A friend of mine has a killer pond that I get blessed with being a guest at every so often. I have been using every combo of swim jig I could find to mimic a bluegill. Not much luck. The last time we were able to get out there, we kept a few bass. I was surprised to see every bass we caught had crappie in the stomach, Some even had crappie sticking out of their throats!
That got me thinking, I need a swim jig that mimicked a crappie. North Star had an original swim jig that was close, but wasn't what I wanted. I also don't use the original's I prefer the Flip N Swims. So on the way home from the pond, I called Chris with North Star, and explained what was going on. I couldn't get a bite on any color Flip N Swims that I had. I also went on to tell him that I needed one to look like a white crappie. Chris told me he had the jig I needed. It would be a custom jig so it would take a few weeks. After these arrived, it was worth every second it took to get here. Below is what I got!
Chris told me that all other jigs that imitated a crappie were just plane black and white with some speckle. If you look at a crappie in the water, you can see what looks like a purplish shimmer to it. You also see green shimmer as well. I had never seen anything like this before so I was very pleased when it arrived and looked just like I hoped it would. As you can see from the two pictures, there is a green and purplish shimmer to it.
For those of you that haven't tried this Flip n Swim jig yet, here are the specs on it. It has a 3x 30 degree round bend hook that is super sharp and really strong. I cannot flatten this hook out. My 65 pound braid breaks before the hook will flatten out. I have a "Mistake" color Flip n Swim that has caught about 60 fish total, and the hook is just as sharp as it was when the jig arrived. My jigs were 1/2 oz and these came with full length white weed guards. The pointed head allows this to be ripped through weeds and grass very easily. The bottom of the head is flat to allow it up stand up straight when it hits the bottom. Comes with 60 strand skirts and 3D eyes that are glued then epoxied over to last. I have never had an eye fall off yet.
I got 5 of these to use and see if they will work for me. These were your typical North Star quality jigs. I prefer wire tied jigs and all of North Stars are. The skirts are all aligned perfectly. No empty spots on the jigs. I like the detail on the Flip n Swim head. Life like eyes, great paint job and it has what looks like a gill pattern molded in. I have purchased around 150-200 or so jigs from North Star in the last year and half. Each one has had the exact same quality. Either I have been very lucky or Chris must have some OCD that blows mine out of the water.
The hardest part of working with a new jig is finding a good trailer to work with it. I went through just about every trailer online and in a few stores to find some that would work. I needed something that had a somewhat darker body with a salt and pepper colored tail to match the White Crappie around here. Here is what I found.
First was the Strike King Rage Tail Menage in Blue Gill color:
Next I found the Bass Pro Sassy Sally in Bad Shad:
Last one I got was the Zoom Fat Albert in Clear Silver Black:
I'm sure these are not the only ones that will work. I am still looking for something that will match up better. I think my favorite is the Rage Tail Blue Gill due to the darker tint in the tail and the green and black speckle.
Over all I can't say enough about this new jig. The color is nothing that I have seen before. The quality is 1st rate and it was really nice to be able to pick up the phone, call the owner of the company and have him be able to produce something for me. Hopefully we can get out these next days off and do some fishing. The last 4 days have been storms and more storms.
