Jig Man

Run your accessories off the engine battery not the trolling motor batteries. Hook them up so that the main power switch (NOT the ignition switch) can turn them off.

Most jigs with rubber or silicone skirts will resemble a craw depending on how you fish it. Allowed to drop near or on the bottom and moved along it either being dragged or hopped imitates the craw. Many different styles of jigs are in this category. I make banana head, arke, and football jigs for this application. However, there are lots of jigs which don't and have never been intended to immitate a craw. For example, bucktail swim jigs and float n fly jigs don't have anything to do with crawfish since they are in the upper part of the water column. Here are some examples: Craw jigs Bucktail swim jigs Float n Fly

I have had a bunch of depth finders and have been able to see the thermocline on all of them. The thermocline will not always be there. Right now I am fishing a windy lake and have been for the last week. I haven't seen any thermocline on it. If you really want to locate it, be sure you know what it looks like and spend a little time slow moving from shallow to deep. You should be able to see it with the unit in auto unless you have a poor transducer installation. If you don't know what it looks like check your manual or got to the Lowrance tutorial. Good luck with your search.

I have a Browning insulated gortex jacket and bibs which is great for the really cold stuff.

A friend and I did a tube experiment last week. We only fished tubes and rigged them the following ways: Insert w/o weedguard Insert w/ weedguard Tex-skin with bullet sinker regular tube Tex-skin with bullet sinker plastic craw tail glued in head Tex-skin with bullet sinker w/plastisol injected into the head Tex-skin with bell sinker inside the tube In our six hours of fishing mostly rip rap and rock piles we found that by far the hangup and loose was the insert w/o weedguard. Next was the insert w/ weedguard. The different bullet sinker rigs were all about the same. The bell sinker was the one that would hunt in the junk and come back to the boat. The downside of it was it was also the hardest for us to detect a strike. The reason for the different bullet sinker types was trying with and without bait clips. We found that we like the bait clips and of the three types we were using they all worked. ............... As for your Carolina thoughts, a friend of mine fishes tubes Carolina rigged except he puts a piece of styrofoam in them so that they will float off the bottom. I haven't tried it yet but he swears by it.

You bet. I spent much of last winter trying to make a little bait like one I had seen. It took many many hours and lots of grinding of teeth not to mention a few bucks but I finally came up with 20 injectible molds and a few homemade injectors to get the job done. Now I have a one of a kind bait which will catch all species of bass as well as crappie and walleye.

RayRe is dead on in his thinking. The initial cost will probably be close to a C note. That much will buy a good supply of jig trailers. However, it is like buying baits, rods, reels, etc. There is no place to stop. Then you get into making hard baits, etc, etc. ;D

"I currently have cable steer, but as soon as I take my foot of the pedal I'm doing circles." How does that happen? Are you running that thing in some kind of constant on? I only take my foot off the pedal to get another rod or change a bait. I do move it on and off the power switch but not off the foot control pedal. That way I am always in control of the boat with a 1-2" movement of my guiding foot.

I have a Motor Guide TE82. It has been on my boat for 5 years. I have over 300 hours on the Opti and figure I fish at least 3 trips for an hour on the engine. My trips are from 6-10 hours so if I averaged 7.5 hours per trip and made 900 trips that would be 6,750 hours on the trolling motor and I have only had to replace the little piece of metal that keeps the direction arrow pointing correctly. (And yes I have been around 900 times in the last 5 years. I fish at least 150 days per year.) My motor may die tomorrow but if it does, it doesn't owe me anything.

I carry so many jigs that I keep them in all kinds of containers. Some of them are just dumped into plastic boxes. I don't have rust problems. If you want to avoid rust: Never put a wet jig back (throw it on the deck until it is dry or throw it away), if it is rainy take several jigs out and put them on the deck instead of opening and closing a box, and never let any salt get into the container with the jigs.

I have an assortment of soft sided bags. Depending on what type of fishing we are doing I can sometimes get by with one or two of them. In the boat I set the boxes on edge in the center storage compartment. The labels save me some time picking out what I want to use.

My fishing has been good this fall. I have caught a lot of fish shallow on spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. They backed off them about a week ago and have been hitting jigs and tubes. I am finding the fish in rocks and ledges since we have been having passing cold fronts. For a while they seemed to be roaming and you could catch them anywhere on the cast but lately they are close to cover.

I haven't had it happen to the boat trailer but I have had a camper trailer bearing go out. It got hot and caught on fire. It was quite a mess. With a trailer that old you are on borrowed time anyway. If you don't feel confident, go have someone take them apart and see if they need to be replaced. If the bearings are alright have them repacked and put new seals in. It could save you a big headache down the road.

I don't know if there is a rule about this or not. Where I fish it is very clear most of the time and I can see the bottom in 10 fow. When I can only see 3 or so feet down I called it stained. Muddy to me would be not seeing a chartruse spinnerbait more than a few inches down.

3/4 oz jig with a big trailer

I don't have it on all of my spinning reels but I do have it on all of my baitcasters. When I am in clear water using a jig or t-rig I use a fluro leader. BTW: What pound test line have you been using and what knot are you tying?

I have had all manner of depthfinders on my boats over the years. Everytime I can afford it I do an upgrade. I have found that I get more use and pleasure out of them as I have increased the number of pixels. I just upgraded this summer to two color gps/depthfinder units (Lowrance 520c) and have them networked. I like them better than any other units I have ever owned. I can't see myself ever going back to black and white. I have one on the console with a transducer in the back next to the drain plug hole. The other one is in the bow with a transducer on the trolling motor and a transducer midboat slanted toward the bow and starboard console.

How bout some sand in a milk jug?

They are really good people to deal with so I'd just take the tmotor back and talk with them. It is very possible that they will exchange it. I have had nothing but good experiences with those people.

I prefer the 4" tube but will fish the smaller ones. I rig the weedless and open hooked with 1/8, 1/4, and 3/8 inserts. I also fish them trigged with the hook tex-skin. Right now I am experimenting with some piano wire to make some tube holders to keep them from bunching up on the hookset. I try to keep the colors simple: melon/pepper, pumpkin seed, black/red, smoke/red and white.

It all depends on how much you want to spend and what you call ultra light. You might look at a Gloomis GL2 or GL3 5'10" and a Shimano Symmetry in the 1500 size. I have a couple and they are pretty good. My wife prefers the 5'6" Bionic blade rod over the longer Gloomis. My most favorite is the 5' Fenwick HMG with a Symmetry.

I haven't since they started making reels that didn't click and clack as you reeled in line. I just keep a light set drag and help with a finger if necessary.

I have been keeping a log for years on Microsoft Data Base. I track many items and can use the filter option to get reports to see what data I want.

Another job well done by Raul.

I sometimes use a grub with the jig head only. Mostly I do it in the winter when vertical fishing. I use a round head with no weed guard since I am not really casting it. The rest of the time I have the skirt on the jig.