Vertical jigging Master

jiggerjohn

Active member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
547
Hey guys, Just back from an Outer Banks (saltwater ) vacation with my family. I thought I'd introduce Red's wool & fabric jigs in the salty sound areas, as conditions had NO ONE catching anything on their usual stuff. Found our best heads were the little tiny !/32 oz &1/24 ozers(split shot up line for casting) that Hawn jigs produces with tiny no 8 &6 hooks -something the saltwater species had rarely ,if ever, encountered! I discovered down there an amazing jig tipping material, and thought I'd share this letter to the "Fishbites" people,describing the details of the trip & success with their product:
Dear FB Folks, Despite 50+ years specializing with light tackle freshwater jigging tactics, YOUR wonderful Fishbites recently changed my entire outlook on fishing! My family and I vacationed this first week of November on North Carolina's Outer Banks, my self imposed mission to determine how my beloved homemade ultralight jigs would perform in extensive saltwater sounds and marsh areas.

Although much of our inland lake & river jig fishing is often most successful with live minnow or crayfish tipping, visits to EVERY coastal tackle shop impressed me with large displays of your neatly packaged Fishbite product. Wow, a 1/4" cut square of this super enhanced material seemed perfect for my planned concentration on mere 1/16 and 1/32 oz leadheads. Indeed, it was !

Without bulky bait to thwart the pulsating action of my specially formed fabric lures, the little wool covered jigs performed better than ever. In combination with a tiny section of Fishbites, my 32 year old son and I scored instantly and continually on a variety of both big and small species. One couldn't tell from our success, but conditions were actually quite poor with high winds, murky water, and cold front conditions ; no one else was catching anything in a variety of areas that we worked.

One afternoon son Sean hooked and played a "freight train" that eventually cut him off from a barnacle encrusted wooden piling, on our tiniest 1/32 oz jig model, carrying just a speck of red bloodworm Fishbites (absolutely great color contrast on our white & gold jig skirts!). Monsters are not supposed to grab 1" lures, but the fantastic FB scent obviously convinced this one!

One unusually calm, rainy afternoon produced 11 beautifully colored sea trout -would have been a "blitz" if anyone else on that popular bridge walkway caught even a mere fish or two! Yet Sean & I were the only ones using Fishbites jigs, with the rest sticking with a variety of live &cut bait, shrimp, and other, much lesser(!!), scented plastics.

I've heard that you hard working,dedicated people have been seriously researching fresh water formulas ; PLEASE tell me that you've developed strips such as the "bag 'o worms", that gave us such tremendous results,for crappie,bass, and rainbow trout!!! If so, I will never again fuss with messy, hard to store/transport minnows,crayfish, or nightcrawlers as jig tippings! By the way, with your permission I'd love to share my newfound joy of this "discovery"of FB tipping through a few articles that I'm already planning! Heck, we just may make live bait obsolete in freshwater jig fishing, as it already has me convinced in the salt!


 

Hawnjigs

KISS
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
4,226
Location
Ogallala, NE
How far down is the water? Must be tricky jigging over the railings.

Those "trout" are supposed to be sea run brown trout, but I don't see much resemblance?
 

jiggerjohn

Active member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
547
The water level in that sound is about 6' below the catwalk -if ya pointed the 6 1/2' rods that we were using downward ,it actually helped the slow ,steady twitching ,bottom walk retrieve, and had the rod tip just a few feet above the surface. I have no idea how we would've landed Sean's run away monster if he'd have turned him, tho one of the guys on the catwalk produced a long handled net, and was hovering around (Sean said he just got in the way!) These trout are "speckled trout" or spotted sea trout ,not brownies. I just held my breath when I hauled one of these flopping trout up and over the railings, but that old Faithful Ande 6# Tournament line is amazingly reliable! Then,again, that VMC #8 hook, tho tiny, is extremely strong for its size and held fast, once a trout was hooked and coming my way, 100% of the time! (Plus I think after this summer, even ole Red is considering changing to this hook for his jigs!!).
 

Uncle Grump

New member
Joined
Apr 20, 2010
Messages
232
Been reading this thread - don't think I'd done that before....quite the read.

Question - is Red still with us?

Any other updates to stuff in here?

UG
 

jiggerjohn

Active member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
547
Uncle Grump, Yep, talked to Red the other day - so I THINK he's still with us (Tho Red will be the first to tell you, he's "not all there" anyway!). But Red is already out chasin the crappies & bluegills with his jigs, and while doing so last week "accidently" hooked into a muskie on his 2# test line!Just waitin now for Spring wind & storms to clear out and allow more time out on Pymatuning reservoir to vertical jig the big crappies over deeper brushpiles & humps. Lots of stuff to update the jigs, tho the basic satin/wool form hasn't changed and continues to slay the fish!
 

rich mc

New member
Joined
Apr 17, 2015
Messages
133
after reading all the pages again I tied a few up . the colors of the satin really stand out. did some testing at the local dock this afternoon. they look great and I caught a small walleye and some bass during the short time I was there. guess im heading to the craft store tomorrow for some more colors! thank you to all those that joined in on that thread. rich mc
 

bucktail

New member
Joined
Apr 1, 2016
Messages
153
Location
CNY
Great stories and another pattern to try...great writeups throughout this thread jiggerjohn
I see it as a way to show off someone's passion and also a great friend you look up too
we all have one of these guys in our lives we mention here and there,way to pay a tribute to a friend and a great fisherman
sorry to dig up a old thread but I am just making my way around jig craft
Thanks for sharing
 

Bigjim

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2022
Messages
36
It is a small world. Knew Red for 40 years. I bought his son and grandsons fur at the shop. Sold his jigs in our store. Totally top notch!!!. He would give us Canadian geese for our pond. They had wing problems, so they would raise a brood, send the kids off to migrate but the adults would spend the winter around the barn.
 

Jamesddean

New member
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Messages
23
I realize this is an old thread. I want to say thank you to all who participated. I am fairly new to jig craft and not on a whole lot, however this Thread popped up on my email. Started reading and became enthralled in it. By some freak chance do any of you know if Red, or JiggerJohn is still around, or where I might buy a couple original of his wool jigs. I am very interested in this tie. you can PM me here or [email protected]. Thanks.
 

Jamesddean

New member
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Messages
23
If anyone is really interested in tying reds wool jig, and like me can't really get a good grasp of how this goes together, I did a bit of searching on the world wide web and found a video of Ronnie McKee tying one up. It's dated back to Feb 11, 2013. It's called "Tying Red's Wool and Satin Jig" Jig Craft Style. Hope this helps out. Thank you Red, JiggerJohn, Ronnie McKee and everyone for all the great info in this thread.
 

Bigjim

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2022
Messages
36
Watched the video. Red's jigs were not that style. The article has a picture with it of jigs. There are the ones that we sold in our store til 2010. They caught fish !!!!
 

hookup

Well-known member
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
2,698
Location
VA
I tied some of Red's jigs for a jig swap on this board. The satin's not easy to work with but a couple bucks worth will last for 100's of jigs
 
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