Christmas Challenge

[Micanopy]

So…… I have slimmed down my selection of lures. Yesterday I got on the boat without my luggage. Yup- just the jigs on the rods and a small container with ten more inside. Never opened it as I stuck with the originals. Fished from 730 to 1030 and kept ten fish. The little guys were dormant and only had one throw back. The others were all nicely sized with one very fine specimen.

For the last two months limits have been mere dreams for me, with an average take of about 8 keepers with twice that many throw backs. I notice that most everyone else is in the same boat as far as catching. The warden accosted me upon landing and searched and did boating safety check and ran me for warrants and explored and stuff. He mentioned that my fish were very nice and asked had I worked hard to get those. He looked kind of miserable and I tried to cheer him up but there was nothing for him to punish me for. So his comment tells me that almost nobody is catching limits these days. If they are I imagine they are keeping the little fellers.

I am using plastics in specific color patters:

Pink head- white paddletail
White head- purple body - chartreuse paddletail
Chartreuse head- pink body- chartreuse paddletail
Chartreuse head- lime green body- chartreuse paddletail

It is my goal to whittle down all the available options into just a small handful which I can keep on my lines and not have to buy EVERY STINKING PLASTIC BAIT ON THE MARKET !!!!

In furtherance I am applying these specific color patterns into tying, and have come up with some that are fairly close. Not all good matches but you can see.



I added the orange for some unknown reason. LOL

Anyways these are close to what I am using for plastics and being as I have already established that bucktails will equal plastics in effectiveness, it would be super cool to whittle down my baits to just hand ties. OH BOY.




Now for something a little different. A challenge. I am challenging the artisans here to create a festive jig in the holiday spirit. I of course will go first.

Santa’s Beard



That is my entry, however I also tried to make a Christmas candy themed jig. It as you can see lacks so many things that I share only to inspire you.



Good luck and remember there will be no prizes awarded for the winner. If you want something ask Santa please. Of course you can do like me and just order the dumb thing when no one is expecting. I ordered some new fishing line for myself. Ho Ho Ho and all that stuff you see.

[Micanopy]

Whoops……only 9 fish.

[DockShootinJack]

Those are nice ones. Santa's Beard certainly looks very shad like. I believe it will do well for you

[GrumpyLoomis]

I have a friend that fishes out of a 4 x 8 inch box. He takes it and 2 poles and seems to do quite well. He makes all decisions at home and reloads the box every trip. He fishes almost every day on the same 3 reservoirs so he knows water conditions ahead of time. It will be interesting to see how the challenge goes.

[BuckeyeCrappie]

I like all of your ties! Good work right there

[GrumpyLoomis]

My Christmas float and fly tinsel tail jig

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Now that’s innovation. A lighted green float would really be neat! Attract and catch!

[BobC]

Some nice crappies there, Micanopy. Enjoyed your Christmas jig.
Bob

[DrNip]

Less is best!

I posted awhile back what I take fishing and it isn’t much. It’s actually twice what I use to take and that is due to handties I make now. Last several trips out I’ve only used handties.

Nimrod over in Arkansas pretty much just uses purple/chartreuse tubes everywhere. Head is inside the body so no worries about head color. He catches a lot of fish both before and after livescope. Maybe one day I get it down to just one color combo! That’d be nice. Lol

[GrumpyLoomis]

DrNip I fished the tube jig blue head w/chartreuse tail. Since I started hand ties I very seldom fish tube jigs, not sure how smart that was.