3 hours ago, WRB said:

My go to lure is a hair jig pork trailer

I’ve heard you say this a couple of times now and admittedly I had never heard of that combo.  I made an effort to use hair jigs this winter and they were really effective.  I have threaded a piece of a stick bait on the shank to flair out the hair more but never a trailer.  Is pork the ticket or is it any trailer?

I fish too slow, don't change my lures enough, don't vary my retrieves enough, don't use my electronics enough, and fish too much based on history.  I too often grind with confidence baits.  I am working on all these things.  

7 minutes ago, Junk Fisherman said:

I fish too slow, don't change my lures enough, don't vary my retrieves enough, don't use my electronics enough, and fish too much based on history.  I too often grind with confidence baits.  I am working on all these things.  

I’m exactly the same except I fish to fast

The goal as a bass angler should be catching bass. 

Any jig is only as good as the hook, it’s a hook with a a metal head. Why would a bass bite a bare hook? To entice the bass to strike a jig we add a trailer and sometimes a skirt. Why add a skirt? To add bulk, color and most importantly movement.

The name jig n pig comes from a skirted jig with pork trailer because pork pre dates soft plastics. Jig skirts started with hair and or feathers were used. Vinyl skirts became popular followed by living rubber and silicon.  All these jig skirts work and add color with movement.

Under water clean hair is buoyant and flows in the water with natural movement. Vinyl, living rubber and silicone do not have natural flowing movements, they are stiff by comparison. Soft plastics is stiff movements compared to pork rind and doesn't look alive without adding flapping appendages. Soft plastics work and catch lots of bass plus easy to use.

Pork rind trailers are salt cured and taste like real food, plus it moves naturally. Hair jig and pork trailer combine a lot of positive elements that convince big wary bass it’s food and strike it more often and hold it longer in their mouth increasing your chance to catch a big bass. My passion is fishing for big bass in lieu of just catching numbers of bass.

Tom

 

 

 

"You might lose a plug here and there, but you don't burn through them the way I buy them."

 

I have more than enough to last for many years. So what do I do? Instead of trying to thin out the crankbait boxes by losing a lure here and one there, I bought a Frabill 15' lure retriever two weeks ago. 

1 hour ago, billmac said:

I have a tremendous collection of Rapala stick baits that I've never used.  I just like the look of them and they were a big thing when I was a kid.

I know jerkbaits have that special time of year, the ripping cadence of fishing them, rising, stationary and sinking countdown types. But I find myself fishing them more like a crankbait than in the typical  jerkbait fashion. Like you I have some nice looking jerkbaits that I was not fishing. Now days I just fish them as crankbaits and they have gotten me more fish that way. 

47 minutes ago, WRB said:

The name jig n pig comes from a skirted jig with pork trailer because pork pre dates soft plastics.

Yes it does. Check out my Covid project prototype, I have some vintage Stanley jigs I'm gonna try them with.

55 minutes ago, WRB said:

The goal as a bass angler should be catching bass. 

Any jig is only as good as the hook, it’s a hook with a a metal head. Why would a bass bite a bare hook? To entice the bass to strike a jig we add a trailer and sometimes a skirt. Why add a skirt? To add bulk, color and most importantly movement.

The name jig n pig comes from a skirted jig with pork trailer because pork pre dates soft plastics. Jig skirts started with hair and or feathers were used. Vinyl skirts became popular followed by living rubber and silicon.  All these jig skirts work and add color with movement.

Under water clean hair is buoyant and flows in the water with natural movement. Vinyl, living rubber and silicone do not have natural flowing movements, they are stiff by comparison. Soft plastics is stiff movements compared to pork rind and doesn't look alive without adding flapping appendages. Soft plastics work and catch lots of bass plus easy to use.

Pork rind trailers are salt cured and taste like real food, plus it moves naturally. Hair jig and pork trailer combine a lot of positive elements that convince big wary bass it’s food and strike it more often and hold it longer in their mouth increasing your chance to catch a big bass. My passion is fishing for big bass in lieu of just catching numbers of bass.

Tom

 

 

 

No, I get all of that Tom...I still have pork from the early 70’s.  Hopefully you don’t think I was questioning your technique.  You don’t see hair jigs used a lot in Texas, just like you don’t see a lot of folks using 8” swimbaits so it’s not something I am very well versed in.  I was asking because I was intrigued.  I enjoy experimenting or trying new things and had never considered using pork on something like a preacher jig.  I may have to dust off the old pork trailers.

The only time I ever consider I’m stuck on a fishing method is when it’s not working anymore.

3 hours ago, galyonj said:

 

There might be a cream or something for that.

This one is considered the cream of the crop...

My weakness is knowing when to switch spots. The whole "don't leave fish to find fish" saying is flawed. Generally, schooling fish are of the same age/size class. Generally, patterned fish are of the same age/size class. Just because I'm catching numbers of 14" fish on one particular bait or pattern, doesn't mean all the bass are following suit. If the big girls aren't hitting junebug wacky worms but the buck males are, time to figure something else out. 

Not trying to hijack this thread by discussing pork rind jig trailers. My “learning curve” regarding jig fishing occurred during a time period when pork rind was the “norm”.

When I started fine tuning my jig presentation and techniques  pork was popular because it worked. 

As soft plastic trailers evolve with realistic shapes, colors and improved movement pork became less popular and put away until the cold water or winter seasonal period because it’s movements are independent of water temperatures. 

Not knowing any better I continued to catch giant bass using hair jigs and pork trailers because the big bass kept eating it and still do.

Tom

8 hours ago, J Francho said:

You might lose a plug here and there, but you don't burn through them the way I buy them.

 

My weakness is crankbaits, if I think about throwing one it's hung up!

Before my addiction to Swimbaits was deep diving crankbaits. Made custom crankbait rods and had hundreds of lures that I sold on this site.  You get hooked on using lures that are fun to use and cranks are very effective catching all sizes of bass. I now have 5 lures, 2 jerk baits,1 megabass  and 2 custom painted 7A Bombers.  I kept those because my Splash-It rod can effectively cast and retrieve them as a back seater. Nostalgia lures.

Tom

 

24 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

My weakness is crankbaits, if I think about throwing one it's hung up!

My weakness also Catt. I hardly use crankbaits anymore because I'm hung up most of the time.

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Not trying to hijack this thread by discussing pork rind jig trailers. My “learning curve” regarding jig fishing occurred during a time period when pork rind was the “norm”.

When I started fine tuning my jig presentation and techniques  pork was popular because it worked. 

As soft plastic trailers evolve with realistic shapes, colors and improved movement pork became less popular and put away until the cold water or winter seasonal period because it’s movements are independent of water temperatures. 

Not knowing any better I continued to catch giant bass using hair jigs and pork trailers because the big bass kept eating it and still do.

Tom

and Uncle Josh just brought them back a year or so ago.

My weakness is being a hypocrite. I always say that lure isn't important only location which I follow by saying keep it simple. Then i bring 6 or 7 rods with me.

My weakness is slowing down.  After reading A-Jay’s thread about stitching, I picked up a copy of In Pursuit of Giant Bass ($15 at Lunker City).  However, I’m going to set the bar a little lower than A-Jay.  My goal is to stick with it for at least an hour before I go nuts.

I'm not sure if it's a weakness or not anymore but I pick my colors I like in certain conditions and fish them. Some days I probably don't change them out soon enough but fishing a bait with confidence is the best way to fish one. 

My Weakness is my least favorite thing to do.  Flipping for bass in heavy cover.  I find it painfully slow to do, low rewards, and after about 10 minutes, I'm off to the closest drop-off and dragging plastics, or cranking deep hard baits, at the base of a vertical wall.  Numbers are better, and casting to targets is a lot more fun.  I do what I enjoy and eliminate what I don't.  That is my biggest weakness, but I simply don't give a d**n!  At my age, It's all about having fun.  Lol

8 hours ago, Mobasser said:

My weakness also Catt. I hardly use crankbaits anymore because I'm hung up most of the time.

 

I went through a period where I thought I needed diving plugs to catch fish.

 

But I lost way more of them than I ever caught a fish with.

 

Now I've got two or three I keep around just in case, but I honestly don't know why I let them take up space in my gear.

 

That could be said for a lot of the stuff I carry with me, if I'm honest.

I'm also guilty of using the same lure for a 2 hour outing with no catches.

 

I figure...every cast I make brings me closer to my next catch. ?

My weakness is asking my buddies that fish more than I do what they are catching them on and then forcing it even though I don't fish like either one of them for the most part, need to learn to stick with my strengths and not ask what they are catching them on!  Also electronics!  I am terrible reading it and can't tell the difference in the things I am seeing on the screen.

My weakness for over 40 years is soft plastics.  I buy them and force myself to use them, but have had very little success with them.  

1 hour ago, king fisher said:

My weakness for over 40 years is soft plastics.  I buy them and force myself to use them, but have had very little success with them.  

This I cannot wrap my mind around