Jig Man

Yesterday it was 75° here in SWMO. Today it started out at 62° with light wind. My wife said that she wanted to go to the lake. So I hooked up and we went down to Stockton. We waited for the fog to lift and the roads to dry some. We didn’t get there until 10. I started at a usual good spot and gave it an hour. It was empty. I changed sides of the lake and went back into a cove. I had a keeper smallie on the first cast. No more bites there. I moved from rocky area to rocky area. Some would have a fish or two and most had nothing. I tried several different things but the only bites came on the Ned 1/16 oz head with a green pumpkin TRD. I only caught 7 fish with 4 of them being keepers. I lost 4 fish two of which I saw and were keepers. It got up to 73° down there today. The wind finally was light. I don’t remember weather this warm in late December. The water had warmed up since last week. It was 49-53°. Last week it was in the mid 40s. It’s all going to change though as we are looking at teens by early next week.

I know what you mean. I have 4 tackle bags in my garage rod closet. I go through them every so often and move a few to the boat.

You might want to consider including some flutter spoons in your arsenal. I carry silver, white, and chartreuse some with dresses trebles and some plain. I always carry jigging spoons but rarely use them in less than 30’. For the shallower stuff I opt for the Keitech swimbaits.

I suggest that the first few times out go on a waxing gibbous moon. Get on the water a couple of hours before dark and get comfortable. As the sun goes down you will have moonlight so it wont ever be black dark. If you have a sonar with gps, set a new track at the launch incase you get turned around so you can use it to help you get back. Use only a red light to see. Don’t throw baits with treble hooks. Night fishing used to be all that I did from April to October. Good luck.

Large Gene Larew salt craws

My stealth ends where the water meets the ramp. Where I fish there is boat noise all day long so they are used to it. I don’t try to sneak up on them.

I only own Shimano reels. Durability is a big reason. I have Curado E7s that are around 20 years old and still look and work like they did when new. Only one of them has had to have parts and that was because I dropped it on the garage floor. I also have Stradic and Symmetry reels from the same time period.

When you buy a new reel what is your process for making your choice of what to buy?

I figured it would wind up being all over the place. I was just curious. I only know one yak owner and he is more into floating with his kids instead of fishing.

This has been an interesting journey. Thanks a lot for all of your posts and thoughts they’ve been very informative.

The acetone made them super clean but still slick. I sanded then wiped off the dust and they were still slick. So I am cutting off the old tubing and putting on new. I guess 15 years isn’t too bad for shrink tubing to last before getting slick.

I have tried an assortment of ways; original pkg., tackle bags, totes, and plastic boxes. I have settled on the 3600 size boxes. I sort them by type; TRDs, Zinkers, tubes, craws, brush hogs, swim baits, etc. Some take more than one box.

Okay do you have any thoughts about making mine less slick?

You better be careful. I decided to get one for right shoulder relief from spinning setups. It was great. I now own 4.

Thats what I use on my rod handles. I noticed yesterday that a couple of them are getting slick from use. I can always replace them but I would like to make them a little tacky if possible. I figured acetone would dissolve part of the surface and do the trick. But all it did was super clean them. I’ve been thinking about a light sanding but it is cold and the sandpaper is out in the barn. Anyone have any suggestions?

I used to make my own screw locks and in order to get Elaztech to work I had to burn a hole in the end of the worm. It was a pain so I quit making screw locks.

Just don’t try it with Elaztech.

I haven’t been able to get to the lake in the last 4 weeks. Today was the first time that wind and temp were decent. It was 35° when I launched. There were only 3 rigs in the lot. The water had dropped to 46° and my mind said they may be deep so I started fishing a bluff end channel swing. I spent about an hour with the boat on 30’+ and got no bites so I started moving in. I went to several good smallmouth rocky areas and picked up one on a worm in about 12 fow. Working around the area I found some shallower bites. I spent the rest of the day fishing windy, rocky “smallmouth” water. I wound up boating 11 bass with 9 of them being largemouth. 5 of the largemouth were nice keepers and one of my 2 smallmouth kept. I had 2 surprises today…. The fish were still shallow and decent largemouth were in the smallmouth areas.

Today bfs was pretty good to me. I used it with TRDs and ZinkerZs. I boated 11 bass with 6 nice keepers using my Curado bfs reels with 8# fluorocarbon line.

I see a lot of posts about them. I see several of them on the water. Some are in places that I consider to be dangerous because of motor powered boats in the area especially the green and brown ones. I've never been in one and am too old to even try. I am just wondering why you kayakers use them instead of a bigger more seeable boat.

My experience has been better than expected. I was using Curado 70s on my two Ned bc rods. I bought 2 Curado CUBFSXGR reels they cast 1/16 Neds way better than the 70s. I like them so well that I bought 2 more which will see their first action on Wednesday.

I understand what you are doing but we have no aquatic vegetation except in one small cove for a while in the summer. We are rocks with some timber.

How do you rig them and how do you fish them? I have a mold and have made lots of colors and tried various ways to fish them. Only 2 ways have been productive, nose hooking and using as a twitching top water after the spawn and the most productive is on an A rig. White is the only color that has been any good.

My 3 main baits are Shaky, Ned, and jig. I have at least 2 of each tied on all the time.

I don’t know how you do it but my rod guy always wants the exact weight of the reel before he starts the build.