Fellas,

Looking for your input on when you use one over the other.  My thought is that a jig and craw, grub, etc. would have a similar profile and action in the water compared to a jig head and craw, grub, beaver, etc.  Am I off base here?   Are these interchangeable or do you have certain conditions that you will chose one over the other.

FD

I'm not speaking from personal experience, but my understanding is that in very cold water pork will usually outfish, especially big fish than plastic.  In warmer water it doesn't seem to matter as much.

I prefer to Texas Rig craws over a jig head & craw

IMO, I do not think that they are interchangeable.  They do have specific purpose of each.  When I need to go even smaller I will take off the jig and just fish the craw.  I've never used any of the others with sucess on the back of a jig.

As avid stated, natural pork rind has always been the coldwater favorite, due to its gentle unobtrusive motion.

In theory at least, the double-tail curly grub trailer is too busy for a bass with a coldwater metabolism,

and usually fares better in warm water. Needless to say, there are exceptions to every rule.

Roger

Does anyone fair well with any sort of creature bait on the end of a jig? Im sure it works but would like to hear personal experiences

IMO, I do not think that they are interchangeable. They do have specific purpose of each. When I need to go even smaller I will take off the jig and just fish the craw. I've never used any of the others with sucess on the back of a jig.

Gman, can you give me an example of when you need to go smaller? Or, on the flipside of that, when a larger presentation is better?

FD

Very finaky fish.  I've fished Lake of the Ozarks before and could not get bite on a eakins style jig with a critter craw.  The fish had lockjaw.  So I thought I needed to go even smaller.  (I'm a die hard craw style fisherman)  So I took a chompers jig head and just put on a critter craw, same one actually.  Fishing the same streach of bank I caught 3 fish nothing huge but 2-3lbers.  

In this instence that is the only thing I changed nothing else

I guess really looking back on the instence I switched over to a kind of shakey head rig.  Thats before I'd ever heard of such a deal.  

For me cold fronts or cold water I down size "typically"  

Warm water I typically fish bigger baits like 10" worm, dd22, bigger jig.  

Or the easy way to look at it  active fish (bigger lure) less active smaller.

This pattern has always been good to me but I do stray from it if its not working.  Bass are oppertunistic feeders and lazy for the most part.  Adaptation to the situation is one of the most important things a fisherman can do.  If its not working change, dont keep chunking the same lure in the same area.

Here is a dumb way I look at it.

If your not hungry and someone lays a big piece of pizza in front of you, you probably wont touch it.  But if there are peanuts out there you will eventually nibble on a few.

Alot of board members(not just this one) put a jig into the "magical lure" area.  Its not majical and doesnt always work like it sometimes comes out  as.  There are times that I dont give one much of a shot because certain techniques are better suited for a different situations.  I do believe it is one lure that should be learned by all fisherman because it does work very well in alot of conditions.

grub, beaver, etc

I only fish these on a jighead, or rigged up on a t/c/rig, shakey or weightless.  I just dont have the confidence in them on the back of a jig.  Never had great sucess on it.  I've put just about every plastic on the back of a jig but I always go back to the chunk or craw. It just works for me.

IMO skunks only come from one thing.  Lack of adaptation.

Hope that explained it.

GMAN, thanks for the info.   jigs and soft plastics are on my '07 list to improve on....info like this will give me a head start.

Does anyone fair well with any sort of creature bait on the end of a jig? Im sure it works but would like to hear personal experiences

I use the ZOOM baby brush hog as a trailer on my football jigs when I'm fishing deep structure. They add a lot of bulk to the bait and give it a little more action.