plastic technique help needed

[TC123]

I picked up some rat tails and jigs from JR's yesterday and tried them out last night. I noticed I could get lots of bites, but it seemed only on the tail. Were the fish just too small to get up the tail to the hook. Some of the fish took and held on to the tail for some time, but I still couldn't hook them. I tried under a bobber and without a bobber with the same results.

Are you selecting for larger fish by using plastics?

I caught a lot of fish with worms under a bobber (most small but a few larger ones).

[CrappieJohn]

Judging from your comments I'll assume that you are catching sunfish. They have small mouths and fish under, say, 7 1/2 inches might find the Stub hard to get in the mouth. And the rat may be a bit too long.

You can trim the first 1/4 inch off the front of the Rat to shorten the overall length, but if the fish are small this will have little benefit.

Crappies have larger mouths and a 4" fish can inhale even the Stub.

To the point though, plastics tend to catch the larger fish as a rule. This has nothing to do really with the size of the mouth....plastics just seem to take the larger fish.

This can be frustrating if your expectations while using plastics are going in the direction of bigger critters only to be pecked to death by the smaller ones. If you are not shorebound, I would suggest a move away from the area where the smaller fish are a nuisance to the plastics, but if you want to keep the little guy in fish maybe you should vacate the plastics for now and do the bait thing.

This might be in part due to the time of year too. As we get into fall and the water begins to lose some of itsheat the larger sunfish will again become a more agreeable target. Crappies, come fall, are always quite agressive too and both species will pound plastics.

[CALVINIST]

It could be you are dealing with small biters, but not necessarily. Heck, I have caught many dinky sunnies and crappies on plastics. Nevertheless, when I work with panniie plastics, I will shorten up the plastic by snipping off about a quarter inch of the head end. This will help catch those short strikers. You could also try sharpening your hook. Many times jigs right out of the package need a little sharpening. But I think one of the most important aspect of fishing panfish plastics is hookset. And you cannot achieve a good hookset unless you can feel the slightest bumps and vibrations on your line or detect a bite by watching your line as you work it through the water. If you want to fish for pannies, I would suggest getting an ultralight combo and putting on some 4lb test. Trilene XL is good, or better yet, 4lb Vanish. Sunnies and crappies will take in your presentation and spit it back out in a fraction of a second, so a quick hookset is valuable! You will catch more and bigger fish if you are on the ball when fishing plastics. Having the right equipment is a step in the right direction. You will be amazed how much a differance all this makes. And it makes bringing in the fish all the more fun.

I live in south Plymouth; if you are interested, we could hook up and go fishing sometime. I'll show you around one of my favorite pannie lakes and teach you what I know.

[TC123]

thanks for the offer CALVINIST - I might just take you up on that sometime. I won't be out all weekend though.

I've had pretty good success with worms and a bobber - that keeps the kid happy, but I would still like to get in a school of bigger sunnies or crappies sometime. It seems the fish we have been catching are only holding a few larger fish (by larger I'm only talking the half pounders). We have only caught a couple sunnies in the .6-.75 range. I did catch a 1/2lb white crappie last night though. That was fun.

[CALVINIST]

TC123,

Another thing you can do is use a flu-flu, a small feather jig...1/32 oz would work well. They come in many different colors. The black/chartreuse combo seems to work for many situations, but try other colors until you find what works for your situation. If there are too many feathers, trim some off to make it more streamlined. Tip with a Berkley Crappie Nibbler and work this a couple feet or so under a small float. Just cast it out and let it settle a bit. If anything hungry is around it will usually nab it as the jig settles. If nothing takes it, slowly "pop" it back to the boat. If there is a chop, then no need to pop it back to the boat because the waves themselves will impart action to the jig...just very slowly reel in. I like the Crappie Nibblers because they are not as messy to work with as worms, but work just as well. I suppose you could also tip with a crappie minnow too.

Good luck!

[CrappieJohn]

The flu-flu jig is an excellent tool for sunfish/crappies at this time of year. I generally tie up my own and keep the amount of feather fiber toned down. All you really want to show the fish is a line of color and you can get that by trimming out some of the heavier fibers in factory flu-flus.

Waxies work well as add-on meat with this jig as do the scented pellets and very small minnows.