Just To Make You All Jealous!

[troutgnat]

I thought I would help everybody change the subject here. This is one of two boxes I have tied in the last week or so of this nasty weather. This is my box of Roadrunners, 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4oz. I'm ready for the Pothole and upper Bull Shoals when the walleye/whites get rolling. I hope to start looking for some walleye next month.

PS: Thanks Phil for some of the marabou and chenille.

Get tying Boys, I'm ready are you? No, really I'm curious as to any of you who tie your own marabou or bucktail jigs for whites and walleyes. I have found that marabou and bucktail jigs in the 1/4 to 1/2oz work well on upper Bull when you begin to find the fish stacked in deep pockets during pre-spawn. I troll very slowly with the trolling motor, a rod in both hands and a heavy jig bouncing the bottom.

I would like to hear anybody elses techniques.................feel free to chime in!

[Ham]

SO, I take it you like Road runners. I tend to use soft plastics on mine more than the boo/chenile ones. I also was thinking about using the 1/4 oz heads tipped with a crappie minnow strolled along just above bottom. In the past I have use 1/16 oz and 1/8 oz more than the 1/4 oz models, but that might be changing soon.

I don't have just a whole lot of bucktail jigs. I do have jigheads and bucktail though.

[troutgnat]

Ham,

I say walleye and whites but I use roadrunners alot for crappie as well. I have alot of luck tipping them with minnows for all species and I learned from another guy that tipped with 1/2 a nightcrawler and bumped on the bottom walleye like them quite well. These heads are non-collared (bought them that way) so they are unsuitable for using with plastics; I tie on these heads only but do use some barbed heads with plastics myself.

When do you typically start looking for walleye for the spring bite, pre-spawn I mean.?

[Ham]

I'm afraid that I'm no help on the walleye. I moved up here August 2007. I've accidentily caught some NICE walleye bass fishing and some young wallye crappipe fishing, but I have not walleye fished per se. I am anxious to make the long drive to fish powersite though.

I have some of the collarless RR heads and I figured that's what you used. I like what did with yours. Looks like you have every color combo under the rainbow. Old favorites or experiments?

I was planning on using some RR, grubs, jerkbaits, shad raps, and lipless cranks. IT will be a learning experience for sure.

[Quillback]

I fish Road Runners on Beaver, but I cast them to the bank rather than troll them. I have found that Spotted bass really like them in the spring, and so do the whites. That's a good idea, tying your own, I have not done that yet but when I get some time I might give it a shot. One color I would like to have that Road Runner does not make as far as I can tell, is black, meaning black jig head with a black body. I would also think natural colors in brown and green, kind of like the colors you see in bass jigs would work.

[Sam]

troutgnat, those look great! I love using a Roadrunner tipped with a minnow or half-nightcrawler for walleyes, and just like you, I slow-troll 'em. I've never tried making my own RR's though - good job!

During this awful cold spell, I've been making jigs too. I've been making jigs that use a glass bead for the head (I like the way those bend light - a cat's-eye marble effect), and I've moved the weight back on the shaft of the hook. That makes the jig sink more level when it's paused, and I think they're coming out real good.

I've been making some of these for crappie and white bass, and others in "crawdad" colors for casting up against chunk rock banks for bass and big perch. Some are in purple colors for when the white bass in the springtime James River run get in that purple mood. The ones in this picture are all 1/8 oz. jigs, but I make them in weights from 1/16 to 1/4 oz.

Hey, this keeps us involved in fishing while the weather's bad - and we'll have our jigs to use when it gets better. Great minds think alike.

[troutgnat]

Sam,

I must say very creative! Definitely one of a kind, I like the weight theory and the glass bead. I havet used glass beads a number of times in tying trout flies. I assume the flo. orange color I see is the thread underneath the bead; is that correct? What is your weight system?; looks like a reversed worm sinker...................D

[Sam]

troutgnat - The glass beads where the color shows brightest have paint inside the holes. Often, though, I leave the bead unpainted and just let the twine color show through.

I use various weights. The 1/16 and 3/32 oz. sizes use one, or two, nickel-plated brass beads. The 1/8 and 1/4 oz. sizes use 1/16 or 3/16 oz. bullet worm sinkers drilled out a little to 5/64" so the hook and twine can go through.

I like the fact that the smaller sizes are lead-free, since that's the coming trend in lures. I'm stuck with lead weights for the heavier ones though, as tungsten and brass are too expensive and stainless steel is too hard to drill.

[Guest]

Great looking jigs, might have to try that on a few of my own!

[shaker]

Wow Sam those are some great looking jigs, may have to try making some of those up. On roadrunners one of my alltime favorites that I tie up myself is a plain lead head meaning no paint with a grey or silver chenille body with a grey or silver maribou tail with a bit electric flashabou just a few strands, it's a killer in just about everywhere except maybe in heavy stained water.