Experimental and Opinions Acceptable

[Micanopy]

Starting to think I fueled your addiction more sending you that mold!!!!

Seasoning the affair rather nicely does not require feelings of guilt.

Tomorrow morning we enter into my pink period. I have really cheap pink feathers. My jigs will look like a cocktail waitress in a Dolly Parton wig.

[Micanopy]

Pink feathers are from hobby store, which I see now was a mistake. Not what is needed at all.

[skiptomylu]

Pink feathers are from hobby store, which I see now was a mistake. Not what is needed at all.

Yes most hobby store feathers are just not what you want. So many kinds of feathers are sold for tying it's really amazing how many different ones.

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[Micanopy]

Well my feathered boas did NOT impress the local crappie population this morning. I swapped them around, looking for a winner, long lining and no takers. Then I eased out one of the small Bat Jigs with a plastic minnow on it and wham. I ended up switching all my jigs for plastic minnows and all rods were getting bites. Dropped down to just four rods so as to keep pace. So the fish were present and hungry they just didn’t like my ties.

Could use some advice. I brought home 21 fish but lost at least twice that many. I reckoned that I wasn’t setting the hook, but even after several good sets they would shake free. Then I reckoned that I needed to reel them in faster, and again they shook free. A few right at the boat and I could see the jig was well placed. I cannot imagine that this is normal. I am suspicious of the size #6 Whacky Hook as those were the jigs getting nailed. The shortened hook allowed for great action to be sure, but…..I think it is just a bad arrangement. I found a regular #1 hook and added a plastic minnow to see but then they kind of stopped biting.

So……was it the hook or something else causing half the fish to shake free ?

This was the most popular jig, and it lost at least a dozen fish.

[DrNip]

Hard to say without trying a different hook. Could’ve just been the bite. I had 30 this morning and missed that many. Was a short strike day for me. I switched from hand ties, to plastics, downsized, downsized again, crappie nibble and still missed a lot of hits. Saw several times on livescope them dart towards the bait just to dart back. Like they hit it with their tail it looked.

[Micanopy]

Interesting. Mine were hooked and as I reeled them in they escaped, a few right at the boat, but most about fifty feet away. The hook sets were strong but the hook did not remain buried. They did not rip free either. First time I ever experienced anything like it. Sure there are always a few that get away, but this was half or better doing that.

I decided that after the last five or six times going without any fish, or just a couple something needed to be changed. So I switched around the alignments of the front rod holders and pointed the rods out the sides. So 16’ rod out the side, 10’ rod behind that. I long lined the jigs a pretty fair distance behind and trolled around. I caught a fish and decided to concentrate on that area. I just kept going thru there and was picking up fish within a few hundreds yards all around that main area. Lots of long flowing circles with the lines out and no wrap ups.

I suspect that long lining is going to have to be my game as it works so well, and it is what the others that are really good do. I was able to sit at the hand controlled TM and snatch up the rods just fine. I angled them downward towards the water to help get the jig down.

The lake where I was at is known to have lots of little fish, as I believe they are stunted. Shad are everywhere, still I haven’t caught any large fish like I have at the other lakes.

My wife wants to go tomorrow so it is going to be a four rods on the boat and no more kind of adventure. We might go to Newnans Lake which is shallow all the way across, but has schools of shad lurking out there. Try my new technique on them devils.

[S10CHEVY]

Try bending the hook out 10 degrees. Also the hooks may not be sharp. I always keep a hook sharpener in my bag.

[Micanopy]

Gonna try this one out today.

[Micanopy]

Ha Ha Ha….. I slipped it into the water and the blade did not twirl. I put it on concave side forward, not the correct way. Rookie mistake. I laughed.

The fish were not very cooperative today. Just some little ones.



And a cat.




I was being watched very closely. This was a very large gator.



Babies near by.




Newnans Lake can be great, for others, but usually I pick up just a few. I like it because it is so pretty. It is also alligator central.





So I was reading some and learned something significant. That a lure/jig that is considered great, really is only great when fished in a particular fashion. Now that sounds easy and common sense and all that, but nobody has said that. I been trolling jigs designed to be daubed. Most of my jigs are in fact useless for trolling. They are meant to be fished in a different fashion.

So I now realize that for trolling, I want a jig/lure that has an action to it. Ordered some Bobby Garland Stroll’R baits. Going to get curly tail grubs, too. I already have some of the grubs that have a thumper tail, and plan to use those more often. This seems very simple, but matching baits to a particular style was not something I knew about.

Which means…… most of my tied jigs are useless to me. Uggghhh

[skiptomylu]

Back when I made some Prop Jigs and used some beads to let the prop spin. Worked well and call them in-line Spinners.

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2013