Hawnjigs
KISS
The late John Mckean aka "JiggerJohn" gave me a few trout jigs tied on 1/16 #6 tube jig heads with #1 brass propellers mounted on the #6 or #4 hook shanks between the head & tie LONG ago and they caught trout alright plus other species. After MANY years of field testing it seemed that plain ties & pinned plastics were just as effective bite getters as JJ's shank prop "Boolie" design jigs which I modified with super glued plastic beads on the shank to pin plastics instead of the original ties.
But last night catfish off the rocks of our Mac dam was the only game available after meatheads live baiting alewives during their spawn pretty much fished out the usual walleye & wipers feeding on the amassed in large #s baitfish. Luckily catfish are a less desirable keeper species compared to the top 2 so I could get some tugs on 3" plastics pinned on my lightest 1/14 oz BooHu heads (bead collar Boolie Hooksup) which as mentioned in a previous post were useful to minimize bottom snags in inches of water inches from the dam face riprap where predators trapped the alewives against the rocky shoreline the preferred area for discharging their eggs.
Was catching a decent amount of fun size cats with a few biguns in the mix when I started losing jigs stuck in fish due to 15# Daiwa J-braid Grand mainline breaking 4x in a short time which depleted my Boolie jig arsenal since I travel light walking the treacherous dam rocks with only a small waistpack to hold gear. I had used this line all of last years alewife spawn season bite and a full week starting this years without noticeable breakage problems but suddenly last night it seems the line had reached a point where accumulated fatigue had rendered the line fragile and useless.
OK, the point is after those 4 Boolie jigs were lost the only spare I had left was a no prop no head bead collar long shank hook which was designed for just this shallow snaggy environment app pinned with an opening night color PB Twitchtail. It proceeded to snag more fish than get bit so I'm speculating that maybe the flash & vibration of the spinning prop distinguished it from the multitude of alewives enuf to trigger bites? Dunno, the successful plastic during this years alewife spawn has been color mimic "sexy shad" in both genuine and local copy Keitech Easy Shiner versions with identical thin mini boot tails which differed from the straight tail Twitchtail. All 3 plastics have similar blue pearl back / clear glitter belly colors. Any thoughts?
But last night catfish off the rocks of our Mac dam was the only game available after meatheads live baiting alewives during their spawn pretty much fished out the usual walleye & wipers feeding on the amassed in large #s baitfish. Luckily catfish are a less desirable keeper species compared to the top 2 so I could get some tugs on 3" plastics pinned on my lightest 1/14 oz BooHu heads (bead collar Boolie Hooksup) which as mentioned in a previous post were useful to minimize bottom snags in inches of water inches from the dam face riprap where predators trapped the alewives against the rocky shoreline the preferred area for discharging their eggs.
Was catching a decent amount of fun size cats with a few biguns in the mix when I started losing jigs stuck in fish due to 15# Daiwa J-braid Grand mainline breaking 4x in a short time which depleted my Boolie jig arsenal since I travel light walking the treacherous dam rocks with only a small waistpack to hold gear. I had used this line all of last years alewife spawn season bite and a full week starting this years without noticeable breakage problems but suddenly last night it seems the line had reached a point where accumulated fatigue had rendered the line fragile and useless.
OK, the point is after those 4 Boolie jigs were lost the only spare I had left was a no prop no head bead collar long shank hook which was designed for just this shallow snaggy environment app pinned with an opening night color PB Twitchtail. It proceeded to snag more fish than get bit so I'm speculating that maybe the flash & vibration of the spinning prop distinguished it from the multitude of alewives enuf to trigger bites? Dunno, the successful plastic during this years alewife spawn has been color mimic "sexy shad" in both genuine and local copy Keitech Easy Shiner versions with identical thin mini boot tails which differed from the straight tail Twitchtail. All 3 plastics have similar blue pearl back / clear glitter belly colors. Any thoughts?
