Nice haul neph. You got some serious grubbing ahead of ya! What kind of jigs? I make my own. The only jigs I use are the 1/16--1/4 oz lead heads with the grub barbs. Made for twistertails and other plastics. I also use powdercoat paint,very sweet. Quick and hard!
It ceetainly was a fruitful night although we've a long long ways to catch up to your fish count! You know I couldn't even tell the exact brand/model (they were just loose in the tackle box) but we had several cheapie silver and orange rubber tube jigs and one with a yellow feather body and a teeny spoon on the front. I like the idea of rolling my own - where do you get supplies for that? I need to pick some up at the store but if I can't find the ones I used the other night do you (or anyone) have any recommendations? I've always used minnow so I have no idea what to look for plus money's tight so I can't go pick up an armload of styles to see what works best.
@Neph That's a nice catch of Sac-A-Lait. Did you filet those beauties? Tube jigs are the way to go here now since shiners are $.14 a piece. How deep are you fishing. We usually are fishing oil company canals in the swamps at about 2.5 -3 ft deep under a cork or even tightlined, on some kind of underwater cover(stumps, fallen trees, grass beds). Lot cheaper to fish the swamps than the coast. But the pull is a lot bigger offshore or in the marsh.
Hi garmoon, We'd have been there all day if I tried filetting so my dad did it - he's a whiz with that electric knife. Based on results I agree the tube jigs are a good thing, cheap too. I'll hit the local Mom and Pop to pick some up. We've been using ultralights with 4lb test usually fishing about 15' down with nothing but a sinker 15" up from the minnow. The area we fish is about 30' to 40' deep and through trial and error we've found 10' to 20' to be the sweet spot. .14 a shiner is pretty spendy. I paid $2.50 a dozen for our minnows and they weren't at all worth it. They were tiny things and because of that we lost a ton of them to pesky bluegill. If they don't hasve some decent size minnows next week I'm not wasting my money.
My way:Crappie minnows run a buck a dozen,then the larger bass/saugeye minnow are higher. They used to slap a netful in your bucket,but now they practically count every individual minnow. Buying jigheads: Check out walmart. They'll have pks of jig heads reasonable. They'll also have packs of grubs,twisters,and should have tubes.They won't have a slew of colors,but the basic proven white/yellow/and charteuse. Definitely making your own jig heads would be cheaper,not including the cost of mold. About 5 cents each for the hooks-eagle claw,and you can usually get free lead at tire centers. The plastic bodies can be had for a couple cents,if you buy them by the 100 pks. Basspro is the place for them. Melting down old car batteries got me quite a bit.Have a bonfire,throw in a bunch of batteries-dry of course,and next day-start digging for lead. Don't tell the EPA about me! There's a slew of different types of jig molds. Some have barbs,to hold the plastic grubs on better,and some for tubes,spinnerbaits,and sinkers. Some have various sizes. Some also have 1 size,but 6-8 cavities. Be cautious of the mold you order,can be confusing. http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.SearchResults?cmid=TOP_SEARCH_GO Boy those mold prices went up since I bought mine a long time ago. It came as a kit from bass pro,with lead,and melting pot.It's a great starter kit,but the heater they give you needs the help of a torch to keep it hot enough.They also had a huge heating pot for the serious jig makers. A coleman stove and cast iron skiller works very well,but keep a propane torch close to keep the lead nice and hot. Also keep the mold hot. Too hot,you'll have flashing on the seam-and you'll be trimming. Too cold,incomplete heads-and you'll re-melt them. It's not cheap to start out with,but over time-it will save $. We used to go through them when white bass fishing at fremont,oh. 2 jigs per pole-using leaders. Rocks tore them up,nicked the lines,and also occasional carp would nail them.Losing 50 jigs a day wasn't uncommon. Catching 200+ white bass was common-and so was spending 6 hrs between 4 of us to clean 1000 of them. Boy I miss those days!! Back then,nobody even thought about using electric knives to fillet fish. Powdercoat paint runs about $6-$7 a jar,but it's so simple and a heck of a lot faster than the older vinyl paint. Heat the head in a propane torch for a couple seconds,dip in the powder jar,a few seconds to dry and that's all she wrote. 1 jar goes a long way. You can even powder coat your keys or anything else metal with it.Very nice,and durable if your jig fishing rocks. Vinyl paint: Dip jig in white paint-dry for hours.The fluorescent colors only show up on white paint. Dip in colored paint-dry for hours. Paint eyeballs one,dry for an hour. Dip in clear coat,dry for hours. Sometimes a 2-3 day process per batch.Very time consuming,so the money you save using vinyl-will save you endless hours with powdercoat. When jigs get hot,ages,hits rocks,or old plastic grubs left on them,then the paint peels off in 1 pc. The lead fumes are toxic. Look at me, I've been making jigs for years and still halfway normal, LOL. I do it in the winter time,because it's a very hot job. I make a batch of 500 every few years. Most of them are given away,sold at yardsales,or stockpiled in my jig box. Basspro and cabela's have all the supplies. You may also find them at nearby baitshops. I got the mold with 8 different sizes. Only making 2-4 jigs per pour,but I can customize the size of hook-per size of jig.Customize my shallow water white bass jigs lighter,along with a bigger hook so I don't lose as many. The barb does take up space,making it harder to hook a fish. PM me if you want me to send ya some to try out. I've got enough to last me a few years. Saugeye fishing up,white bass fishing must go down. BTW: Can you get a hold of wax worms? Very effective on bluegill and crappie.Even bass! Very small Ice Jig,tipped with waxworm. Sometimes they'll hit a waxworm before a minnow. Waxworms my way run about $7 per 250.My walmart have them in small pks of 30. We used to take 1500 of them up to rice lake ontario for the bluegill spawn,and also tore up the crappie and bass.
@saugmon, where do you get the powdercoat paint. You got my imagination running wild. Thanks in advance. George
Here ya go george: http://www.basspro.com/servlet/cata...et=search&AFID=&sourceid=&cmCat=SEARCHRESULTS Cabela's also has it,but I couldn't locate on their website. Some larger,local baitshops may carry it as well. Neph: If you can locate the Bass pro shops 2006 angler's catalog,they have a ton of jigs and bodies. Did you ever see anyone using a spider rig setup for crappie? I've heard they use 4-8 rods per person,and troll for crappie with jigs. Rods everywhere! Tennessee allows each peep to use at least 4 rods,depending on which lake/s they are on. We're only allowed 2.
We can use as many rods as you want. But we don't troll for sac-a-lait. There is just a daily 50 per person creel limit. Most fishing in south Louisiana is done in less than 10' of water more likely 6'-7'. But freshwater fishing spots are within a 30min drive wherever you live.
Saugmon, I'll look for the catalog, it may be over at my parents place - I move around so much I have all my mags and catalogs sent there. I need to look into waxworms too. My dad picked up some various tubes and grubs so we'll see what works. I especially like the "Little Hustler" brand - it's got a nice ring to it I've never seen a spider rig set up in use. Here in AZ it's one pole per for crappie but there's no limit. Out of curiosity are trot lines and jugs legal for cats where you're at? garmoon, Somehow I missed the "sac a lait" reference earlier. I've never heard that term before and it's kind of neat. Of course I've lived in AZ my whole life so I'm a bit sheltered
Trot lines are legal,but must have your name and address on them. Limits of like 50 hooks per line? something like that. Jugs: I used to see a lot of them in the small bays at lake erie. I don't see any around my area,unless it's marking a tree stump for removal. Lots of stumps in my lake. They pulled out a waterlogged stump a few years ago that weighed over 14,000 lbs. They called it stumpzilla. Had 1000's of lures,100's of props,and even a lower unit embedded in it. After it was removed,there was one heck of a crater left. Sunk a barge they placed it on,so they had to send for a bigger barge.
What the heck did they use to pull that stump? So who got dibs on all those perfectly good lures? Bet there were a few arguments over that one!
@Neph Yeah everyone south of I-10 calls em sac-a-lait, north of, they're white perch or crappie. Your's look just like the ones we catch in the swamps. Your's look like white sac-a-lait as opposed to black variety. We have both but the white seem to grow larger. They're not much of a fighter, a big red bull bream can run rings around a sac-a-lait and almost better than sex on a light fly rod. LMAO The word Sac-a-lait comes from the fine eating flesh of the fish, it is French for sack of milk.
You're right, they're not much of a fighter. Those pesky little bluegill put up a hell of a alot more fight than the crappie do.
Up here,the black crappie get a lot bigger than the white ones,but fewer numbers. White Perch: We have these in lake erie. They got in via international ships,by accident. Same with the zebra mussels,round gobi,sea lamphrey,sheephead,and other species. These white perch are a nuisance fish,but the decent sized ones taste pretty good. Neph: They used a crane that was mounted on a barge. They are always dredging and removing stumps from throughout the lake. Most of the lake is man made. Years ago when the lake was flooded to enlarge it,6 ft deep was no issue with the boats and motors back then. Today,major problems!
Neph: We should meet at the lake or something revelent to go fishing together. Are you here in PHX? Went to Pleasent this last weekend and caught 2 small mouth white bass and 2 realy small cats.
