bottom contact. If flipping and pitching, heavy enough to penetrate the cover. All above is based on my experience and is MHO. The articles on this site are exceptional and very useful. I actually found this site while doing a search on this very topic. I also found a good source of info on Denny Brauer's site: www.brauerbass.com. He has a lot of articles for all types of situations on this topic. Hope this helps.

This is right on. I just sweep the rod a little on the side I'm already retrieving it on. Of course, I'm using braid, too. ;D Totally agree. If it feels like the fish is coming up to jump, my rod tip which will be off to the side will now be down towards my feet and off to the side. I don't know if this happens to you or not, a lot of the times I would feel a fish hit my spinnerbait, but no hook-up. Kill the retrieve and 9 times out of 10 that fish is coming back for the "kill".

The wind is a necessary evil. It stirs up the water and aquatic life attracting baitfish and the bass are sure to follow. Fishing into the wind can be a pain in the butt especially when you get a cross wind putting a nasty bow in your line, but you can be sure that there will be a good quantity as well as quality bass in those conditions. I drift along and use a reflex type of lure (lipless cranks, spinnerbaits, etc..) MHO

Congrats on your PB...nice fish

I remeber working in Virginia during the summer back a few years ago and that would happen. It would be a touch and go situation. You certainly would like to fish, but you would never know what's coming with it. Here, just before the summer storm would hit and about an hour or two into it would be very productive and then it would shut down. I would fish a spinnerbait in those situations. It seems like the fish get so ampped up that they would hit an empty soda can if that's all you had. MHO

Nice catch BMontana (did you change your screen name?) CRfisher, sorry to hear about the flu man, I'd go crazy if I had the flu this time of year...or any time of year for that matter. I love striperfishing, I may have to visit that area. PB was a 49" on a charter and 32" off a beach in ME. The one in ME was on 12lb test, 6.5' freshwater crankin stick. A day later I had one close to spooling me and then broke my line around a mooring...LOL MAhooksetts,where in northern MA are you? Do you have smallies your way? I miss the smallie bite. I'll take a 3 lb smallie any day on the end of my line...Keep it up MAMann, I've never fished out your way, but have really enjoyed the time I did spend out there. Keep plugging away, they'll come. Have you seen any spawing beds yet? I see some out here and have witnessed a few males guarding the beds, but with the rapid changes in temps and the early ice out, I think the spawn will last a little longer than normal out here anyway...not all bad. Take care guys. Keep this thread going, it would be nice to hear what's producing and what isn't during the season.

WOW! I't's takened some time, but I'm slowly finding the MA guys... Nice to meet you all! sambf, I work in Waltham and fish a lot after work in Lexington. I do a lot of fishing on the weekends down @ Hougtons Pond in Milton/Canton, Buckmasters in Westwood and at times Ames Long Pond in Stoughton before it gets choked. I'm looking for more areas in the Waltham area. PM me sometime and we'll meet for a fish. Where abouts on the Charles do you fish? BTW, congrats on your 6 lber. My best this year is the pic under my forum sig.

1: Jigs - pitching, casting, swimming (caught all my largest bass on them) 2: Spinnerbait 3: Buzzbait (especially at night)

This latest round of cold weather have pushed the bass out towards the middle of the ponds I've been fishing in. Had a couple of little ones hit, but nothing to speak of. I've tried for a reflex strike on spinnerbaits and got some strikes but no takers. Ususally when they hit I can kill the retrieve and they would come back and take it, but that's not happening. The little ones that I did manage to get were on a very slow retrieved jig and even then all you would see is your line moving sideways or you would lose the feel your jig. Hope you guys are having better luck than I am.

Sorry about this. I must have suffered from vapor lock when I posted this. I do know the mold your are referring to. Again, my apologies.

I did some research on this late last night and you're right Cadman. Basically what I came up with was that the bismuth/tin alloy was about approx. $16/lbs and if you try and make 3/8 oz jigs (probably 1/4 oz actual), your yield will be about 42 jigs in an ideal world making your cost a little better than $2.60/jig. Now you have to add the cost for the hook, skirt, trailer, paint and Kryptonite for line so you won't break off...LOL I don't even know if this alloy will cast in the mold the same way. Your right about the ban of lead topic as a new thread. I can see sinkers being ban, but this is getting a little over the top. Thanks for your input.

Check out this post: "jig with eye as part of the jig head" in this forum. I'm not sure if this is what your referring to.

I have an Arky Jig mold and MA will be banning the use of lead after next season. Has anyone used a different metal for making Jig heads? I hate the thoughts of spending $4-5/jig for the new tungsten ones, especially the way I go through them. Sorry if this is a redundant question. I thought I saw a post which had this topic within its contents, but I'm having trouble finding it.

WOW! Nice job. I really like the top one. Keep up the good work.

Hey Kevin, welcome aboard. What lakes do you fish in NH?

WOW, beginning January 1, 2012 on Page 21...Totally missed that one...Thanks Tin Anyone need a Jig Mold after next season...

Hey MA guys, I'm hearing that MA is considering banning ALL lead fishing products for next season. Has anyone heard about this issue? I can see lead sinkers, but why spinnerbaits, jigs, buzzbaits, etc.

I've done it both ways, but prefer to install the brush guard after painting the jig. If installed while casting the lead then I would wrap the brush guard with painters tape prior to painting. MHO

It doesn't sound like you're very far from me. PM me if you want to fish some night.

The skirt really flares out like deer hair would in fly tying. I bet it looks real enticing in the water, how's your luck on them? Nice idea. I've been working on a hybrid jig. I leave the skirt long to give give a tube appearance and tie on chenille to the body over a piece of closed cell foam to get the body of a grub. Kind of a hula grub tube. When I tie the bottom of the shirt to the foam (just before the hook bend) it flares out as well. Not to the magnitude that you have there, yet it's been very effective so far. Keep up the good work. [edit] Opps, forgot to give my 2 cents. I tie my skirts with Size D rodbuilders thread, whip finish and coated twice with clear nail polish. I glue the weedgurad with guide foot adhesive (hot glue melt). I know the nail polish sounds weird, but spinnerbaits will last me a season with the same skirt.

NICE...glad you got on em again! Where do you fish? I did as well last night. I moved to different spots which turned out to be on the opposite end of the res where I never had gotten much in the past. I picked up 3 in the 1 lb range and then a 4 lber in about 3-4' of water hopping a jig. I found some beds (I've never seen beds in this area before) that bluegill were hanging around, but not sure if they were spawning and I think the bass were coming in for dinner. Oh yeah, I was hopping my jig and got a tap tap. Reeled down, set the hook. It was a weird fight, but when I finally got it in, it turned out to be a rainbow trout. The trout had a 3' leader in it's mouth and my jig hooked the swivel at the end of the leader. What are the odds of that happening? LOL, you can't make that up.

It doesn't look like it will work due to the angle of the eye of the hook. Click on the jig mold link and you'll see the recommended hooks have a 90 degree hook eye. Also, the hook eye you want is oriented differently and won't fit the mold. MHO of course