Jig Fishing Last Evening, July 15

[Phil Lilley]

Got out last evening--boated up to Lookout about 7 p.m. and started working the deep water. Generation was winding down from running only one unit. Water was dropping slowly and there was still good current, perfect for throwing and working an 1/8th ounce marabou jig.

I'd seen, last week, a big school of what I think were darters at Lookout Island. They have a brown back and dark, reddish stripe down their sides. So I tied on a brown/orange/brown head jig and worked it close to the bottom.

I haven't been fishing with jigs like this much the last month. When I had, it wasn't working very well so I've laid off throwing a straight jig. It's one of my favorite way to fish for trout, or any fish for that matter, so it was nice to jig a jig again.

This area from Lookout Island down to what we call the Narrows (where the channel gets very narrow and not very deep at the bend) has changed somewhat since the 2011 high water event. The upper half of this section is much deeper and the channel is much wider than it was. The bottom half is just the opposite, less deep and not much of a channel at all--flat most of the way across the lake. This upper half yielded the best fishing for me last evening, landing 12 trout including one brown.

I didn't concentrate on the bluff bank as much as I did the whole, deep channel. I set the boat off the bluff bank about 130 feet and my cast was off the bank more than 50 feet. I let the jig get down close to the bottom before starting to work it. The strikes were coming about half way back to the boat. The trout were taking it on the drop--the strikes were solid and aggressive.

After hitting the start of the bottom half and shallower water, I quit getting hits so I picked up and moved down below the Narrows. I've been fishing this area using jig and float and seeing a lot of trout but they didn't like my straight jig. I only picked up a couple of small rainbows.

Moved again before getting dark, this time below Fall Creek's dock and worked the deep side again. They were short-hitting me down there but did manage to catch a few rainbows and another brown.

[mic]

Great PICs.

[Phil Lilley]

Been playing around with the underwater camera... I need to take the gopro and see what it does... but I really need to attach as light. The flash on the camera does a lot, esp in low light like the second pic.

[mwfischer]

Phil, do you ever pinch the feathers off of the maribou jigs to help with short hits? I've always done this on rubber jigs when fishing for crappie but the maribous, esp the 1/8 oz that you have in your shop are really full, so i'm thinking that may actually cause the opposite affect and i'd end up not even getting bit as often. Any thoughts?

[Phil Lilley]

Yea- You're exactly right. Pinch the ends off till they latch on to the hook. And never cut with scissors!