Thread: Missed Bite Mystery

Originally Posted by Techno2000

I see that all your jigs have elongated heads, I wonder if that is contributing to your problem.

The heads could be the problem.
Over the years while fishing walleyes with a crawler on a # 8 Lindy rig I would on occasion hook a large Gill. They always hit the crawler in the head as to kill the bait and get hooked. In fact one trip up by Orr all we used to catch some dandy Gills was a whole crawler on a Lindy rig. The dinks would always nip at the tail of the crawler while the big fish would head bite.

Originally Posted by RLS40

I use a lot of bluegills jig in the 1/45 & 1/32 once size with a # 8 or #10 hook. I have noticed that in the summer and winter that bites are missed. These are good bites or bobber pull downs. Setting the hook the rod will load, the fish will be on for a short time and get off. These were nice fish and not dinks according to the rod loading.
Using a underwater camera I solved the mystery and found the Gills were head biting the jigs. :-(

I hand tied some black 1/64 jigs last year and caught a ton of gills.
I was using the Bobby Garland Jig heads called Itty Bits.
I’m not sure what size the hook is but it’s small but very sturdy and fits completely inside the mouth of the blue gills.
Note - I trimmed the jig hair short so if they grabbed it they got caught. My missed hook sets went wayyy down.
I used both ultra light with a float and long pole no float.
Tie them to mimic a bug Not a minner.


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