Wintertime-River Smallmouth Edition

[Guest]

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[Blazerman]

I am throwing mine on spinning rods- a Falcon lowrider and also a TFO Gary's signature series. On both rods I have Pflueger President spinning reels. I have learned to love thses reels. I am normally using 6lb line in the winter.

This plce still has the TFO signature series rods at buy one get one free. So you end up getting two for about $100.

http://www.reedssports.com/Category/main.taf?cat=4410

[Al Agnew]

Another thing to consider...if a 5/16th jig is falling too slow in the current, you might be fishing in too much current. Wintertime water temps, the fish won't be in much current at all. I'm using mostly Mitch's 1/8th ounce jig heads, tying them with cross cut rabbit strips and a plastic trailer, and have no problem with them falling too slow in the water I'm fishing. Another thing is the line...if your line is too thick, or if it's a braid, the line might be slowing the fall too much. I've gone to 8 pound test fluoro for my winter hair jig fishing.

I don't think the material you tie the jigs with is as important as the size and profile. My jigs are about 2 inches long, trailer included. The fur on the jig itself only extends an eighth to a fourth of an inch beyond the hook bend, just barely enough to hide the hook bend and make the joining of the body and the trailer look like it's all one piece and not have a gap between the body and the trailer.

Lots of little tweaks you can do, though. Maybe later on this evening I can post pics of my latest ties, where I think I've improved that profile, and the trailers I'm cutting out of Zoom Brush Hogs.

Hair jigs aren't the only bottom dredging lures you can try in cold water, though. 2 inch tubes can work well. So can a 5 inch finesse worm on a jig head. Or the smallest versions of Senkos with a texas rig, or with a small EWG worm hook and a split shot a few inches up the line to take it down quickly. The infamous Ned Rig with a lightweight jig head would probably work well, too. Or you can really go simple and use a plain marabou jig.

I'm using a medium power, fast to extra fast action 6.5 ft. casting rod and my best light lure casting reel (an old Shimano Scorpion) to throw the 18th ounce jigs these days. The rod is a pretty high end one that's extremely sensitive, and I prefer it by far over the spinning rods I used to use to throw the wintertime stuff.

[Guest]

Another thing to consider...if a 5/16th jig is falling too slow in the current, you might be fishing in too much current. Wintertime water temps, the fish won't be in much current at all. I'm using mostly Mitch's 1/8th ounce jig heads, tying them with cross cut rabbit strips and a plastic trailer, and have no problem with them falling too slow in the water I'm fishing. Another thing is the line...if your line is too thick, or if it's a braid, the line might be slowing the fall too much. I've gone to 8 pound test fluoro for my winter hair jig fishing.

I don't think the material you tie the jigs with is as important as the size and profile. My jigs are about 2 inches long, trailer included. The fur on the jig itself only extends an eighth to a fourth of an inch beyond the hook bend, just barely enough to hide the hook bend and make the joining of the body and the trailer look like it's all one piece and not have a gap between the body and the trailer.

Lots of little tweaks you can do, though. Maybe later on this evening I can post pics of my latest ties, where I think I've improved that profile, and the trailers I'm cutting out of Zoom Brush Hogs.

Hair jigs aren't the only bottom dredging lures you can try in cold water, though. 2 inch tubes can work well. So can a 5 inch finesse worm on a jig head. Or the smallest versions of Senkos with a texas rig, or with a small EWG worm hook and a split shot a few inches up the line to take it down quickly. The infamous Ned Rig with a lightweight jig head would probably work well, too. Or you can really go simple and use a plain marabou jig.

I'm using a medium power, fast to extra fast action 6.5 ft. casting rod and my best light lure casting reel (an old Shimano Scorpion) to throw the 18th ounce jigs these days. The rod is a pretty high end one that's extremely sensitive, and I prefer it by far over the spinning rods I used to use to throw the wintertime stuff.

I really like zooms tiny brush hog as a trailer in the cold water period. Esp on bucktail jigs.

I'm curious to see how the Ned Rig will fare.

[Al Agnew]

Oops...upon actually measuring my jigs with trailers, I found that they are about 3 inches long overall.

Here's a photo of the trailers and a few of my jigs.

The top jig is made from one of Mitch's jig heads, and I exposed the hook to show what I've done with it. The jigs are made with light wire round bend hooks, but if you "nose-hook" the trailer as I do, it ends up in the middle of the round bend hook, thus being offset from the hook shank and the center of the jig hair. I didn't like it that way so I bent the round bend to change it to where the part of the bend that sticks out the farthest is about in line with the hook shank, as you can see. So when I nose-hook the trailer, it stays in a line with the hook shank.

Directly below that jig is one with the trailer attached, showing what the profile looks like overall. Rabbit fur stays fairly much blossomed out when it's in the water, much as it looks dry, so that's a pretty close approximation of the profile when it's in the water.

The other jig is one I tied with red squirrel strip tails. However, I don't like the squirrel strip tails because I think the fish hold onto the jig with plastic trailer longer, and it doesn't wave as freely as the squirrel strips. I believe that the less action the tails have in cold water, the better.

The plastic trailers are the three shapes I can cut out of one Brush Hog. I get one of the top shape, and two each of the other two shapes, out of one Brush Hog.

[fishinwrench]

I love the aesthetics of a hand tied hair jig but if your fishing for winter bass along a rocky bottom a 4-5" Chomper DT hula grub on a 1/4 stand-up head is really hard to beat.

You have to call TR and special order the non-garlic version though unless you're into the heavily scented version that can be found everywhere. I don't care for pungent scents that you can smell from clear across the river.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I love the aesthetics of a hand tied hair jig but if your fishing for winter bass along a rocky bottom a 4-5" Chomper DT hula grub on a 1/4 stand-up head is really hard to beat.

You have to call TR and special order the non-garlic version though unless you're into the heavily scented version that can be found everywhere. I don't care for pungent scents that you can smell from clear across the river.

That is just exactly what the alleged hybrid succumbed to.

I don't mind the scent too much. They do have a ton of it on them. Personally, I don't think it lasts very long. A couple of cast and it is mostly gone. They for sure are not near as oily. I am not really sold on scents anyway. I think it is just a marketing gimick.

[Mitch f]

The biggest smallmouth I've ever seen caught in Missouri was on a 4" brown Chomper DT hula grub full garlic scent on a warm November day on the Gasconade.

I disagree on the scents though, I believe they help by causing the fish to hang on a little longer than usual and possibly cause a fish that is trailing after a bait in a lazy way to go ahead and commit. as far as the Chomper stand up heads, those are the worst hanging up jig heads ever.

[Guest]

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[Mitch f]

It was between 21 and 22" my friend Dan caught it about 10 years ago. I've posted a pic on here before. I'll see if I can find it and repost.

I should have said caught in a Missouri Stream!