River Rat316

LOL. was gonna do the same

Probably the best "glide" bait, they were so wide with a light weighted hook you could just glide them over and through grass beds and they would get smacked, was a little upset when they discontinued them, because I discovered them right before they got discontinued.

if you store elaztech plastics with regular plastics you will have a mess to clean up, other wise the melting point nis pretty high on most platisols.

Yep, 4/0 Mustad ultra point hook, listed as a regular wire, its basically the same flateye hook in most shakey heads, finesse style jigs and lighter Arky and Football jigs that everyone makes. The one difference with my shakey heads is the hitch hiker, they are stainless and smaller than what most manufacturers use, making it easier to screw small baits on. The paint is also tougher than most others. The wacky heads use a light wire 30 dgree hook and a light weedguard, if you are planning on pitching these into heavy cover I wouldn't use them, if you are using them like a normal wacky head they do really good with great hook up ratios while staying fairly weedless They are also fairly priced.

J Francho hit it, if the water is warming I speed up, both lipless and spinnerbait, caught some of my best fish burning spinnerbaits in 44 degree water that warmed from 38 or so degrees in the morning. But speed in general is something to play with through out the day, whether it be drop speed on a jig, or speed of a spinnerbait, swim jig, or crank bait. From slow roll to burning, you never really know what they are going to be after until you check it out. Also don't be afraid to go "to fast" there is no such thing, almost all the power fishing techniques (crank bait, spinnerbait, lipless, swim jig) you are trying to draw reaction strikes from fish, if they have to long to look at them alot of the time they will turn their nose up at it.

Can't wait to try those out, I know they won't have the same action as the original makers but they look so darn nice for a great price! I wasn't to jacked up about the Havoc line when they came, couldn't stand the vids they did and their marketing package, thought it was cheesy. But the baits have slowly won me over, the pit boss, grass pig, and hopefully this new one all have places in my tackle box now.

I am a little different, I use a 7'mh that is a cut down trolling rod, its a little faster action than your average crankbait rod but not by much, my reasoning for this is the strikes are violent, its one of the few techniques I use braid with and I want something to give on the strike. For line I use 30-50lb Power Pro braid, the only reason I use braid is so I can snap the jig through weeds cleanly, this draws strikes and insures my jig stays weed free even through the heaviest cover. As far as where I fish them I am generally fishing them shallow through the sparse to heavy weed cover, I generally look for isolated stands of coontail or pads and swim and pop my jig directly through them, occasionally letting it fall after I rip it out of the weeds. Swim jigs can also be an excellent choice for deep weedline work, slow rolling them along the edges of deep weedlines in the summer can be deadly. For shallow work I go with a 1/4-5/16 oz original for the deeper stuff it is a flip and swim in 1/2 and above. As far as hooksets go (for the light wire) I generally reel down on the fish, feel its weight and just sweep the rod back, the fish generally hook themselves and you don't need a huge hookset, it is a light wire hook and you risk the chance on blowing it out during the hookset. For the flip and swims, swing away it is a heavy hook, it can take the abuse...lol As far as jigs, I obviously am biased but we took along time developing our swim jigs getting the look and feel right before bringing them out, the original swim jig swims true is hand built, tough as nails and is everything I wanted in a swim jig. The Flip and Swim is a heavy hook model that can pull double duty as a flipping jig and is still a great option for swimming around real heavy cover and out deep since it is available to 1oz. That being said there is alot of very good swim jig makers out there, Brovarney and lethal weapon are the original cheesehead style jig makers, Seibert and others build good heavy hook models. i generally shy away from mass produced brands on just about everything and don't have a comment on any of the "big" companies stuff. As far as trailers go, I generally use a Paca Chunk in the summer, in the spring I use a single tail grub, mainly action plastics 4 or 5 inch mag grub, they have the perfect tail for not wrapping around the hook and fouling, and I also use swim bait type trailers like a cut down Berkely grass pig, 4" LFT live magic shad (thanks RW) or other hollow body offerings.

HAIR JIG, cold water screams hair jig, 2-3' visibility is not that bad, hair jig, blade bait, and suspending jerk bait.

If the fish are chasing and looking for a bigger meal (like fall) swim bait is the way to go, other wise its grub or action craw.

LOL, I keep my first swim jig around just to remind me also, what a pos that thing was, it is amazing what practice does!

The reason for the heavier braid is so it won't dig into itself, and also won't "cast off" heavier lures if you have an professional over run like 20lb would. Also if you are in real heavy slop you could be bringing in 5lbs of fish and 10lbs of veg, but I still go with yozuri Hybrid in most situations

IMHO leaders are a waste of time, even with Floro the fish know something is there, they can feel the vibrations your line gives off through there lateral line, I only use braid on 1 rod and it is not a visibility thing why I don't use braid, its because I don't like the no stretch factor. The 1 rod I use braid on is my swim jig rod, its so I can snap my lure through weeds easier, the no stretch gives me more power to clear heavy weed clumps and draw strikes, other wise I use all mono or flouro, the stretch just works better for me in every other application.

I am thinking he has the Premier Alien heads from Tacklewareouse. Like WRB said you just need to get past the drag of your line, there are a couple "tricks" to getting a lighter bait down, the big one is to minimize how much line you have in the water or dragging across the top of the water. This goes against conventional wisdom, but hold your rod tip high to minimize how much of your line is dragging, and also try to make your presentation as vertical as possible. The second one is easy, the first one takes a bit of practice to keep your line from dragging on top of the water but still keeping enough slack in the line getting your bait down.

Arky head or Brush (alien) head, choose a jig with flat sides or a big flat bottom and they will skip

Those are some nice looking hair jigs that would get wacked by the smallies on my river! For me I use 3 different types of hair jigs, my silicone/hair hybrid with either a pork trailer or a zoom small chunk trailer, these are simply a slow drag presentation and speed is usually the key to getting bit, I use these year round but they really shine in water from low 40's to mid 50's The second is a Jimmy D river bug, these are a phenomenal hair jig, I use them during the same water temps, they offer a different profile and different action then the hair/silicone. I usually am going super light like 3/32 or 1.8 and just using small hops and letting the flutter down and sit for a couple seconds. I tend to use these when the fish are a little more negative the 3rd is just a regular hair jig usually in 1/16 or 1/8 they would be like WRB's that are tied "tight" and use them in colder water or really negative fish fished painfully slow or deadsticked. Those are pretty general and sometimes it goes completely opposite, like last year I had a unbelievable day on the 3rd choice in 55 degree water fishing them pretty aggressively, but they wouldn't touch my first 2 choices no matter how I fished them. I think alot of the hair jig bite has to do with profile of the bait and what the fish are looking for and trying to match there mood. I wish I could find a pic of the river bugs, but just google Jimmy D's river bugs and you will find his site, he makes some great jigs!

Turnover is not happening yet, water temps are around 50 degrees when actual turnover starts. I am guessing that your fish are in transition and a little scattered. I personally fish something faster like a spinnerbait until I locate 1 then slow down with a jig to figure out if he had friends with him!. I am guessing that the green gunk you are seeing is some type of dieing algae from colder water temps, if your fish are weed oriented finding green weeds this time of year can be key

how did boss get drug into this mess

And that is exactly where it would work good, but that is not the "average MN weed choked lake" where I said it wouldn't work. And yes that is what is in my avatar, and the Wadda Jig that you are a fan of is based on a Do-it arky head which was not originally designed for "flipping heavy cover" it is designed as a brush jig, the wide base deflects off of wood and keeps the hook point from digging in, just as the brush jig in my avatar....so what is your point? Now I am getting ripped for using do-it molds? Almost everyone out there has jigs based on do-it molds, and I will continue to use them until I feel I am big enough to capitalize on custom designs we have had for years, until that point do-it molds it is. If Bo wants his jig to succeed, he needs to pair up with someone or just out and out sell the design to someone capable of manufacturing it, he has an original design that I have already seen a couple people knocking off, he should have never brought it to market with out the capability to flood the market with it, I know he has been through hell and highwater with his design I remember reading the story on it somewhere and can't quite remember the details but remember reading he has sat on it for a number of years. Bo probably doesn't like my opinion that he should sell the design, I am sure he is partial to it and has a dream of seeing his jig in the hands of every fisherman but IMHO it will only be achieved by partnering or selling.

Where in there am I ripping Bo's jig?

You are taking alot for granted in your post, I am not some noob to jig fishing, and I can say without a doubt your jig wouldn't work in a natural MN weed choked lake. I am not discounting Bo's jig, just his BS marketing ploys, I have been in this game long enough to know when I am fed a line of BS and his is BS. There is obviously going to be an evolution in jigs, there is with just about everything, but to sit there and tell people that the conventional jig is a POS because you developed something else is complete and total BS, the conventional jig that is a POS has caught millions of fish for many years, and won more tourneys than any other bait, can it be improved? Yep, everything can, we are constantly working on improvements and so are other manufacturers. Bo's design may be an improvement, it may not, I can see advantages but I can also see disadvantages, what is not an advantage is tearing down other companies products in marketing, if you think you have created a better mouse trap tell people why, and leave it at that. The consumer will decide.

Once again if fish had wooden dowels for lips like your test bed than a center weedguard wouldn't work, but the real world is a little different than your test. I have a phenomenal hook up ratio with these jigs you say don't work, I have way more confidence in a jig than a t-rig plastic or just about anything I can think of as far as hook up ratios go. And I agree with J francho 90% of my bites on a jig happen on the fall or immediately after it hits the bottom, so for a flipping style jig stand up heads have little to do with my jig choice. If dragging a jig a football head leaves the trailer up ina defensive position if you have ever watched a football head actually being drug across a sand or gravel bottom you would realize there is no need for a flat head jig, they tip up as they are being drug, and if you keep slight tension on the line they will stay tipped up at rest.

The ones that are still in production are nothing like the old ones, I would fish the crap out of the Lazy Ike in the pic, it will catch fish and lots of them

1/2oz and above are 5/0 3/8 is 4/0

hahhh I was going to say buy a jaw Breaker, silver spoons are pretty good with grub trailers, I prefer a double tail but haven't fished that combo in years!

zoom swimmin chunk, probably have caught more fish on a black blue finesse jig and a black blue zoom swimmin chunk than anything else over the years