Jigs

[JPmunson]

Hey guys, Quick question about jigs usage around middle of september. Usually I would use the old style Northland Bucktail jig (white/red feather)with a sucker minnow and two years ago they went to the newer styles and they dont have the color anymore. Does anyone know if there is any place that still the older styles available any good alternatives? Also, i was wondering what anyone has thought about the essox cobra jig and the essox cobra max jig with a sucker minnow.

[JPmunson]

Also, i have a couple others and would liek to see if anyone has had any experince with these.

SPRO prime bucktails

Cabelas Super striper bucktail jigs.

ANy help would be greatly appreciated!

[goblueM]

esox cobra and the j-mac jigs are great for me, those are the two I use

[JPmunson]

The J-mac factory is about 20 mins from me. I just recently heard that they are shutting down soon so you may wanna stock up before you cant get anymore.

[RK]

I absolutely love the Esox Cobra jigs. Caught lots of pike and muskies on them. They swim great, kind of wobble on their own, and are great dressed with a skirt and thumper tail plastic, big twin tail grub, or a sucker or redtail. Also good without a skirt and just a lizard or minnow. Great hook on them, and, well, they're just great jigs. They're designed to be casting jigs, and IMHO they're as good as it gets for pike and muskie jigs.

The Spro bucktail jigs are good too, and actually, a big bass jig can be excellent as well. Caught a lot of fall pike on a white Northland Jungle Jig with a sucker on it. I trim the weedguard a little though.

RK

[JPmunson]

Hey thanks RK! What are generally the better colors to stick to?

[RK]

Hiya -

Color - well, whatever makes you happy frankly. I like white/red, and black/orange, which are about as classic as it gets for pike colors I guess. They also have an orange and yellow that's pretty good too. If I had to pick one though, hard to beat black and orange most days.

Cheers,

RK

[Nick Kuhn]

So my brother and I had a strange idea to speed troll some heavy football jigs one day. It works surprisingly well. Except we were just trying to locate bass and ended up with about a 50% bite off rate. Not sure why it works. 3 MPH and a lot of line out so you can still hop it off the bottom.

[JPmunson]

hmmm thats kind of interesting!

[Gordie]

So my brother and I had a strange idea to speed troll some heavy football jigs one day. It works surprisingly well. Except we were just trying to locate bass and ended up with about a 50% bite off rate. Not sure why it works. 3 MPH and a lot of line out so you can still hop it off the bottom.

This is how I got started in fishing pike when I was a kid we were on a lake up in the Alex area and a buddy and I were casting beetle spins for bass and we decided to troll across a bay well I went to a heavy bucktail jig tipped with a sucker and went trolled about 50 yrds into the deeper waters of the bay and almost had my rod snapped in two. I reeled up a 8 lb pike so that got us trying different jigs set ups and we always tippep them with small to med sucker and we trolled the deepest watr in the bays. We had some really great success also. Speed trolling was the ticket to more bites too.

[20lbSloughShark]

Define speed trolling, up until right now, I was sure 3 mph was pretty slow-average speed for pike. Back trolling, I can get my big stupid 40 hp down to about 3.2 mph, and I usally troll at 5 mph.

[hydro]

Speed trolling is pulling a lure as fast as possible without it popping out of the water, using a short line (30' to 75') and running the lure right behind the propwash. For pike it seems to work best in late summer to early fall, and starts when the nights begin to cool off. I have caught some huge pike that way pulling large spinnerbaits. You want to look for 4-10 ft of water and scattered weeds. Go over to Clearwater and give it a try!

[JPmunson]

is clearwater near brainerd? lol

[JPmunson]

See what I have to fish is the mississippi and a bunch of lakes. But we find some pretty nice quality in the river for northerns.

[Nick Kuhn]

Define speed trolling, up until right now, I was sure 3 mph was pretty slow-average speed for pike. Back trolling, I can get my big stupid 40 hp down to about 3.2 mph, and I usally troll at 5 mph.

Well, for a jig that's fast. I meant we weren't doing the typical backtrolling speeds. Yes, speed trolling is usually 5 MPH+

[Gordie]

I troll the jigs anywhere from 3-5 miles an hour and I will run 1oz or bigger jigs as well.

I have also use some weighted inline spinners for this too. Erie deries and the like.

You could also set up a bucktail spinners with trolling sinkers to get them down deep.

I like to do this in the heat of the summer over real deep water.

[JPmunson]

Hey guys, I am having a problem finding some Esox Cobra Jigs and some Northland Bionic Bucktails. ANy idea of anywhere in Baxter or Brainerd area I could find some?

[RumRiverRat]

Fleet Farm should have them.

[JPmunson]

Hey Rum, Fleet Farm and gander mountain do not have them... any other ideas or places to go?

[JPmunson]

Also one last question, how heavy a jig should I use when using a sucker minnow? I want a nice slow presentation over top the deep weed beds... Is 1/2 ounce too light or should I go to a 3/4?

[chief]

I frequently use 1/2 and 3/4oz. jigs with suckers, but I don't exceed 6 inches (or so) with the bait. With lighter jig heads it's important to maintain a larger hook size as they offer a bigger gap, which results in better hookup ratios. Owner and Bass Pro (there are others, too) offer a variety of hook sizes within a given jig weight. Get the biggest hook size available with your weight of choice.

[JPmunson]

you are exactly right about the gap and the size of the hook and that is my other main concern. The spro 3/4 oz has a 5/0 hook and I havent a clue what the esox cobra has or the northland bionic bucktail jig has. In years prior we would use the biggest weed weasel we could find and use them with suckers but I didnt think I was getting the maximum potential I COULD get with a jig that has a bigger hook and when using some of those 4 to 6 inch sucker minnows, you hook through the nose and there really isnt much hook left with those weed weasels. I have the JMAC factory by me and he was telling me he could make me some jig heads with a 4/0 or a 5/0 but he also has a wide gap hook but the shank of the hook isnt straight but slanted. Would these work? Am I putting way too much thought into this? lol

[chief]

One man's obsession is another man's "keen" interest. I'll cop to not knowing the hook sizes on Jmacs, Northland or Spro buck tails, but none have proven ineffective with bait sizes 6-ish inches, or less.

If you really want technical confidence, use a Kalin's (saltwater bullet or ultimate swimbait head) 1/2oz model with a 4/0 hook, or a 3/4oz version with a 5/0 hook. To further control drop speed with either head, I super glue a trimmed spinnerbait skirt just behind the jig head, then thread the hook through the bait mouth and out/up the back. The bait is there for bulk, profile, and smell. It doesn't matter if it's newly dead.

I use as light an offering as I can get away with.

[JPmunson]

Ill have to check on those! thanks