Team Eric Jig Review

[fishinwrench]

As promised I spent the last 1 1/2 hours of good daylight this evening playing in the creek with my newly aquired TEAM ERIC jig.

As I was rigging up bass were coming up and chasing minnows on the shallow shoals all up and down the creek. You could see them rocket up in the shallows, slurp one down and then ease back out into mid-creek.....so they were pretty active. I didn't make the hike upstream into the better Smallie sections but after the sample I had this evening I may be going for it tomorrow ...with the flyrod.

The Team Eric jig was an immediate success, but I have a few beefs with it that I'll get to at the end of this post. It has a kick-butt horizontal fall and every fish I caught on it this evening hit either on the initial fall, or just as it was settling on the bottom before I ever had a chance to give it a nudge. Like I said, I was only out for less than 2 hours and the area that I fished was not one of my favorite stretches...but it was late and I was too tired and hungry to trudge out of sight of the truck.

Rather than fishing my way along hitting all the sweet spots I just crouched down on the shoals, waited for them to rush the minnows, then tossed the jig in thier path as they returned to the middle. The bites were immediate. I saw a couple of nice Smallies and one PIG of a largemouth that I really wanted to get a pic of for this report, but I kinda rushed things and spooked them clear off the shoal.

Anyway, here's the results for the first try....

This fella got chased right up on the bank

And a follow up shot with a lil'spook caught what was chasing him

Ok, the jig comes through the rock and over logs really good (better than I expected) and the hookup ratio (even on the small fish I was into tonite) was 100% It seems plenty durable except for the front trailer keeper which needed constant maintanance to keep the trailer straight and I lost the beaver style trailer Eric sent with it after fish #5 which is what prompted me to tie on the spook....since all I had with me to replace it was a Zoom lil'critter craw (way too small).

The antennae's can go...I love the way they look BUT they tend to wrap up on the line occasionally and they hang on to leaves that otherwise I think you'd be able to shake off easily.

I'd love a lighter version for what I was doing today, but for depths over 4ft. you will probably need the extra weight to stay in contact with it.

I think the biggest asset of the design is the way the bait falls through the water, which is something I noticed when I played with it in my test tank at the shop. It lands with a delicious plop and falls just like a real crawdad would, if tossed ito the water. Pretty cool !

[brownieman]

What are you now ?..the official plug checker outter, darn you got it rouph, lol.

Mess around much more and you're riskin gettin your nickname changed...no, you don't wanta, lol.

You're doin better than me buddy, least your lines been gettin wet. Got no excuse, just can't remember to go.

Appears everything worked good,,, plug probably would do better with some experience throwing it, lmao

later on

[eric1978]

Team Eric is happy to hear his bait didn't disintegrate upon first cast. Team Eric likes seeing his bait in a smallie's face. Team Eric lives too freakin' far from decent fishing. Team Eric is jealous.

Wrench, I figured the trailer keeper might be a problem. Got any ideas to make it better?

The antennae aren't necessary at all and I won't be tying them on anymore.

It means a lot you spent the time just trying the thing! I wish I could've sent you a bag of trailers, but they're just too darn expensive. It's good to hear it's kinda weedless, though, since that was really the point of the experiment.

Now Team Eric just has to get his butt out and field-test his own baits....Big River sounds good if I wake up in about 4 hours.....

[Wayne SW/MO]

Very interesting, but I hope this doesn't raise the price.

[Flysmallie]

The antennae aren't necessary at all and I won't be tying them on anymore.

Ok, so this thing is supposed to imitate a crawfish right? And the plastic trailer would imitate the claws?

Well if that is true then why are the antennae coming out of it's butt anyway?

Either way it's a great looking jig. I don't know if a smallmouth thinks it's a crawfish or not though. And I don't really think they care. If it looks alive, a smallmouth will probably eat it. Bass are pigs.

[eric1978]

Ok, so this thing is supposed to imitate a crawfish right? And the plastic trailer would imitate the claws?

Well if that is true then why are the antennae coming out of it's butt anyway?

Either way it's a great looking jig. I don't know if a smallmouth thinks it's a crawfish or not though. And I don't really think they care. If it looks alive, a smallmouth will probably eat it. Bass are pigs.

I based the design on 2 crawdads in a 69.

I agree Ronnie, I don't think they care either. Those little details were definitely more for me, and I'm glad I'm over it because the jigs will be much faster to tie in the future.

I'm noodling on how to improve the trailer keeper, and then it's off to get the Bass Pro contract.

[fishinwrench]

Make them both females and you'll increase sales by 86.9% with no other marketing whatsoever.

Yeah that trailer keeper is a tough call....I just don't know. Maybe a tougher trailer like the old Gene Larew craws.... You could pull a truck out of the mud with one of those babies.

[eric1978]

Make them both females and you'll increase sales by 86.9% with no other marketing whatsoever.

Yeah that trailer keeper is a tough call....I just don't know. Maybe a tougher trailer like the old Gene Larew craws.... You could pull a truck out of the mud with one of those babies.

Guess I need to get out and play around with them. I was supposed to take a trip today, but my buddies and I got a little carried away with the tequila last night, and I woke up with a massive headache. Missed the last great day of the year to fish.

I've been meaning to order some different brands of trailers, I just haven't gotten around to it. Really don't know how to improve the keeper, except maybe using a little thicker gauge wire, or making it a little longer. You're right though, those Gambler Creatures do tear up really easily.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I got a little carried away with the tequila last night, and I woke up with a massive headache.

That's called a hangover, try buying the good stuff next time. :lol:

Maybe the jig should be tested for fall without a trailer. I'm not 100% sold on a jig trailer, especially if you can get a decent fall without one.

[eric1978]

That's called a hangover, try buying the good stuff next time. :lol:

Maybe the jig should be tested for fall without a trailer. I'm not 100% sold on a jig trailer, especially if you can get a decent fall without one.

Well the point of the trailer was to make the jig weedless...I got about a million jigs that have exposed hooks. I don't think you have to use a trailer to catch fish on a jig either, but I usually prefer to have one anyway.