Night Zander Jig

[Bucho]

Enjoying some really nice night time zander fishing over here at the moment. At night, they rise to the surface where they can be caught with slow, shallow running lures. Problem is, since this is done with floating minnow baits which I have to buy like anyone else, I spend long evenings at the water without a chance to promote my business. Considering that fly anglers share similar success with intermediate lines and unweighted streamers and other anglers use plastics on light jig heads, I thought getting a zander on a light jig couldn´t bee so hard if I give it a shot.

In an effort to slow the fall, maximize thump, enlarge the silhouette and reduce snag/dirt sensitivity I poured the two smallest sea horse heads, able to carry 3.5 willow blades, with tin. A bushy yet still slender deceiver pattern, large glowing eyes and there I was. The first cast got bit straight away, but like the following 3 contacts, I could`t get a single solid hookup. Changed back to the rapala and caught 4 legal sized fish straigt. Two of them were lightly hooked and could only be landed because the tail treble foul-hooked them under the chin. 

for some reason, they gobble the jig up at daylight but only nibble about it at night. Will have to do more testing around stinger hooks. The two keepers in the pic are 52 and 63cm which both went for a rapala x-shad.

 

[Jig Man]

good looking jigs... and dinner

 

[Hawnjigs]

A stinger might work if the Zs are short striking the tail, but maybe they're hitting the blade instead of the main jig?
Since you have the mold, a right side up Cabela's Wobble Jig might be a decent shallow running foundation?
Do your jigs have to have such a big profile?  Maybe a compact tin CWJ with a tail spin or even a shank prop might offer flash equal to a crank in a compact package that can be fully mouthed?
http://www.jigcraft.com/jigcraft/showthread.php?tid=8836&highlight=Booger

 

[Bucho]

The embankment has a very shallow step, both cranks and jigs check it every second time and get hung with dead weed. The sea horse head deals with this very well while a propellered wobble jig would shovel that stuff up and be tedious to clean at night. I´d like to stay in the size and weight range of the minnow baits, its hard enough to make customers try radically new baits let alone bring special light tackle.

Even a small zander can suck in an enormous amount of water with large lures in it - if it really wants to. Propblem here is the indecisivee nibble. It occurs on cranks the same way, just that they are so blistering with free swinging hooktips the fish gets kinda "snagged" as soon as it comes too close.

That being said, those twin spin jigs with the blades on top might be something worth looking into. The fish would have to get around the hook if it reaches for the blades from below.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Indeed, the CWJ might be the worst jig head for weed trapping avoidance. Boolies aren't ideal in weed debris conditions either, and one can spend as much time cleaning junk around the prop as actual fishing. In weedy conditions, I prefer cranks with a single tail double hook tho that may not be the best choice for snagging nibblers.

Altho I tied some shoulder free forward hook eye pointy nose jigs for hopeful debris slipping didn't get to try them this year with the oddly dead bite in our weedy trout river.

What is your retrieve tekneek? Could modifying it get nibblers to commit to a strike?

 

[goodtimesfishing]

One thing I found with underspin jigs is to use a side sweeping hook set or no hook set at all, just start reeling . Standard hook set does not seem to work well with underspins.

 

[Bucho]

Its funny that both the varied retrieve (s.a. a sharp drop) and the delayed hookset comes to me naturally when I`m after the more common cod which I have years of experience with and don´t care too much about any more. Night zander however is new to me, and I pay much more respect to it, maybe too much. A slow monotone retrieve and quick response is textbook knowledge that I cling to.

Now that I have gotten into it a bit deeper and the freezer is half full with filet I will allow myself to listen to my "cod/gut- feeling" again!

 

[jiggerjohn]

One problem with hooking fish near top on light jigs may be due to rod construction ; check out this story - http://fishinglifestyle.net/2010/12/fiberglass-vs-graphite-fishing-rods/

Another thing I've recently observed -with floating weeds present, it's wise to NOT use spinners on a jig. Instead I found a flat,eye forward, wedge head such as Hawnjigs' HU, supplies all the flash that is needed from its wide tin body, and is a solid hooker, with its sharp, relatively small gapped hook. With this head, I rarely "set" as such, just continue reeling when fish load on. Of course, "razor sharpen" the hook !

 

[duffy]

Would a longer shank hook and maybe shorten the tail feather but bulk it up around the hook to fend off weeds? A stinger hook may be easier as long as it doesn't get fouled up.
 If Zander are like Walleye there seems to be no consistent answer to how and why. A friend of mine who is an excellent walleye fisherman once told me to do a 2 second count before setting the hook after feeling the "tap-tap" on my line. It helped a lot because before I think I was ripping it away from them before they got a good bite on it. That was for bottom jigging though and this is probably much different.

 

[AtticaFish]

Good looking baits there Bucho. Love this topic too. I wonder if you could add a different style blade to help slow your retrieve? An Indiana style blade with the fatter back end will spin at a slower speed and push a little more water around maybe? I've always assumed that the slower i can work jigs and keep them in front of the walleye, i get better and more solid bites. Every time i think i get them figured out though, they prove me wrong and i go a few trips with out so mush as a bite.

I have become somewhat obsessed with casting after dark for walleye over here in deep water upground city reservoirs. It is usually only a late fall and early spring opportunity to get them from the shore for me. Last fall and early this spring i did catch several good walleye with hair jigs. Caught a personal best from a little reservoir only 20 minutes from home that measured 27" (68.5cm) on a hair jig. The jigs i was using were all made from craft hair and dressed about as big and fat as i could tie them.

It could be a totally different bite from my walleye compared to your zander though. The majority of my jig bites all come when i am fishing very close to the bottom, usually bumping jigs off the bottom with a lift and fall retrieve. I also catch them pretty frequently with big twister tail grubs and paddle tail swim baits the same way too...... almost always scraping the bottom. Almost. If i do happen to see walleye swimming up higher, then i switch over and throw the stick bait style crank baits that swim very shallow. (By the way, that blue/silver x-rap is one of my favorite to throw too. The Helsinki Shad Husky Jerk is another very good producing stick bait.)

 

[Hawnjigs]

Maybe because of the intense angler pressure in the upper water column, I caught my fair share with jigs near bottom during last years Spring crank bite.  Unfortunately, this Spring most wallys apparently departed their spawn areas early which of course killed the post spawn bite, & neither cranks nor jigs were getting any.

In other words, I've noticed that active fish may be present at all depths despite the appearance of surface feeding.

 

[Bucho]

Bite has slowed considerably. Got skunked on monday, today only one bite. Changed cranks and jigs back and forth, even brought a friend who got nothing with cranks. With only one bite I don´t want to jump into conclusions, but I think this might work: I poored on an articulated fly shank and fixed a trebele where I supposed it had the best chance to land in the fishes mouoth.

Hawnjigs I am fully aware that the bottom holds fish but pressure on the surface is low and bottem scraping produces a lot of snags, which gives mass produced plastics an edge over hand crafted, price intensive hair jigs. Hence my special interest in the surface bite.

 

[AtticaFish]

Oh WOW!  Those look amazing.  I am sold!  What style spinner is that?  Looks wider than a standard willow maybe?  

I have only landed 5 walleye this fall, but i think every one has been caught on a jig or crank that has blue in it.

 

[Bucho]

Thanks! Thats a regular 3.5 willow blade. Its maxed out in proportion to the jig and the pearl foil is only roughly in shape, which might shift the prerception a little bit. I had to bend the wire back up at one point in order to maintain enough distance to the material. Its really large in compare, but I rather have a large willow than a small colorado which stands off in a steeper angle and requires even more distance to the material. The torque will make the light head lie flat or even keel over at higher water speeds, but thats not what the jig is intended for.  

Its a relatively quick tie for a large pattern and an easy fix for a major problem of mine: I can´t sell high-prized jigs to folks scraping rocky canal embankments that, if fished in the right way, will spoil hookpoints in a matter of a few casts. This way, the hook can be replaced, either with a treble or a single according to regulations and fear of snags.

 

[Hawnjigs]

That articulated fly shank is NICE!  You may have found a marketable short strike jig option.  Congratulations!

Since my (formerly) treasured trophy walleye spot is a quarried boulder tumble dam,  I used the countdown method and lots of retrieve practice to stay above but close to bottom back up the angled rock face.  Lightest practical 1/10 - 1/8 oz jigs and maybe #2 hooks helped snag avoidance.  May be just wishful thinking but I noticed sometimes the deep wallys were bigger than the crank depth ones.

I'm surprised that carrying pocket hook sharpeners isn't mainstream advice.  I used to straighten hook folds with my de-hooking forceps, but finally wised up this year and carry the smallest pen style grooved Eze Lap which does a way better job of point fixing.

 

[jiggerjohn]

Very nice articulation on that jig! Some years ago I used to TROLL Lake Erie breaklines, above boulder fields with a jig somewhat shaped like yours (the bottom extension acted as a keel) fitted with a regular jig hook. Got lots of strikes from white bass, smallmouth & channel cats, but missed what I suspected were walleyes. I tied on a small no 8 or 10 treble as a stinger, and LIMITS of walleyes were had thereafter almost every trip out! This new one of yours will make a lot of your customers very happy with results!

 

[hookup]

I saw the walleye & jerk bait and if they're coming up to the top, a multi-colored sparkling rainbow style jerk bait would work. Get a little chartreuse or yellow in the sparkly of the jerk and you got money

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Looks great, gives me another idea to play with the next time I pour.

 

[duffy]

That's what I was thinking about with a longer hook shank but I like your idea better! Sort of like an forward weight spinner with a skirt.

 

[Bucho]

3 legal size fish sunday, 3 yesterday all around 23", only one of them lost. Now I´m sold, too.




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