Jig Rookie

@Junk Fisherman Were you fishing the shore from a boat or shorebanging? Is Braidwood a power plant lake, never freezes? Sounds like you had an awesome day, good stuff.

@slonezpHahaha, it was off and on. I'm in McHenry Co, it snowed all night through about 1p. I finally got bit right at the tail end. Spring is here, they're eating!

Ice just came off the ponds yesterday--I got out during a snowstorm this morning with a Hudd 68 and a Ned Rig. Ned for the win. @Jp_midwest

Anyone ever throw that YoZuri Knucklebait? I think it was summer of '19 I came across a guy at a lake who had one in a package and showed me. I never really heard much about them, I assume they never took off. I always wondered was it a useless gimmick or was there something to it.

@Jp_midwest What's up man! The Lee's over by Busse Lake is having an expo? When is that happening, I'll have to Google.

It's definitely a thing in the big swimbait world, except usually it's done with PE assist cord (closer to twine than braid).

Trying to do more cold-water fishing this winter; decided to get into hair jigs as I've heard they're a good deal for winter fishing. First time throwing one and got a small pike to eat, gives me confidence in the bait and cold-water fishing. Hopefully more to come.

Fall bite's still on, but for the first time the water was COLD at one of the retention ponds. Hopefully we've got a couple more good weeks left.

Went back to the same lake yesterday; fall bite is ON. Caught a couple pike and these two bass on the TK again and saw a few other bass cruising. This weather's got em riled up and eating, get out there while they've still got the feed bag on!

Hit up a lake in the burbs about 2p, "crappy" weather of about 50 degrees with 15mph winds and off-and-on rain. In other words, perfect fall fishing weather. I fished for about an hour and got one to eat the Tiny Klash.

My buddy gifted me a rashed up DRT Tiny Klash as he had a few newer ones; I rattlecanned it to a color I call "Pink Lemonade", a chartreuse upper body with a soft pinkish back. I took it out to a local pond for twenty minutes before work just to swim test it and check out the color in the water and I got bit! 3:45 in the afternoon, bright, bluebird skies but there was a good chop on the water from a 15mph breeze so that helped.

Stopped by one of the local ponds on my way home from work Saturday night; got in the water at about midnight, it was overcast, steady winds of 10mph with gusts up to 30 and in between rain Saturday/Sunday. Got on a pretty good topwater/subsurface bite on the Boogie Back--they were eating it on the wake and on the crankdown too, about a foot below the surface. Sadly, the last fish somehow choked it head first, had the head and bill all the way down its gullet, both trebles stuck. I had to use the forceps and he probably didn't make it.

Oh wow, geez I can't even imagine how good it was back then. So many pressured spots I fish nowadays, I always wonder how they were decades of pressure ago.

Yeah that was my spot, moved away from there last year so I haven't fished it much this season. I, too, caught my first two five-pounders there and my PB. It's not as good as it was even a few years ago when I started fishing it though, Covid pressure really did a number on that place.

@Catt I can hear the exasperation in your post, "...for the third time, just get the Academy one and stop making it hard on yourself!"?

That's exactly what I'm fishing, and some not even in neighborhoods. This one's in a rural-ish, warehouse kinda district. A tiny pond off the side of a warehouse, you can barely see it from the main road.

I love it, but it's big so it's situational. These were my first fish on it and I got them at first light, wind gusts up to 40mph, pressure falling rapidly, the moon had set a couple hours before and there was 94% cloud cover. In other words, PERFECT conditions. I got into big baits a few years ago and pretty much try to throw the biggest sizes of baits I can find. So I usually fish the absolute best conditions (in my opinion) I can to increase my chances of getting bit.

The last month has been tough up north; no rain to speak of, bluebird skies most days, not much wind, so my spots around here are pretty low and stagnant. Still been able to find a topwater bite here and there, mostly during the sunset hour or the pre-dawn hour. The Boogie Back and KVD Mega Dawg got me a few bites this last trip.

The hook hanger, where the split ring goes, is on a swivel. So imagine: if you hold the bait by the treble hook, you can spin the bait and it will just keep spinning in that same direction. As opposed to a standard hook hanger, where if you spin the bait it'll only go maybe a half-turn before it locks up (can't rotate any more). Make sense? The purpose is so that when you're fighting a big fish the bait won't twist around, get locked up, and give the fish leverage to bend out hooks/splits or pop the hook out. In baits without rotating hook hangers, some people use double-split rings to increase the amount of rotation/twist the bait will have before it locks up. If it's hard to visualize, just grab your nearest bait that has splits and trebles, hold it by the treble, then start rotating the bait and see how far it goes before you can't rotate it anymore.

It's mainly slop with a few open spots--most of the open water is on the other side of the slop, mostly out of casting distance. This pic is from standing at the only spot you can fish, the tulies are too high everywhere else by this point in the season.

Finally got some cloud cover and wind today to break up this 95%+ humidity we've had for what seems like the last two weeks. Had a steady, light drizzle around sunset so I got out to the industrial pond and sent the frog for a while. I went with a smaller frog, thinking maybe a finnessier approach might be better. It worked out--caught six in the hour before sunset and they were CHOKING it. These are the biggest two; 17.5"/2.48lb and a 20"/3.54lb. Was good to finally get out, I haven't been able to drag myself out in this heat and humidity and low water lately.

Agreed, this is awesome. Gambler FinesseZ? I wonder if you could use the head half for some kinda fat Ned rig application...

Those are beautifully done man, excellent work. I started tying my own jigs this past winter--up here in the forest preserve lakes of northern IL, our forage is bluegill, green sunfish and a small population of shad in a few spots. I made my swimjigs to represent those baitfish species and almost exclusively use the craw colors for football and Arkie jigs, things I'll be bottom fishing. Do you notice a difference in bites (either quality or quantity) between using craw-type presentations on a swimmer as opposed to baitfish-type presentations?

Nice job man, so satisfying catching em on your own hard work garage-builds. I got out to this tiny industrial pond at sunset the other day about a half-hour before those storms rolled in and caught a monster on the big Spro Rat. She went 20" and 4.47lbs, had the biggest gut I've seen up close on a fish. This bait has been getting CHEWED all summer, my new favorite topwater ever.

Got out this morning in between the storms we're having up north; went to my little pond, haven't thrown the rat at this spot because I figured it's too big and obnoxious for this tiny body of water. Decided to send it anyway because the conditions are so perfect for everything imo. Fished the whole pond and finally got this one to eat on my last cast in the SE corner (the non-windblown side). Went 18.25" and 2.7lbs.