I was fishing saturday with a friend of mine and we got talking about some of the lures we used to catch fish with when we were kids. I remembered i had this old jitterbug in one of my boxes. I tied it on and got one.

     Anyway, it was fun to catch one on a lure that ive had since i was a kid and havent used in 25 years or more. It was a dink but it was still cool. I got 3 bites in just a few minutes though, so the old jitterbug might get wet some more soon! 

36 minutes ago, Jleebesaw said:

I was fishing saturday with a friend of mine and we got talking about some of the lures we used to catch fish with when we were kids. I remembered i had this old jitterbug in one of my boxes. I tied it on and got one.

     Anyway, it was fun to catch one on a lure that ive had since i was a kid and havent used in 25 years or more. It was a dink but it was still cool. I got 3 bites in just a few minutes though, so the old jitterbug might get wet some more soon! 

Jesus man, get some new hooks on that puppy!!!  Jitterbugs are fun lures...plop,plop,plop,plop,plop,plop...silence, splash, thrash!

Yea, those hooks have been in a plano box for decades! Probably why i got 3 hits and only hooked one. They are pretty shart though, believe it or not.

Sixty years ago, I used to night fish in the summer with one of my father's friends. He had a 12 foot aluminum boat and we would take turns rowing.  This was before trolling motors.  We fished in the Everglades with black Musky Jitterbugs.  I can still remember the sound of that lure coming across the water.  I still have one in my lure collection.

 

35 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

Sixty years ago, I used to night fish in the summer with one of my father's friends. He had a 12 foot aluminum boat and we would take turns rowing.  This was before trolling motors.  We fished in the Everglades with black Musky Jitterbugs.  I can still remember the sound of that lure coming across the water.  I still have one in my lure collection.

 

 Its funny because when we were fishing that night i was saying i wish i had a black one. It had gotten to be well after dark and i dont know if green with a white belly was the ideal color. I remember having a black one at one time but lost it at some point.

Back then, we did a test to see if there was a difference in lure colors.  We would fish a white jitterbug for an hour, then a black one.  The black jitterbug always out fished the white one.  Black worms and spinnerbaits also work better at night.  I assume it's easier for a fish to see black at night?

 

As you might expect, we didn't catch many small fish with a Musky Jitterbug.  The fish we did catch were all over five pounds.  The man I fished with threw that lure with a Pflueger Supreme and line that looked like cable.  

Black was always my favourite color. I read years ago, that it's easier for a fish to track a dark lure at night. I've had similar experience with a black buzzbait too

Lots of folks still throw the Jitterbug. They sell thousands of them every year. I do think the older USA models are the best. The newer ones have a thinner lip, and seem to get bent and out of tune more easily.

4 hours ago, Jleebesaw said:

Yea, those hooks have been in a plano box for decades! Probably why i got 3 hits and only hooked one. They are pretty shart though, believe it or not.

I would say they are shart...they look like crap! Just kidding man...couldn't resist.

1 hour ago, DitchPanda said:

shart

That's what happens when you catch your PB on a Jitterbug!

I have a 5/8 black jitterbug in my tackle bag that I caught my PB on.  People ask me if I have it for sentimental reasons since it is an "old" bait.  They actually look shocked when I tell that I fish with it all of the time.

7 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

Sixty years ago, I used to night fish in the summer with one of my father's friends. He had a 12 foot aluminum boat and we would take turns rowing.  This was before trolling motors.  We fished in the Everglades with black Musky Jitterbugs.  I can still remember the sound of that lure coming across the water.  I still have one in my lure collection.

 

Night fishing the Everglades? I’m surprised the mosquitoes didn’t carry yall’s boat away...

The mosquitoes were terrible. We tried many different methods of combating them.  We made hats out of screen material in an attempt to keep them off our faces.  All that did was tick them off.  We would burn PIC mosquito repellent coils all around the boat.  The best was Cutter orange spray.  If you sprayed yourself every 30 minutes it was tolerable.  In my twenties I would often fish the Everglades by myself at night.  I scared myself more than a few times.  Funny what you will do to catch fish...