jiggerjohn
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2010
- Messages
- 547
In recent correspondence with famed bunnystrip tier, Paul Jensen, I was rather excited about an interesting jig method for Spring/early Summer northern pike. Paul is often featured in In-Fisherman stories on using his very long, unique rabbit zonker style lures for muskies,pike, and lunker bass, yet he told of just employing a simple red & white bucktail jig, tied since his youth, that is fished near the surface over & around emerging weed beds. Jensen merely attaches a bobber or water bubble a few feet above his jig and proceeds to work it in with constantly varying rod positions to create a slow motion zig zag action. To keep them buoyant, Paul purposely ties the white only bucktail full and long (starts wrapping bundles at the rear of the hook shank for length,then stacks above and below this initial tie), and ,interestingly, uses just a light 1/16 or 1/8 jighead (painted red).
In water, the fat bucktail flits around, depending on the rod angled pull on the float, while also pulsating and swimming when slowly sinking ( tho' not far)between the mild jerks. Onlooking pike find the action of this easy prey hard to resist ! To me, the blooming jig reminds of a plump red& white bluegill (nope, never saw a r&w 'gill,either!) surface feeding, tho I'm sure this big bucktail could resemble many tasty chunk-style minnows , or just something highly visible & in distress! Whatever,Mr. Jensen maintains that since boyhood, he has caught far more pike on his basic red&white bucktail than anything!
The float approach is simple - merely secure a half filled standard water bubble about 30 inches upline and gently heave it out. It'll travel a long way, much further than the light headed, air resistant, full bucktail will go. This bubble is also fairly visible to concentrate on rod motion and changing pulling angles. Another idea was recently supplied by our own super tier from Germany, Bucho , with the use of their streamlined Bombardas ; these cast a full bodied jig out even better, and offer even less resistance on the retreive & jerking motions. However you're rigged, tho, don't forget the wire leader !
In water, the fat bucktail flits around, depending on the rod angled pull on the float, while also pulsating and swimming when slowly sinking ( tho' not far)between the mild jerks. Onlooking pike find the action of this easy prey hard to resist ! To me, the blooming jig reminds of a plump red& white bluegill (nope, never saw a r&w 'gill,either!) surface feeding, tho I'm sure this big bucktail could resemble many tasty chunk-style minnows , or just something highly visible & in distress! Whatever,Mr. Jensen maintains that since boyhood, he has caught far more pike on his basic red&white bucktail than anything!
The float approach is simple - merely secure a half filled standard water bubble about 30 inches upline and gently heave it out. It'll travel a long way, much further than the light headed, air resistant, full bucktail will go. This bubble is also fairly visible to concentrate on rod motion and changing pulling angles. Another idea was recently supplied by our own super tier from Germany, Bucho , with the use of their streamlined Bombardas ; these cast a full bodied jig out even better, and offer even less resistance on the retreive & jerking motions. However you're rigged, tho, don't forget the wire leader !