Hook options for fishing brush

[Cooter]

I get sick of snagging up while fishing brush piles for crappies (slip bobber and minnow) but have had poor hook up percentages with the lindy snagless hooks. I've tried trimming down the length of the wire guards as well as cutting off most of the guards altogether. The light aberdeen hooks sometimes bend enough to free up but you still lose a bunch. Any suggestions?

[Ralph Wiggum]

Have you tried small circle hooks?

[Cooter]

No, what size would a guy try for crappies?

[Ralph Wiggum]

No clue Just an idea. I'd try something with the same size gap that you're using now.

[tunrevir]

I fish the wood cover alot for crappies on the croix and I have a few go to techniques. First, can you go directly vertical with a long cane pole and 1/32nd-1/6th oz jig? Vertical is good but when they bite you need to get them out of the cover fast or lose fish and or jigs. I like a weed weasle jig in 1/16th oz with the wire weed gaurds, unspin the weed gaurd and take a side cutter and cut all but 2-3 wire strands off. I like to arrange the 3 wires that are left around the tip of the jig, or you can rig plastics weedles on the jig with just a sliver of hookpoint out and work the brush that way. Vertical is always better then casting upriver and into a snag if you can get by with it. I sometimes will use the brush as a ledge to yo-yo my jig up and down as well but when you get a fish on you want to be right on top of him in a hurry. Trees are our friends but they might eat a few jigs between fish. Noodlin with a long rod or getting up tight with a regular rod and going vertical is your best bet in my opinion. Also visualize the brush, is it and overhanging tree that the crown might not get to the bottom? Might be better to pitch upstream and drift it under the brush to get at fish. If it is standing wood in the water try and figure out if it is a stump/treetop down tree or a pattern of those. Try your best to have a mental image of what the bottom might look like and work off that. You are going to lose a few jigs but use those snags to show you where to work the next time. Trees can definately be a headache but the payoff when the slabs are there and a few walleyes makes the day a bit better. Hope this helps!

Tunrevir~

[DEADhead]

cabelas sells some nice weedless crappie jigs with a mono weedguard. the mono is easy to trim back. they are the only company i've seen so far that sells them in light weights for crappies. the work really well in bullrush. it's the float that tends to get tangled...

[Cooter]

Thanks all, I've considered a cane pole/jig rig before and might have to give it a try - maybe even my 9' fly rod? I'll also check out Cabela's for those jigs - may even try to learn to tie my own mono weedguards on jigs, don't thinks its all too difficult.

[bisonmn]

FYI, I just picked up a 3 piece fiberglass cane pole from fleet farm for $3.95. I figured for that price it can go in my canoe for the times it would be handy.

[newoodhntr]

You can try using 8lb. test main line and use a 4lb. leader and when it snags the lighter leader breaks and you only lose the jig or hook not the hole setup. Newoodhntr