Hello , I just finished reading a 42 page post about a gentleman by the name of Red who tied jigs using fabric . The date of the last post is 2012 , is he still with us ?

Flooding back to me came fond memories of nice sized pike limits (plus bonus bass and huge crappies) from the mighty St. Lawrence river. These hefty stringers were acquired throughout month-long vacations to New York's famous Thousand Islands area during August, where locals always informed us that pike absolutely couldn't be taken ("lose their teeth during summer, ya know!"). Returning to the present from this daydream, I found myself once again nabbing one hard striking fish after another on practically the exact same jig fishing combo as during those old times, albeit a very serious updated version. My lure was a sparsely tied satin fiber woolie jig (of course!), sporting a most unique curly tailed, rind-strip trailer.

"Bob's Your Uncle" twist style strips, produced by the renowned Fishbites company of saltwarer scent bait fame, are actually NOT pork, but a very specialized molded material of well researched, highly concentrated chemical stimulants. Much more uniform in shape, thickness, and action than archaic, sloppy, cut pigskins, these brand new rugged rinds vigorously squirm and thrash about  with the slightest forward movement of one's jig. In fishing I've easily pulled these active tails near the top, or allow even a lightweight jig to take them down deep. They twirl during the jig's drop and even flap around while being held still or drifting in current. And fish really hang on to these tasty critters once they latch on!

Early snow is rapidly closing my opportunities, but I'm planning on using renewed jig 'n rind enthusiasm to tempt a few more late fall lunkers ! If there's interest, I'd enjoy sharing "Bob's tales" for further jigging discussions !

Have those night time walleye on the brain lately. Been a slow start fishing so at home tying tonight. Will be at the high school football game (1st game of playoffs) on Friday night, but Saturday night is open to fish. Whipped up a couple tonight. Both measure over 4" and are tied full to give them bulk and weight to cast. Seems like everything but the kitchen sink in these guys. Cotton batting, rabbit zonkers, flash, bucktail, kiptail and chenille. 

   

   

Simply because I like new lures, I bought myself the so-called jigging spoon mold. I took the first one down to the jetty, dipped it in to see the action and with the 3rd lift I hooked the first legal sized brown I´ve seen since spring. Coincidential but impressive! Anyone uses this mold? I like a very small slab with a thump. The smallest shad spoon has been very productive on baltic sea rainbow escapees, and this one is even smaller. No need to mention I instantly dremeled a run-through-variant. Since the wire form is so wide, there is no problem running an extra notch without further modification. I also like that the mold already comes with extra space for swivels. Full bearing makes for great rotation. 

It is walleye night fishing season here so those glowing eye balls are on my brain. Tied up a couple new jig spins for next time I get out. Have a variety of head shapes and sizes from 1/16 to 3/16 oz. All tied with added #6 trebles on 12lb line for stingers and swipe bites. Hopefully get back out again this week after dinner. Going to hit a few different little reservoirs....... haven't seen sh!t at my favorite local reservoir.

   

   

   

   

Also tied a couple tiny little guys. These are 1/64's on nice little hooks. I need to stock my deep freeze back up with panfish. Down to only a couple bags left. I am debating between trying for panfish or walleye......  

   

I see a number of newcomers here and occasionally see some old timers checking in.  We used to do a lot of Jig swaps on this site, many were aimed at crappie but rarely were exclusively crappie. Was just wondering if there are enough folks still interested to have a swap in the next couple months or is the swap program a dead horse?  PLease respond either way.

I was rummaging through a box of "stuff" the other day and found some mylar tubing.
Pretty coarse struff, was thinking about how to use it for jigs.
Can't really put it on after the hair, as is done for flies, so went to Google to get some inspiration.
Basically came up with the following where the tubing acts as a "fluffer" for the skirt, although the term does feel a bit weird 

   

   

   

I lack the killer instict to target C&R species, but VMC team angler Nils is an avid asp angler. I joined him on a trip yesterday. You can think of asp as piscivorous asian carp - they are not even that bad eating but terrribly boney, nothing you want in your fridge as long as you have some walleye/Zander left. On the upside, they are demanding light tackle sport fish with an unpredictable mood and strong fighting will. During summer, they slurp herring fry mashed by the ship propellers and are extremly difficult, but now in autumn we have a very good fishing on flutter jigs and shad spoon tins from the 3/4 cavity. The biggest fish yesterday was 78cm/roughly 10lbs.

in safety and accuracyI have slowly depleted my last big supply of lead and am finding good quality scrap lead virtually impossible to find.  Looking to resuppply so looked at rotometals and find lead is almost $3 per pounds.  was not too long ago that it was readily available for under $1 pound. But I think I am about to bite the bullet and order a couple hundred pounds to keep me going.

Rotometals does supply virtually  pure lead which with all Ive seen on this and a few other sites is probably as a good idea as much of the lead being found, scrounged, otherwise located is eother wheel weights, #2 alloy or lord only knows what else .  I saw some lead being advertised a while back n ebay asked how it was being tested and the answer was fingernail.  other than my fishing lures, I cast a lot of round balls, mini balls and maxiballs for muzzle loaders.  Those guys do care about having pure lead and it does make a difference especially with safety and accuracy.

The one on the left is what I’ve poured almost a hundred times. The one on the right, well, I poured over 5 ones that look like this after a couple of perfect pours. 

Lead was hot, mold was hot, lead was clear of residue and like I said, I’ve poured a couple of good ones early on and they started getting like this. 

I can’t seem to get my head around it. Any other problems that could cause this?