Jig Rookie

Tell me about it, so much of the shoreline cover my way is outta the water, we need a wet May badly. I can't catch on anything right now besides a Dinger, still can't get bit on moving baits.

100%. You don't need expensive jigs from sponsors to get the job done, I've been catching on $1.56 Wally's Arkie (brand name) jigs for years. Not one has broken or fallen apart or whatever Wally's jigs supposedly do ha. Good luck.

Geez Louise, Gim, you stickin nothing but trophies out there!! I always hear the bass are smaller way up north, sure can't tell from those pics.

Absolute gold.

Pretty sure it's not the glare; polarized sunglasses don't read some digital screens well--in fact, one way to test if glasses are polarized is to look at your cellphone screen while wearing them: turn phone sideways (landscape), and it "blacks out" or becomes very dark, almost impossible to see. Maybe change the settings, or if there is a way to rotate your screen.

Nice, I actually just found out a place I fish has warmouth, fat ones too, I haven't fished em since I was a kid. Hopefully I'll get some pics of those soon too.

Yesterday was perfect weather up here: mid-70s, southern gusts up to 20, storm front moving in. There's a tiny, maybe half-acre pond in front of my church and my pastor told me there were fish in there so I decided to give it a go. Turned out to be a gem--six fish in about 40 minutes, these were the biggest few. Sometimes these side-of-the-road spots can really produce.

Watched this one eat a weightless t-rigged D-Bomb under a laydown. Think I'm gonna give it a go overnight tonight, temps in the 60s and winds up to 20. Hopefully they're moving up!

FYI OP, the chunk doesn't have to compact the presentation; if you tip it instead of threading it you'll actually get a longer, larger presentation.

No idea, figure of speech. Translation: he's won enough money fishing to spend $200 on a bait. Proof? He spent $200 on a bait.

I can dig it. I guess when you win $100k and a new boat one week you can go out and buy a $200 bait the next week, no sweat. Life is life, let that man do his thing.

They're finally (for me) starting to come up in my waters in Northern Illinois, getting em to eat the jig and a t-rigged D-Bomb.

Does look like a Tater Hog (company name), either the Hog Father (8", 4.5oz) or the Hog Father Jr (6", about 2oz). They're pricey, $225-ish.

I fish big baits, pretty familiar with most of the glides out there but I've never heard that name. Any way you could post a pic? If it's somewhat common I could probably ID it just by looking at a picture. Was it big, or just 7" or so?

I think I did the "forget to open the bail" thing three or four times before I realized, DUH, just open, remove, replace and close! Funny how when we've got a mind full of the "important" stuff, the simple fixes totally escape us.

Right on, thanks man!

Yeah those Real Preys look so good and everyone I know who's fished them says they slay. Fish will come up out of weed beds even in this ice-out cold water, or are you talking later in the season?

With big softbaits (8" Pulse Tail or 10" Magdraft) do you ever find fish higher in the column? Or are they pretty much always hugging the bottom?

^^^ Nailed it. /thread

20 gauge copper, black-coated.

First time? Whole new world's about to open up to you...

Yeah that Siebert Arkie pack (5 for $17.30) is probably gonna be your best deal out the gate. FYI, I noticed you asked what JIG (singular) should you buy. Word to the wise: if you go out with just one jig and fish it the way you should, you're setting yourself up for a short trip. Take at least a handful of them because you will get hung. Good luck, they're fun; jigs are just about the only traditional bait I fish anymore, can't put em down.

Not at all, it is definitely a confusing listing. I guess you'd call it a "kit": probably comes with one body, two tails (plopper and straight), and a lip. But yeah, the first image doesn't show a lip slot like on the DRT baits, so the only thing I can figure is the lip piece is actually an interchangeable nose piece (notice in the pic the actual nose is different on the two images), one nose is plain the other is lipped. If so, that doesn't give me much confidence about fighting a fish with an interchangeable line-tie piece. Could just be a prototype--give em a few seasons, they might eventually get it right.

It looks like it's interchangeable--you can fish it with the plopper tail and no bill for a buzzbait style, or you switch the tail and add the bill and it's a wake-and-crank (reel faster and lower your rod tip to crank it down, otherwise it wakes the surface). Newer in the swimbait game are these multi-purpose, variable baits where you can adjust/switch out lips and tails to get different actions or fish a different part of the column with the same bait. DRT (Division Rebels Tackle) Japan was the first I saw with this trend.

Yup--ponds in the Algonquin/Lake in the Hills area doing the same. I'm gonna check out Three Oaks in Crystal Lake here in the next couple days. Season may be coming to a close, boys...