NavyVet1204

This. I never go out with just one rod and this is the exact reason why besides technique/lures.

Not really one that you have worked with tirelessly to achieve success with, but basically a lure that you had never tried before and completely destroyed the fish on the first time. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for me it’s the whopper plopper in bone color. I bought in to the hype initially and the first day I took it out I caught a 4lb’r and two casts later was another just short of 3lbs. Never mind that I haven’t caught a single fish on it since, but I do remember thinking I had struck lure gold when I wheeled that first one in.

At this point in time we have a seven month old baby boy and we take him along to the local park in a stroller while I fish so on one hand I’m alone, but on the other I’m not. The baby calls the shots on how long I get to fish for now and that’s alright. Pretty soon he will be holding a pole right next to me. My wife loves to fish also, but like others she doesn’t share quite the same passion as I do for it.

What size jigs are you partial to?

Bait monkey’s laugh is echoing at this very moment in my direction. Nice haul! @Derek1 What brand are those jigs?

While I didn’t land a bass today(see above pic) I did catch a good fish and my confidence in the jig is now founded. Thank you all for the advice!

When that catfish hit the lure it felt like a mac truck was pulling against me and I was thinking “oh lord here it is!! First fish of the season and it’s gonna be my PB!!!”

The jig itself I never used until today. I think it’s 1/2oz and it also has a plastic box on it with rattles. I put a matching blue/black rage craw on it which is torn pretty good in the picture. I was highly surprised that I got a catfish on this thing even though I was hopping it on and off the bottom in about 15’ of water in a slough and not in shade to boot.

There we go!! I had to download an app that let me resize it. I guess the catfish to be about 6ish pounds. Caught it on the lure that I will post next.

I only have an iPhone. Is paint an app for the iPhone? I’ll check and see.

I still can’t get it to work. It’s a 10 mb picture on my phone and even after screen shotting it and emailing it to myself it’s still too large to attach. Oh well.

Normally my shakeys get bit on the fall, but when they don’t I’ll let them hit the bottom and then bump the rod about every 3-4 seconds until I’m ready to retrieve the last bit in.

Thank you friends.I appreciate your response and it has greatly helped me. I feel much better about blindly buying those jigs now lol

Jigs. I have them in plenty and while I’m still learning to use them properly via suggestions/advice on this site, I cant even get lucky just once lol The chatterbait took this spot on my list until recently when I tried using a color matched trailer and then the catches took off. Prior, I wasn’t using a trailer and was about to shun them entirely. Lizards of any color or size. I’ve sat on the same boat with someone who was absolutely destroying bass on a junebug red lizard T-rigged and it got to the point that I had to bum one off him just so that I could try my luck and it didn’t work. Still hasn’t either and that was two years ago.

UPDATE: 4/14/22 Went today with the wife and kiddo to the lake and armed with knowledge from you all on this thread I caught my first fish of the season and my first Jig fish! It was about a 6# catfish! Lol I was using a 1/2oz black blue flake jig with a rage craw trailer of matching color and hopping it on the bottom. I want to post a picture but can’t figure out how to get from 10MB down to the required 1.46MB. Can I fish any jig by hopping it off the bottom just as I do a shakey head setup? What I mean to be exact is, is there a “correct” style jig for hopping up and down on the bottom like I would with the shakey head technique? About a year ago I went off half cocked and bought a dozen or so different style jigs(football,finesse, etc.) without taking note of the different types of heads thinking that a jig was just that…a jig. Some of them are tapered looking and the football is obviously shaped so and the finesse is round. There is also the vertical/horizontal line tie on the heads and I don’t understand the difference there either.

I’m not gonna lie. I wondered the same thing the very first time I bought I pack of those and I pulled them apart. However, I have caught fish on both pulled and unpulled so it doesn’t really matter.

Sorry to hear that friend. Prayers.

I may have to give this life retriever a try when I get a boat. Fishing off the bank doesn’t seem like much use.

Deep down I want them to work, but I am always reminded of why they don’t at least for me anyway. Maybe one day it’ll just click.

Oh how I loathe these things.(well, the hooks anyway). I’ve tried a self diagnosis of me buying the wrong depth on these things, but I’m convinced it’s purely witchcraft altogether. If the treble’s aren’t catching on everything IN the water then they are catching on everything outside it. The hooks wrap around everything as if the entirety of every possible thing in the world is magnetic to them. I’ve said in the past that if you put me on a crankbait in the Mariana’s trench with a seven mile trip to the bottom….I would still find a way to snag a stump or tree limb. It truly never fails. With all that said, I can probably count on one hand how many crank baits I own vs a couple hundred pounds of soft plastics of all varieties. I know cranks catch fish, but why is it such a pain to use them? Please tell me that someone else here has the same trouble so that I feel better please ?

I noticed this too the very first time I tried them. I actually threaded them on sideways as if trying to imitate a fish/tail. Worked well for me.

I just placed my order just now. I got 17 bags of soft plastics coming mostly Berkley worms because there wasn’t much left of anything soft plastic related.

I keep telling myself that less is more. Then I realize that I basically am offering a treasure trove of a buffet of lures I just need to find the right one that works lol

I feel that quite often. Especially if my confidence lures/techniques that always produce….stop or won’t produce. I don’t even realize it in the moment, but subconsciously I will think that a shakey head will catch a fish anywhere and anytime regardless of any other circumstances so naturally I start and end with that tied on my main rig. This exact circumstance you are speaking of is why I ALMOST want to start buying crank baits in the event that I may use one and start catching fish with them when getting skunked is afoot. edit: Generally a chatterbait or a T-Rig of some sort will produce if my shakey heads don’t. If I still get skunked, the lord had a plan that day.

I pretty much have equal luck with them both as they both are great producers! Literally get a pack of both and see if you catch more on one than the other. I doubt you will have a big difference.