Weedless Jigs = Fishless Me

[slab happy]

I am not a new guy to crappies fishing...but when it comes to being successful using "weedless" jigs/rigs I am defintiely doing something wrong!
I have tried various methods and styles of jigs and rigs:

Oldham 1/16 oz jigs
Stick Guards
Slider jig heads
Various jig heads with plastic guards built in
etc.

My results have not been good with any of the methods I have tried...other than not getting snagged up on brush, I just can't get decent hook sets. I believe I have missed 5 out of 6 strikes on some trips.... Which then makes me switch back to regular jigs and I start leaving them in the wood!

I know that this is a broad subject and there are probably a bunch of suggestions...but I would really appreciate any inputs on how to stay off the wood and still catch crappies.

What are your methods for staying weedless?

slab happy

[Tube4Slabs]

Try trimming off some of the weedguards and angle them with a cut near the hook point. This makes them still weedless but easier to get into a fishes mouth.

[TAE73]

I used the slider jigs this weekend with some good results. When you set the hook, set it like your bass fishing. Most of the hooks where stuck into the roof of the mouth. The bite and hook set is different than using regular jig head.

[410MAN]

I am kinda new to crappie fishin and have same hang up all time problem, i tried the plastic things and finally trimed some off it works better butt not perfect, What are slider jigs? never sea thenm around here.

[ncnat]

I use the stick guards or Mister Twister Keeper hooks when going weedless, they do require that you set the hook.

[CrappiePappy]

Slabhappy - I've been using Oldhams Surelock jigheads for MANY years ... 4-6lb line ... 6.5-7ft Graphite IM6 and/or Carbon rods. I would have to say that my hookup to hookset ratio is probably in the 95% range. I tend to hook most fish in the upper inside of the mouth ... and I rarely have one get off. I've also been using the P&S Custom Tackle weedless jigheads - bristle brush type weedguard ... and I've had equal success with it. The majority of the time I am casting a 1.5" tube on either of these jigheads ... what most people refer to as "swimming a jig". I set the hook with a quick wrist snap and movement of the reel from in front of my chest, up to my chin (all in one quick motion). Speed is more important than power - on a hookset. A power hookset (pulling with the arms and shoulders) will actually not produce as much penetration power, as a quick "wrist snap" type hookset. The "pulling" motion (of a power hookset) is negated by the line stretch and rod bend - and actually "pulls" the fish towards you, and may not penetrate the hook past the barb. A "speed" hookset will pop the hookpoint into the fish's mouth, before the line stretch/rod bend have a chance to pull on the fish. --- And don't wait until you feel the fish ... watch the line! Any "tic" in the line, sideways movement of the line, and especially if the line goes slack (and you know the jig is not on the bottom) -- SET THE HOOK !

410man ... "slider jigs" are Charlie Brewer Slider products. You can see them at - http://www.fishingworld.com/Slider/ ... or the jigheads at - http://www.eburch.biz/charlie_brewer...ider_heads.htm ... or try here - http://www.cabelas.com/products/Cpod0000248.jsp ... or here - http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...rTarget=search

..........luck2ya'll ..............cp

[slab happy]

Thanks to all of you for the pointers.
CP, I am wondering if my "usual" choice of rods has just been too soft. I have been using 6'6" IMX UL and L rated rods with 8#/1# PowerPro line....I am thinking that these rods just don't have the backbone to get that wire bent down on the Oldhams or to drive the point through the plastic? I will try using a Medium weight spin rod next time with the Oldhams rig and or a slider. I will also try your suggested, "snap of the wrist and upward reel movement" set...got to cross their eyes I guess!

slab happy

I read this on another forum...so it's not my original thought...but it is so true:
"My worst nightmare is that when I die my wife will sell all my fishing gear for what I told her I paid for it!" [B]

[CrappiePappy]

I think you could trip the wire weed guard on a Oldhams jighead - with a wet noodle ...LOL!! So, I don't think the rod is necessarily the problem, with them. CB Slider jigheads, on the other hand ... having a bit bigger hook, and having the hook point "texas rigged" into the plastic body - now that may take a little more "ummph" to get the hookup.
Anyway - try the "speed" hookset, and see if that works better for you. You won't have to worry about breaking your line, either (you did say you were using 8lb PowerPro, right?). I don't know if you'll need to adjust your drag ... but, if you start bringing back "crappie lips", instead of the whole fish - then you might back off on it, a little ...LOL!!
Just out of curiosity - you say you're using "IMX" rods ... would those be G-Loomis rods, by any chance ?
Anyway ...... luck2ya !! Let us know how your next trip turns out....cp

[Moose1am]

I have had excellent results using the 1/16 oz Oldham weedless jig heads with the Bass Pro Shops Squirmin Squirt with a live 1" long chub minnow added to the jig hook. I think that the main thing to remember is to keep the hook sharpened up and to keep a very tight line. If you have slack in the line you can't feel the crappie INHALE the bait. A crappie can inhale the bait and if he does not move or change level you won't know that he has the bait in his mouth. It only take a split second for the crappie to SUCK IN the bait and spit it back out. Belive me I have had captive crappie in my aquarium for over a year and 3 months now and I watch them feed almost every day. I have yet to see them nibble on a bait. They open their mouth and then flair their gill covers and suck in lots of water, gravel and the minnows in one fell swoop. If they get a dead minnow or something that they don't like they exhale it so fast that it's hard to watch. If you can't fell them sucking in the bait then you won't be ready to set the hook. This is CRITICAL to catching them. With a very tight line you feel any vibrations and when using the new graphite rods you can feel these slight vibrations as a thud and you know when to set the hook. Also I keep moving very slowly and that tends to help me feel the bites better. Even if the crappie is not moving the bait is and that puts immediate resistance and addes vibrations to the line when the crappie inhales the bait. Sometimes the hook sets itself. Most of the time I just have to lift the rod from the 9 O' Clock Polstion to the 11 O' Clock position to set the hook.

Larry -Southern IN gave me some of those Oldham jig head to try. I love them. I like them much better than the weedless jigs that I make using 40lb fishing line about 1" long stuck in the jig head right in front of hook. I miss some fish using my modified jig heads but I catch more fish using the oldhams as their light weight wires seem to move out of the way better than my fishing line weedguards.

Now when you don't have anything between the hooks point and the fish's mouth you are bound to get more hooks per bite. That just makes sense. But then I get into a thick brush pile or submerged tree and I end up spending more time tying on new baits than I do fishing. I personally prefer to fish and not tie on new baits and tackle. Can't catch any fish when you are hung up and breaking off baits all day long. I need to keep the frustration level down as using weedless jig head really does help in that dept.


From 1985 to about 1994 I used the Charlie Brewer Crappie Sliders to catch many a small bass. I didn't catch many crappie on them simply because I was not fishing where the crappie were located. I was fishing for bass back in those days and loved using a ultralight 5ft long graphite rod with ultralight reel and 4lb test trilene XL line. Those bass were not over a pound but using the ultralight outfit made it a lot of fun. I could catch those small bass all day long and then put them back in the lake for the next trip. It was fun and it gave me something to do.

Now these days I am back into food mode and catching lots of panfish (Crappie and Bluegill) is putting food on the table.

I just wish that we could get the mercury out of the smoke stacks now instead of waiting for another 15 to 20 years. The CAAA 1990 requred the USEPA to reduce harmful air pollutants and it's now 2005 and we still have not removed the mercury out of the smoke. Mercury is by far one of the most toxic air pollutant that we have and we are putting off the day that we start to control this deadly nerve toxin. Mean while I am having to eat crappie that are loaded with more methylmercury that necessary. So I am limited to eating only so many grams of crappie filets per month. Methylmercury is slowly excreted from the body so if you only eat small amounts at one time your body can excrete the mercury over time and it won't build up in your body. Mercury damages the brain and the spinal cord and the nerves in our bodies. Once the damge is done it's not easily reversible. Small childern, pregnant women and the very old are warned not to eat too much fish that is contaminated with methylmercury. The state of Indiana has issued fish comsumption warning over most of the state. So be careful eating to much fish or at least try not to eat it all in one week. Spread the consumtion out over time and you will not get so contaminated.

Mercury is found in the coal that is dug from the ground, ground up into a power and then blown into a boiler and burned at high temp. The coal dust is mainly carbon that burns but the small amounts of other elements is present in the coal and that is burned as well. Unless the gases are scrubbed before going into the atmophere the things burned will be spewed out into the air. There is floats downwind or settles onto the ground. Anything that goes up must come back down. There the mercury is washed out of the sky when it rains and then washed down into the ditches, streams, rivers and lakes where it accumulated in the lakes sediments. There it enters the food chain and starts it way up though the small critters to the larger critters to finally where we eat it. Each time it passes up the food chain it's concentrated more and more. Big fish eating smaller fish full of methylmercury are concentation the mercury in the bigger fish. When we eat ten big fish we concentrate that mercury in our bodies.

We can do one or two things. We can watch how much fish we eat to avoid being contamianted or we can require those that burn the coal to stop spewing the mercury out into OUR AIR. The air belongs to all of us. It should be against the law to put poisons into our air. Right now the law gives the polluters too much time to control the emissions. We need to have had this pollutant controlled twenty years ago not twenty years from now.

OK I am getting off my soap box.

I am not a new guy to crappies fishing...but when it comes to being successful using "weedless" jigs/rigs I am defintiely doing something wrong!
I have tried various methods and styles of jigs and rigs:

Oldham 1/16 oz jigs
Stick Guards
Slider jig heads
Various jig heads with plastic guards built in
etc.

My results have not been good with any of the methods I have tried...other than not getting snagged up on brush, I just can't get decent hook sets. I believe I have missed 5 out of 6 strikes on some trips.... Which then makes me switch back to regular jigs and I start leaving them in the wood!

I know that this is a broad subject and there are probably a bunch of suggestions...but I would really appreciate any inputs on how to stay off the wood and still catch crappies.

What are your methods for staying weedless?

slab happy

[slab happy]

CP, thanks again for the encouraging words...mastery of the weedless methods have escaped me all these years...I feel better about giving it another try this spring...just bought a few more of the Oldhams from BassPro the other day thinking I should give them another chance. Yes, the IMX is Loomis...in fact, I do a little rod building in my spare time and I am in the middle of building another SR781-1, 6'6" UL. In my opinion this rod and the 782-1 are the best crappie/Bluegill/trout spinning rods made.
Yes, I do use the 8#test/1#dia. PowerPro...kind of goes back to the weedless thing. If I get hung up, I can normally pull regular jigs off of limbs with this line and it casts like a rocket! I imagine it will work great with the Oldham wire guards since there is no stretch to worry about.
Moose1am, thank you also for the tips. I have a buddy who has had crappies in his aquarium over the past couple years...it is a blast to watch him feed them! As is true of a lot of things in life, you can learn a lot just from watching.
Thanks again to you all.
slab happy