Our fearless leader

[Terry Beeson]

Jigging for trout

Local fishermen discover that lightweight jigs, in most colors, are excellent lures for catching trout.

By Steve Brigman

For the NEws-Leader

The sun had disappeared behind the ominously flashing clouds to the west. It took me back to a time on Taneycomo when Phil Lilley hooked a huge rainbow just as a storm was rolling in.

On a small jig using 2-pound line, it would be a race between landing the fish and exposing ourselves to the dangerous weather. A glance at the fish as it surfaced out in distance ruled out any cut-and-run thoughts. With my rain jacket, I shielded the camera from the first huge drops. After a few exposures, Lilley released the fish, and we took a wet but contented trip back to Lilley’s Landing. Lilley had caught his largest ever trout, though the approaching storm didn’t allow us the opportunity to weigh it.

On this July afternoon, the storm wasn’t as imminent, but Phillip Rice, Corey White and I were watching the clouds closely as we bounced our jigs along the bottom of Arkansas’ White River.

“I've been catching them on Y2Ks,” Rice had explained before we launched. “But olive has also been good.”

As we pulled into the ramp he commented, “I like a little more water … we’ll just have to go throw smaller jigs.”

He started with a 1/16-ounce jig in the bright orange and yellow Y2K, but the morning was cloudy and he quickly switched to olive-and-orange. Immediately, he landed a fat 18-inch brown trout. White and I were soon trading in the smaller rainbows we had been catching on jerkbaits in hopes of catching larger browns on jigs.

The time

Jig fishing had been introduced to this Texas transplant four years earlier by Lilley. On that cold January day, trout were feasting on dead and stunned shad being washed through the dam.

“They either die or drift down in the deeper levels of Table Rock and get sucked through a turbine in the dam,” Lilley said. “It is a natural occurrence in any lake when you have a large population of threadfin shad. Temperatures get around 40 degrees and a portion of those fish die.”

Constant flashes of silver down in the water and shad leaping across the surface told of a feeding frenzy. “Anything white,” Lilley recommends when the trout are feeding on shad. But there are exceptions.

“We have found that if they are coming through in large numbers, your white jig can get lost in the crowd,” he said. “We start throwing a little bit different colors at them and find them starting to hit chartreuse, pink, gray and even some darker colors.”

Jim Brentlinger fishes the White and Norfork rivers in Arkansas in every season and uses jigs 60 percent of the time.

“I fish them all year around,” Linger explained. “The water is the same temperature all year because of the hydroelectric dams.”

The water

Veteran tailwater anglers know that it's the amount of water being generated from the dam that determines how they must fish.

“Anytime except for dead low, jigs work,” said Rice, who lives just over a mile from Rim Shoals and fishes the river at least weekly. “I fish them in any water up to five units, and after that I have to go to a jerkbait.”

The number of “units” refers to the number of generators running, up to eight in the case of Bull Shoals. River rats like Rice and Linger keep tabs on the generating activity through the phone. A computer message reports the number of generators running at the respective dams. Each veteran angler knows how long rising or falling water is from the stretches of river they fish.

“Anytime when there is just a little bit of tailwater coming in or water from the night before, I think they work a little bit better,” Rice said.

As anglers will, the two have a little different take on fishing their rivers. Linger likes the lower water.

“As you go to shallower water you can use lighter jigs. You can catch the heck out of fish in two feet of water, you just need to go to a 1/16- or 1/32-ounce jig.”

He just doesn’t like fishing jigs in extremely high water.

“The jigs are harder to use in high water because it takes longer to get them on the bottom, and that’s the key thing.”

White River jiggers typically keep an assortment of 1/16-, 1/8- and 1/4-ounce jigs in a variety of colors.

“In the lower water I use a 1/16-ounce and go to an 1/8-ounce when it is a little higher,” Rice said.

The presentation

The variety of jigs available is staggering, with dozens of combinations from the old standard olives and blacks, to more exotic, three-colored jigs.

John Richesin, at Cranfield Junction tackle store near Norfork Lake, had a new shipment of jigs in the store. We had exhausted our supply before lunch, so we headed that way. Richesin laid hundreds of jigs out on the table in dozens of color combinations. He picked up an olive-ginger-yellow jig, handed it to me and smiled.

You will find olive, black, brown and white in almost every jig box; then it starts to become a matter of an angler’s personal favorites.

“It seems like brown, olive-orange and ginger are my favorites colors,” Rice said. “That olive-orange is hard to beat. On darker days I like to go to a solid black or brown.”

The Brentlinger take on jig selection makes it quite easy for the newcomer to the sport.

“On the Norfork, white seems to work a little better along with olive,” he explained. “On the White River, the mustard-head jig with ginger marabou works excellent in most water conditions. Day in and day out, that ginger is the ticket.”

Lilley likes purple for night fishing on Taneycomo.

The jigs are fished by casting across the current as you drift; the bait is allowed to reach the bottom before popping it back toward the surface.

“When I first tie a jig on, I flip it in the water next to the boat to see how long it takes for it to hit the bottom, whether it's three or five seconds,” Rice explained. “I like to pop it on intervals, like every three or five seconds. You want to fish that jig toward the bottom, and almost always the fish hit them on the fall.”

There is an art to getting the bait near the bottom without the jig collecting the slimy vegetation from the bottom.

“Those fish, unless they are up cruising, they are down by the bottom,” Linger said. “When you pop it, it gets their attention. When it is dropping down dead they go get it. Ninety-nine percent of the time they hit it when it’s sinking.”

The catch

Fishing had been excellent in the morning, with a couple of nicer browns mixed into the dozens of rainbows, but with a new arsenal of jigs in our boxes, we put back on the river with eagerness.

We had fished the Wildcat Shoals area in the morning and there were quite a few folks out enjoying their Saturday, so we decided to hit the Rim Shoals in the afternoon. We ended up having it all to ourselves. This trophy management area is a single-barbless-hook, catch-and-release section of river known for its nicer size fish.

With two units running, we were throwing 1/16- and 1/4-ounce jigs. My companions were sticking with the olive-orange that produced so well in the morning, but I was throwing the olive-ginger-yellow that Rishes in had suggested. They all caught fish.

A few minutes into our first drift, Rice hooked into a nice brown, a beautifully colored three-pounder.

By the time heavy clouds began to roll in, we had at least a dozen fish apiece. There was a sense of urgency about the casting as the thunder grumbled in the distance. Rice hurried down into his box and retrieved a brown jig. The lightning flashed in his face as he cast.

Hooking a fish while drifting in the current always feels like being hung up; the boat keeps going but your bait just stops. And hanging up a jig is always a distinct possibility. In that moment where Rice held his rod up in indecision, the bounce in the tip told of something alive, just not moving.

On the four-pound test needed to cast small jigs, the fish was allowed to take line generously from the reel. Finally, a golden flash in the water told us it was a big brown. Thunder snarled overhead has Rice lifted the fish with his Boga Grips — 4 1/2 pounds.

The dark clouds came down on us like a curtain on perfect day. Giving up early wasn’t overly difficult after having caught so many fish on jigs. After all, as Rice says: “They are pretty much a year around deal.”

[Phil Lilley]

Didn't see it coming...

Wish Steve was with me last evening- would have been a fresh fish pic at least. How much use do you think he's going to get with that pic do you think?

I've been told they are discontinuing the Outdoor section soon... too bad. May be it was Steve's jaunt to Africa that broke the budget

Steve's going to AK with Micheal crew in late September... that ought to be a great article.

[Terry Beeson]

DISCONTINUE THE OUTDOOR SECTION?!?!?

OK... I hate to say it, but I have been very disappointed in the News-Leader since moving here. I can say that it may not be the fault of the paper, but they do not cover the area as well as the other papers I am familiar with. The Sunday section of the Jonesboro Sun was more interesting and covered more than the Springfield paper.

I always felt it was the duty of a newspaper editor to make sure the local events and public interests were well covered and advertised. However, it seems I find out about many public events a few days AFTER they have gone on. And, yes, I do check the calendar section of the paper.

But to discontinue the Outdoor section of a newspaper that SHOULD cover a region that is so saturated with outdoor activities just seems WRONG. Maybe advertising sales are down, but that may be due to the fact that a region with a fountain of outdoors to write about has only a few articles that could easily fit on one or two pages in the Sports section...

Then again, this could be another sign of the corporate news conglomerates "USA Today" attitude... Less is more...

[Micheal Kyle]

I was told that the outdoor section was going to be discontinued, they will still cover the outdoors in the life section but it will only be 1-2 pages.

I was also told way back when I bought the store from Jack that the Thursday paper was the number one day. Yes topping Sunday they attributed it to the outdoor section. Not sure why they are making this move.

[Rusty]

The best approach to this is to contact the paper. It does work, believe me.

[WebFreeman]

Gannett owns USA Today and the News-Leader, along w/ about 90 other dailies papers, 100s of weekly and a couple dozen TV stations. The business is a lot less about news than it is about other things. You're not the only one dissatisfied w/ the NL, Terry. I think even a lot of the people who work there are. In a lot of ways, the news paper business is dying. They are all diversifying and looking for new revenue streams. The NL has a glossy magazine to compete w/ 417 Mag, they own the Penny Power, which competes directly w/ their own classifieds. They are also putting a lot into the web site, though I think it's hard to navigate, slow, and gives me more pop-up ads than any site I go to. Don't get me started............

[Phil Lilley]

OK, just told they are moving the Outdoor Feature Section to the Life Section on Thursday's which will give them less room for features.

[Terry Beeson]

OK... let's start our OWN Outdoors magazine for SW MO... Guess we could start it as an online mag an graduate to slick...

We'll call it... "TERRY"

OK... OK... OK... It was just a thought...

[Micheal Kyle]

Must be an echo

[loo10]

Maybe we could call it

"Straight From Leonard's Lips"