Is it me or my tackle

[floaterguy]

I've been fishing a lot out of my new Shadow Caster, mainly vertical jigging with a variety of Bobby Garland soft plastics and doing well on bites. My problem is I can't seem to hook up very much. I'm using 1/8th oz. jig head with a rather large hook (probably a size 4 maybe) with a 4.6 older Ugly Stik and 4lb Trilene mono line. I get the "tap, tap, tap" on my line, I set the hook and 8 or 9 times outta 10...nothing. Is my jig too big, rod too short or is this a common thing. I'm used to fly fishing for Steelhead where I can see the fish take it for the most part.

[slackline]

Tap,tap,tap sounds like bluegills to me. For me most of the time with crappie if I feel a second thump they spit the jig back out. Bluegill tend to shake the jig, this is the tap,tap,tap.

[Redge]

Also sounds a lot like sand bass. They do the machine gun tap 3-5 times, rapid fire.

[lowe175]

Yep that's some kind of Brem. I have had crappie hit like this but not very often. Some days it happens to all of us. Crappie will be one good thump most of the time or your line will jump or go slack.

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[floaterguy]

Even if it's bluegill or other pan fish I would think I should be doing better than 1 or 2 out of 10 times hooking up, this is every time I've been out lol. I just didn't know if my rod is too soft, line too stretchy etc. I like this little 4.6ft rod but trying my BnM 8ft jigging pole out and see if my ratio changes any, if not, it has to be me lol.

[Crestliner08]

Even if it's bluegill or other pan fish I would think I should be doing better than 1 or 2 out of 10 times hooking up, this is every time I've been out lol. I just didn't know if my rod is too soft, line too stretchy etc. I like this little 4.6ft rod but trying my BnM 8ft jigging pole out and see if my ratio changes any, if not, it has to be me lol.

Bluegill love nothing more than to grab ahold of the tail of your offering and yank it down. I've found the most effective way of catching these "tappers" is to give them slack, or hesitate before setting the hook, when they start this. That usually gets them to get the hook in their mouths. I'd almost guarantee that bluegills are the culprit of your lack of hook up.

A longer rod will help as well. The softer, long tip bends with the "take", improving the odds that the jig hook will be in their mouths. It certainly will not be detriment. I find that with my longer rods, all I have to do is slowly lift to set the hook.

[CrappiePappy]

If it is Bluegill, they're likely small .... possibly too small to get your BG plastics in their mouth, easily. When Bluegill attack something bigger than they can easily suck into their mouth, they'll "peck" at it with the intent to "disable" it ... if not outright "kill" it.

A #4 hook is not too big, IMHO. I use a #2 on 1/32 & 1/16oz jigheads (custom made). I've got some with a #4 hook, and I've caught Bluegill on them (when using 1.5" Panfish Assassins), but not when using 2" plastics (regardless of hook size). I get the "machine gun" hits, all the same.

My gut instincts say you're getting hits from Sunfish (pannies ??), rather than Crappie, unless the Crappie are very small. As has already been stated ... a single "tap" is normally a Crappie, whereas a series of "taps" is likely another species. You can simply downsize your jig & plastics, when this happens again, and possibly catch & identify the culprit.

[S10CHEVY]

It also helps if you open the hook up another ten degrees, and also makes for more in the roof of the mouth hook ups. A better fisherman than me taught me to do that about 20 years ago. After taking his advice, my ratio changed greatly.

[SeaRay]

I seldom think tackle makes a big difference, however, I have some Ugly Sticks and they are great rods but something like a 10 ft B&N graphite crappie jig pole or similar make would increase your odds. The Ugly Sticks don't have the sensitivity of the crappie jig poles and they have more flex that can dampen feel as well.
No need to drop a bundle of money, just pick up one and put your current reel on it and give it a try.
If it is indeed bluegills that are pecking at your jig, go down to a 1/32 with a small tail and see if you start hooking them, then you'll know for sure.
Rooster tail used to make a "Rooster jig" that had a really small treble hook in the tail and it would put a stop to pecking bluegills when trolling. Course it didn't keep them from biting, you just caught a lot more. Unfortunately they don't make them anymore and I don't know of another one that does.

[pescador]

I agree with CrappiePappy.

If it is Bluegill, they're likely small .... possibly too small to get your BG plastics in their mouth, easily. When Bluegill attack something bigger than they can easily suck into their mouth, they'll "peck" at it with the intent to "disable" it ... if not outright "kill" it.

A #4 hook is not too big, IMHO. I use a #2 on 1/32 & 1/16oz jigheads (custom made). I've got some with a #4 hook, and I've caught Bluegill on them (when using 1.5" Panfish Assassins), but not when using 2" plastics (regardless of hook size). I get the "machine gun" hits, all the same.

My gut instincts say you're getting hits from Sunfish (pannies ??), rather than Crappie, unless the Crappie are very small. As has already been stated ... a single "tap" is normally a Crappie, whereas a series of "taps" is likely another species. You can simply downsize your jig & plastics, when this happens again, and possibly catch & identify the culprit.