Jigs
BucksCountyFIsh
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Jigs
This year i want to spend more time fishing jigs. In the past ive fished small pink and white jigs and beadhead woolybuggers without much luck. Im wondering what kind of jigs/colors do you guys like. I usually buy mine at poor richards when I get up there. Thanks --Mike--
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fishingood
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I have been experimenting myself this year with various colors of wooly buggers, jigs, and streamer patterns. For woolybuggers, I like black, white, chartreuse, and olive. In low/ clear conditions, stick to more natural colors, and in stained conditions, I'm not sure if you're tying your own, but it would be great to get into, as it's cheaper than buying flies/ jigs from stores, and leaves you more opportunity to experiment with various colors, patterns, and sizes. First of all, for woolybuggers, try fishing ones without a beadhead, but instead, build the weight into the fly, by prewrapping some wire around the hook before you begin to tie. Tie white woolybuggers with a crystal chennile (white, chartreuse, etc, both with and without hackle, and coneweights on the heads.. Now, I'll share something that has worked really well for me, clouser minnow type patterns for steelhead, tied to resemble emerald shinners. I never even thought of using a clouser minnow for steelhead, until my buddy went on a guide trip, and was outfishing me about 3 to 1. My attitude has changed, and it makes sense, as I've heard of times when the only bait steelhead will take are emerald shinners. I've based these patterns on Don Matthews version, He uses bucktail/ yak hair, rainbow flash, chain/ barbell eyes, and brown thread to create the pattern. I've been tying these with both bucktail and maribou, with chartreuse and white, brown and white, and olive and white colors, and once you get the motion/ action down, you will literally be able to see the steelhead coming up to look at your fly and take it.
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Loomis
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Any jig at any given time can work. Just keep showing them something different and do not be afraid to experiment.
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fisherofmen376
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^ what he said. It stinks when its cold and fingers are frozen, the last thing i wanna do is keep re-tying, but it works!
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19
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slabdaddy
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This Sunday I caught some steel and one brown on emerald shiners, hooked in the tail with a #18 treb. This was tied onto a 4lb flouro leader (about 5 ft long) behind a tiny barrel swivel. Worked great. I usually run jigs. When I do, I use the 1/32oz gold plated heads. However, in clear water they can see your jig too well and you end up catching nothing.
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CroatianSensation
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Florescent orange or chartruese heads....black or white tails (flash optional)...all ya need.
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fisherofmen376
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slabdaddy for me clear water is when jigs have worked best for me. I go smaller than 1/32 though, usually 1/64 or a tiny "trout magnet" type jig.
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19
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slabdaddy
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fisherofmen376
slabdaddy for me clear water is when jigs have worked best for me. I go smaller than 1/32 though, usually 1/64 or a tiny "trout magnet" type jig.
I tried everything in a jig that I had, but they just turned their noses up at them. I used 1/64 mini-foos (multiple colors), Trout Magnet heads, Ice Ants, and all kinds of tiny ice jigs in a plethora of colors. Nothing. I always try jigs first, because I like the control that a jig gives me and I like the presentation. These fish would touch nothing with a visible head. Only after losing the jig and going caveman, did I get hits. LOL! Those fish ran a Hell of a gauntlet getting up to me though. They were super spooked. You confided in me once what your "go-to" presentation was. I tried it too. Still didn't work. LOL! Literally tons of fish in front of me and I just couldn't get much attention with anything other than that tiny #18 treb. I went through 4 doz shiners in 2 hrs and only landed 2 fish! Oh well. It was a Hell of a good time anyway and the weather was beautiful. AND I caught my first Erie brown trout! Yay Me!
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fisherofmen376
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hey man if it aint workin then yeah u gotta keep switchin!
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19
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Ironhed
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Tip: Going small/downsizing isn't always the answer...try opposite.
Ironhed
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davef
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Ironhed Tip: Going small/downsizing isn't always the answer...try opposite. Ironhed As Ken says sometimes the bigger the better. Up until the last few years the main thing I used was either a jig or clouser type white marabou streamer with the feathers as long as I could make them. They were generally 4 to 5 inches long. These were especially effective fishing them in the fast water. A lot of times I would just hold them in the fast water in one place where there was some type of cover. Eventually the movement of the marabou would attract some interest. I do want to say that for whatever reason this has not worked as well recently though I still occasionally will get a hit on it. I think the main thing is if your not getting any hits after 15 or 20 minutes and you think your in a good spot a change to something different can be good till you find something thats working.
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slabdaddy
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Thanks Ken. I'll give that a try. Would you have tried a bigger jig head in that situation, than a 1/32? I heard from people that know you, that you are one of the best steelhead fishermen in Erie, so when you talk, I'm all ears man.
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Loomis
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I use a 32 oz Jig head as the largest one. get crappie magnet heads, stronger than the trout magnet ones. Those actually suck for steelhead fish, broke/bent/straighten them all the time. As far as bigger, definitely is better sometimes. Just keep experimenting and do not be afraid to fish soft plastics either. Bass and panfish plastics have their place in Erie. Flashabou and Marabou on a 1/32 oz jig head are a standard norm as well.
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Ironhed
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slabdaddy Thanks Ken. I'll give that a try. Would you have tried a bigger jig head in that situation, than a 1/32? I heard from people that know you, that you are one of the best steelhead fishermen in Erie, so when you talk, I'm all ears man. Thanks for the kind words but I don't consider myself one of the best. Bigger than 1/32? I'm not sure. Depends on how deep the fish were holding in the particular hole/run you were fishing. The largest I carried with me were 1/16. Tied "full" and sparse. I also carried 1/80 jigs, tied full and sparse. I think it's more important to note what the jig is tied of and it's density. Sometimes they like sparsely tied flash jigs and sometimes they like fully dressed crappie/bucktail/marabou-type jigs. Sometimes they like it fished fast, sometimes they want it subtly danced in front of their face and sometimes they like it dead drifted. Sometimes fished with a float, sometimes not. We all have a tendency to try "different" things at the wrong times i.e., when the bite is slow. Bite the bullet(I know it can be tough when the bite is hot) and try a new bait/presentation when the bite is hot. This will build your confidence level up. Confidence is key. In the long run, you will build your arsenal up and become a better steelheader. Myself and a few friends used to challenge each other, with friendly competitions, by setting limits with what we could/couldn't do. Some of the competitions included: Cannot stand in the water, dry flies only, purple egg patterns only, not allowed to use the drag on your reel, no floats, no weight attached to the leader, crankbaits only, etc., etc.. You wouldn't believe how much I/we learned during those stupid games. Think about it... Ironhed
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slabdaddy
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Loomis
I use a 32 oz Jig head as the largest one.
get crappie magnet heads, stronger than the trout magnet ones. Those actually suck for steelhead fish, broke/bent/straighten them all the time.
As far as bigger, definitely is better sometimes. Just keep experimenting and do not be afraid to fish soft plastics either. Bass and panfish plastics have their place in Erie. Flashabou and Marabou on a 1/32 oz jig head are a standard norm as well.
Never heard of Crappie Magnets. I will look this up.
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slabdaddy
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Ironhed
slabdaddy
Thanks Ken. I'll give that a try. Would you have tried a bigger jig head in that situation, than a 1/32? I heard from people that know you, that you are one of the best steelhead fishermen in Erie, so when you talk, I'm all ears man.
Thanks for the kind words but I don't consider myself one of the best.
Bigger than 1/32? I'm not sure. Depends on how deep the fish were holding in the particular hole/run you were fishing.
The largest I carried with me were 1/16. Tied "full" and sparse. I also carried 1/80 jigs, tied full and sparse.
I think it's more important to note what the jig is tied of and it's density. Sometimes they like sparsely tied flash jigs and sometimes they like fully dressed crappie/bucktail/marabou-type jigs. Sometimes they like it fished fast, sometimes they want it subtly danced in front of their face and sometimes they like it dead drifted. Sometimes fished with a float, sometimes not.
We all have a tendency to try "different" things at the wrong times i.e., when the bite is slow. Bite the bullet(I know it can be tough when the bite is hot) and try a new bait/presentation when the bite is hot. This will build your confidence level up. Confidence is key. In the long run, you will build your arsenal up and become a better steelheader.
Myself and a few friends used to challenge each other, with friendly competitions, by setting limits with what we could/couldn't do. Some of the competitions included: Cannot stand in the water, dry flies only, purple egg patterns only, not allowed to use the drag on your reel, no floats, no weight attached to the leader, crankbaits only, etc., etc.. You wouldn't believe how much I/we learned during those stupid games. Think about it...
Ironhed
No drag? Man, that would be tough! I bet you did learn a lot. I need to learn how to tie my own jigs. I've done it one time with a buddy's help, but it was a while ago and I've forgotten how. I need a fly vice. Those fish were about 4.5 ft down, on the bottom. A 1/32 got down to them but they shied as soon as they saw it coming. I would cast way upstream so as to not spook them. I gave them a bit of a jiggle, then tried a bounce, then tried a dead drift and all the variations thereof. It didn't matter. They shied away. So I did the same thing with smaller and smaller jigs, trying different colors and patterns. It wasn't until I put the tiny hooks on (it was a last-ditch effort) that I started to get consistant bites. Perhaps a jig tied with really long feathers like mentioned above would have done better. I'm still learning. Thanks for all of the info guys.
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krott243
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Purple egg patterns are killer Dont be afrid to let a jig hit the bottom and sit for a second, makes fish become interested at times there not.
The Lord has blessed us all today... It's just that he has been particularly good to me.
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slabdaddy
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BucksCountyFIsh
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Wow thanks for all the help! Yeah im tying them myself Ive been tying basically a wolly bugger without the hackle. Ive tyed white on white, white body/ yellow and pink tail. Olive on olive, brown on brown. brown body /black tail, black on black and black body/ brown and olive tail. Any other suggestions for jigs???
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fishink
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In my opinion, a lot of people go way too big with jigs in the Erie tribs. I've caught many of my biggest fish there (10 - 15 pounds) on 1/100 oz and smaller. Good colors are white, black, pink, purple and the vastly underutilized yellow. Typical feather (hackle and marabou) jigs work, but I've had more luck with jigs I tie myself that are basically wolly worms tied on jig heads. The most important thing about jigs is presentation. Natural drifts or imparting action as the conditions dictate will usually mean more than having the right color. Berkley trout worms and some of the newer small plastic/rubber nymphs also work quite well when fished this way, and have the added benefit of articulation (lacking in most flies and jigs).
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