Tnbigdaddy1

I fish a shaky head quite a bit and use a 1/4 oz from the bank down to 24 feet if fishing down a slope, deeper than that or deep ledge/hump fishing I will move to a 3/8 oz. I throw the 1/4 oz on 10 pound BPS floro line on a baitcaster, ususally with a trick worm, and do pretty well with this set up. I really like the plain ball head jigs with the flat eyes better than the football or flat bottom heads. Paint color is about making the fisherman feel better, I have caught just as many fish on unpainted heads as I have with painted heads it makes no difference to the fish. Strike King offers 3 painted or 4 unpainted heads for the same price............. As several posters said its not about the slow fall but about holding it in place and being able to feel the bottom. Drag it until you feel rocks and then give it a little shake. Dragging like a Carolina rig with a added shake during the pause has worked better than shaking in place for me this year.

Thanks for the replies! I tried lowering the heat at different temps down to 250 thinking that maybe the jigs were too hot for paint, but I will try heating them to 400. All the jigs appeared to be smooth - until the wire wheel was used. The wire wheel took off the outer layer which did conceal little pin hole imperfections, but typically the tiny holes took paint. The imperfections I was getting were larger pot holes or clusters of them. Almost as if there was oil, grease, or some additional metal in the lead that wouldn’t take the paint. The wire wheel did significantly decrease the occurrence of imperfections, I was hoping to not have to take that extra step but since Cadman and I are on the same page about doing it right or not doing it at all I will keep polishing them before painting. Hopefully that combined with the extra heat before painting will take care of it. Thanks again for the quick and very helpful responses!

I am just getting started tying jigs, and for the time being are buying unpainted jig heads and powder coating them myself. I occasionally I will get spots/pot holes/unpainted areas that will not take the powder paint even after several reheat and dip attempts. I am using a fluid bed, heat the jigs to 350 in a toaster oven before dipping, and have tried several different brands and colors of paint. Wire brushing them with a dremmel seems to help a lot but sometimes I will still have areas that won’t take paint. The areas paint won’t take are usually on the bottom corners of football jigs, the underside of swim jigs, and around the hook eye on all of them. Again it’s not on every jig, but it happens often enough to notice. I have talked with others that have had the same issue with different jig head brands. So it seems there is no specific “cause” that can be attributed to the paint or jig manufacturer. Any idea what causes this? Different or too much trace metals in the lead? Left over release agent from the mold? I realize that a few spots or unpainted areas on a jig head won’t make a difference in catching fish, but if I spend the time and effort to paint and tie the jig I sure would like it to look nice and somewhat professional, at least until the first cast…...

This morning 7 teams turned out to battle the snow flurries, cold, wind, and bass on the Kids First season opener. The morning meeting at the ramp was a chilly 34 degrees with snow flurries and 9 mph NNW wind, but a little hot chocolate helped warm the competitors up before the take-off. The temperature warmed near 40 as the day progressed and snow flurries were constant, but the winds picked up... speed topping out around 17 mph. Needless to say that created some challenging boating and fishing conditions. Some teams chose to stay close to the ramp and others braved the journey up river, but all returned safely. If the weather wasn’t a big enough challenge the fishing proved to be difficult as well. Lots of short fish were willing to bite, but 15” fish were far and few between. No team was able to fill a full 5 fish limit. The team of Holloway/Bishop brought 3 fish to the scales with a total weight of #10.20, and took first place honors. Their bag was anchored by a 4.87 largemouth that also earned the tournament big fish. Second place was taken by the team of Crotts/Crotts with a 3 fish bag weighing 7.52. Third place went to Bookout/Bookout with a 2 fish bag weighing 3.99. Grab bags for this event were provided by Hog Rustler. Door prize drawing winners were: T. Franks winning a rod provided by Hammer Rods, T. Crotts winning a Bill Dance DVD, and I. Bookout winning a Bill Dance autographed hat. Thank you to all the Kids First sponsors that help make these events possible and to all the teams that braved the harsh conditions today. Our next tournament is only a three weeks away on 3/23/13. The weather and the bite should be much better, look forward to seeing you at the ramp! Pictures and full results are on www.kidsfirstfishing.com.

Kids First is kicking off the 2013 season THIS Saturday 3/2/13 at Pickwick Landing State Park. Kids First is an adult/jr bass tournament series. The adults and kids fish as a team and weigh their best 5 fish. Kids First is now FLW/TBF affiliated, this will allow our members to fish in the State TBF youth tournament. The 2013 Tournament Rules and Entry form are now posted on the website www.kidsfirstfishing.com Look forward to seeing you Saturday……..dress the kids warm……………….. Heath Bookout

Kids First is an adult/jr tournament series focusing on the kids and held on Pickwick Lake. The entry fee is $25 per boat and includes the big fish pot, there are no “join up" or membership fees, and tournaments are open to any adult/jr team. We are a not for profit group and have a 100% payback at the ramp. We just finished our 2012 season and are planning exciting things for the 2013 season. Our 2013 schedule will be up soon. Please visit our website www.kidsfirstfishing.com to find out more information about us.

Kids First is an adult/jr tournament series focusing on the kids and held on Pickwick Lake. The entry fee is $25 per boat and includes the big fish pot, there are no “join up" or membership fees, and tournaments are open to any adult/jr team. We are a not for profit group and have a 100% payback at the ramp. We just finished our 2012 season and are planning exciting things for the 2013 season. Our 2013 schedule will be up soon. Please visit our website www.kidsfirstfishing.com to find out more information about us.

Thanks for the heads up! Will be there fishing a tourney with my daughter this Saturday.

29.25 won the Team Trails tourney. 20 lbs just broke the top ten.

Pickwick was tough today. Water temps 45-50, birds everywhere, no dead shad visable, lake is still way down, WIND was aweful in the afternoon.

I am going Sunday.

If you are talking about Herb Parsons. It gets HEAVY pressure. Try lighter line and finesse baits.