smalljaw67

X2!!! I've been making spinnerbaits and jigs for over 15 years and I make those as they are what I like to fish most often. Loodkop is spot on when he says about picking one thing and go with it before moving on because the start up cost for making jigs alone isn' exactly cheap. There is also a lerning curve, some think to make jigs you simply melt lead and pour it into a mold and while that is the main concept it isn't always that easy as there are different hardness levels in lead depending on the source and while pure soft lead will pour very easy, it will also make for a jig that will dent just as easy so some harder lead from say wheel weights needs to mixed in and then you need higher temps to pour but that is for another topic. Anyway, go to Tackleunderground, you'll get all the answers you need there.

In clear water I like baitfish hues like pearl, olive greens and colors like that but if smallies are present or the other offerings don't work a chartreuse and black may pay dividends. Another thing is speed, when I'm fishing a reation bait in clear water I usually burn it but if there is zero breeze and the water temp is in the 80's then green pumpkin, black, pearl, natural pumpkin, and most translucent color soft plastics will produce.

If you can see the fish then chances are he can see you and there isn't a bait that will draw a strike when that happens. Overall, pressured fish respond to smaller baits most of the time, try finesse jigs in 1/8oz and 3/16oz, 5" straight tail worms and 3" stick worms like a senko.

Rapala DT Fat 3 in blue shad, and the then it would be the Rapala DT Flat 3, that is the finesse square bill that works great on finicky fish.

I think you can get the old version Kintic for 80 bucks from Cabelas, that is a fantastic reel but these lowere tier, made for Dicks Sporting goods Quantums are pretty much junk. There are plenty of value priced reels that are good, like I said, the Kinetic can be had cheap and it originally was 120, it compares to another that you can find cheap, the Shimano Ctica E series and the BPS pro Qualifier.

I use shorter rods than most, my flipping stick is 7' and I use a 6'6" to pitch jigs, some say it is a disadvantage but I'm pretty good pitching jigs to cover with my current rod and that is whay I'd go with the Avid, 7' is enough to pitch with distance and retain accuracy, I've tried using my flipping stick to pitch with but I can't get with 3' of the target I'm pitching too and I like to be within inches and I use a shorter rod for that. I think that is how you have to look at it, the added length you may like and it may help you but is it going to do any good if you can't hit your target with it?

When I choose a trailer for a jig there are several factors that determine what kind of trailer and what size. For inactive fish or lethargic fish in cold water I'm going to use a trailer that doesn't have a lot of action, I usually use Yum super chunks on 3/8oz and bigger jigs and a super chunk jr. on the 1/4oz jigs. Most of the time fish will hit a jig during the fall and sometimes they will only hot it if it is falling slow and when that happens I'll use the same 1/4oz jig but I'll use the regular super chunk instead of the jr, as the bulkier plastic will slow the fall of the bait down. The same deal happens in reverse, if the fish get a good look they may not hit but if it comes close rushing past them real fast the will hit it as a reaction and that is when you use the 3/8oz or 1/2oz jig but use the jr. size chunk, the smaller chunk will have less drag and the jig will fall faster as a result. To summerize, when the fish are lethargic or in a negative mood I'll use smaller jigs and chunk type trailer without much action, if the fish are biting I'll use the bigger jigs with a more action type trailer like a Rage Craw. And between those 2 variables you can tweak your presentation by using larger or smaller trailers based on season or what the fish are doing but I usually start out with a jig and trailer of matching size and see how it goes before making changes.

I have success with swimbaits from 3.5" to 5" and I have a few different versions I'll share with you. Here is what works for me, first is the rigged plastic swimbait, the one that works for me is the Storm Swim Shad, it is 4" and weighs 1/2oz, the reason it works is you can reel it slow and the tail will still kick and the only way I've caught fish with it is by reeling it super slow. For the unrigged solid plastic swimbait it is the 3.75" Lunker City Swim Fish, there are various ways to rig it but so far the most productive for me has been a 1/4oz round head jig and again, the bait is worked slow. For Hollow body baits the 3.5" and the 4.5" Luck-E-Strike Bass Magic swim baits have been the ticket, I use a weighted hook for fishing in 5' of water or less and I use a jighead in water deeper than 5'. The hard swimbaits haven't got too many fish for me but they seem to attract bigger fish, so far the Storm Kickin Stick and Sebile Magic swimmer have been the best, the Storm is a 5" bait and the magic swimmer is the 4" model.

Right now it is my 3/16oz finesse jig and River Rock Baits Jakes Craw. The jig is a round head with a flat eye hook, it looks like the Jewel Eakins jig, that head in green pumpkin with a green pumpkin skirt with a green pumpkin craw with orange claws, most of the fish so far this season have been caught on it and they have been absolutely eating it!

I was having a tough time getting bit on hollow body swimbaits until I found the right one that worked for me and that was the Bass Magic 3.5" and 4.5". I use a weighted hook usually 1/8oz 4/0 hook for the 4.5" for fishing shallow, anything deeper than 5 feet I use a jig head to fish it. I make my own 3/8oz jig head with a 60 degree flipping hook for the hollow body swimbait and I found this deeper presentation works pretty good, it is probably the fact that fish aren't seeing many baits like that in deeper water so give it a try.

Being new to jig fishing I'd say start small, learn finesse jigs first, they will help you learn how to fish a jig and what bites feel like and the reason is the smaller size makes them appeal to fish of all sizes so you will get more bites. The other think with finesse jigs is the rod you have will work great as you want to fish finesse jigs on the outter edges of cover and in sparse grass and light cover unlike larger jigs. My idea of a finesse jig is any jig 1/4oz or less, I make my own finesse jigs in 1/8oz, 3/16oz, and 1/4oz, and they normally have thinner skirts and a "crop top" which is just short skirt strands that stick above the head. Once you get bites and catch fish on the finesse jig 2 things will happen, first you will begin to understand how to fish them and the second thing is you'll gain confidence in it which will make you a better jig fisherman overall, so get some smaller finesse jigs and fish them around docks or on the outside edge of weedbeds, you'll be surprised at how well they work.

I love spinnerbaits so much that I started making my own over 15 years ago!! I have baits designed for specific types of water like rivers and streams and others for lakes and ponds. I don't just cast a spinnerbait to open water, I throw them at targets so my weapon of choice to throw them is a 6'6" medium heavy, fast action rod that lets me rip it through grass and over wood, a crankbait style rod is good for more open water. Since I'm in or close to cover so much I don't use a trailer hook and I very seldom use a trailer, I believe trailers contribute to short strikes and that is my reasoning for not using them much.

Clearing the bed of debris, for some reason they will do this and pick up rocks and weights but they will often let a plastic bait like a tube sit. Very resourceful but it won't happen for me as I no longer fish beds anymore but that is just me.

I choose what to use based on season and water temp first, those two things determine what kind of lure whether it is a fast moving reaction bait or a slow moving finesse bait. Then when you know what you are going to use, that is when forage and water color along with the basic weather which is either sunny or cloudy or raining. So for example I'm fishing a lake in the Northeast and it is July and the water temps are 84 degrees and it is sunny with no wind and the water is stained, about 2' to 3' visibility. Based on that I can use fast or slow lures but experience tells me to fish deeper water with a shaky head or maybe before the finesse kicks in I'll fish points using a football jig and drag it along the bottom from 10' to 20' deep. The important thing is to keep options open, I may try a couple points and secondary points with the football jig before moving onto a diggerent presentation but the trick is knowing when to stop using one in favor of the other.

Most reels in that price range are pretty good from all the companies so the brand choice is up to you. For hard and soft jerkbaits look for a 6.2:1 or somewhere in that range and don't overlook the 7.1:1, When it is cold and you have to let a hard plastic jerkbait sit motionless on slack line to get a bite, that is when you really appreciate the fast reel. In the warmer months when the fish usually hit and run with the bait you can get by with slower but I wouldn't go under the 6.2:1.

I would say 3/0 would be the most universal size. This is what I use for most of my plastics in the 4" to 6" range but I have used 7" worms with a 3/0 hook and it worked ok.

I would say that same as RW, spend the entire lot on a reel and get a better rod when you have enough and a spin cast reel uses the same type of rod a baitcaster does so there isn't a problem like there is with spinning. I really think you should wait until you have about $250 put away, you will get a solid rod and reel with that amount and it will shorten the learning curve. Trying to learn with a cheap reel is difficult, the reason is the bearing quality and free spool ability of the reel. Being that you are just learning you'll need to use a lot of breaks but you will get no distance, and this is were a good reel makes a difference. You'll be able to use more break and get better distance without much effort, when you really put your arm into a cast is were backlashes usually come from and with a better reel you can use just your wrist and forearm to make a nice cast and being able to do it with little effort will allow you to back off the brakes much sooner than you would with a reel that uses inferior components.

I think you'll be happy but you need to remember these are going to be heavier and have less feel due to the fact most of the rod is fiberglass so you are trading lightweight and sensitivity for durability.

I put a coat of Devcon 2 Ton 30 minute epoxy on the entire head so what I do is mix a small batch of epoxy and then glue all my weedguards in and then mix another batch and coat the head. If you don't want to do the whole head then use loc-tite super glue gel, it is a gel so it doesn't wick up the fibers and it is water proof. http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/4/3/sg_ug_cntrl/overview/Loctite-Super-Glue-ULTRA-Gel-Control.htm

It is easy to go back to what you were doing to catch fish but I am with RW, one thing we all need to catch fish is confidence in our lures and the way you get confidence is by catching fish with them. Try a new lure when the bite is tough and you may not get bit and chances are you'll be less likely to use that bait or color again but trying new things when the fish are hitting is a good way to gain confidence and a good way to learn the bait and technique. I actually discovered a few different "big fish" baits doing this, I was on a good jerkbait bite and decided I wanted to try a new one I had, well I can tell you I didn't get as many hits but all the fish were big so it was a great experience as that big fish bait helped me win a few small tournaments as it provided me some nice fish to add to the livewell.

You basically use the same color patterns I like to use only in reverse. In the spring the craws here have a lot of blue in them especially around the claws but in the summer they get more of a dark olive pretty much green pumpkin but the claws get orange.

I use 12# mono for square bills and the DT fat 3 is my favorite for the simple reason it does stay at around 3', the KVD 1.5 I can get close to 6' deep. That said, you may want to send the bait in to Rapala as something is really off, or get an Excalibur XCS 200 series, all of them run 3' and with 14# line the 200 series actually goes to about 2.5' on a hard retrieve.

When I first started making tackle over 15 years ago the rubber skirt collars didn't last, it was common to buy a jig or spinnerbait off the shelf somewhere that was maybe 1 year or 2 old and open the pack and the skirt would just fall off. I had it happen so I started out tying with thread which was good as I learned to make hair jigs but then I had friends requesting stuff and it became very time consuming and that is when I discovered wire, I didn't have internet until 2001 so everything I learned was from other guys I met at shows and through books. The wire was great with silicone and rubber, not hair but just the fact that all my silicone skirts could be wire tied was great. Well it was getting tough working and making lures so to save some time I began making skirts up ahead of time using the collars and then putting them on the jigs and *** with wire and cut the collar off but for my own stuff I figured I'll just use the collar and that is when I found that the collar I got weren't the same as the really bad one from years past, I did some research and I was right, it seems the industry was using better material with a thicker wall and it showed, I have jigs inmy box that I have used and put back that are 3 and 4 years old and the skirts are fine. I will say the natural skirt collars still seem to be bad but the rest are ok.

I have the plier type of tool and it was inexpensive and I'ver been using it for years without a problem. I've made so many skirts with that pliers that I can really do a lot fast, in fact putting the tabs together to make the skirt takes longer than making it. As my friend cadman has told you, you can tie the skirt to the jig with wire or thread unless you use bucktail or some other form of hait and then you need thread or you can use the skirt collar. I just finished baits for 2 different people, for one angler I wire tied the skirts to the spinnerbaits he wanted and the other guy wanted the skirt collar, and my personal preferance is the skirt collar, on jigs I'm going to lose them well before the skirt collar goes bad and spinnerbaits, well when I go out in the jon boat I don't have room for all my tackle so I take a small bag with a few boxes but my spinnerbait collection is only 4 baits with about a dozen different skirts, if I want to change patterns I simply slip off the skirt and replace it but that is just me.

Great pattern, maybe make the pick a little bigger, it is too nice to hide the detail with a small pic.