Christmas Challenge

[Micanopy]

So…… I have slimmed down my selection of lures. Yesterday I got on the boat without my luggage. Yup- just the jigs on the rods and a small container with ten more inside. Never opened it as I stuck with the originals. Fished from 730 to 1030 and kept ten fish. The little guys were dormant and only had one throw back. The others were all nicely sized with one very fine specimen.

For the last two months limits have been mere dreams for me, with an average take of about 8 keepers with twice that many throw backs. I notice that most everyone else is in the same boat as far as catching. The warden accosted me upon landing and searched and did boating safety check and ran me for warrants and explored and stuff. He mentioned that my fish were very nice and asked had I worked hard to get those. He looked kind of miserable and I tried to cheer him up but there was nothing for him to punish me for. So his comment tells me that almost nobody is catching limits these days. If they are I imagine they are keeping the little fellers.

I am using plastics in specific color patters:

Pink head- white paddletail
White head- purple body - chartreuse paddletail
Chartreuse head- pink body- chartreuse paddletail
Chartreuse head- lime green body- chartreuse paddletail

It is my goal to whittle down all the available options into just a small handful which I can keep on my lines and not have to buy EVERY STINKING PLASTIC BAIT ON THE MARKET !!!!

In furtherance I am applying these specific color patterns into tying, and have come up with some that are fairly close. Not all good matches but you can see.



I added the orange for some unknown reason. LOL

Anyways these are close to what I am using for plastics and being as I have already established that bucktails will equal plastics in effectiveness, it would be super cool to whittle down my baits to just hand ties. OH BOY.




Now for something a little different. A challenge. I am challenging the artisans here to create a festive jig in the holiday spirit. I of course will go first.

Santa’s Beard



That is my entry, however I also tried to make a Christmas candy themed jig. It as you can see lacks so many things that I share only to inspire you.



Good luck and remember there will be no prizes awarded for the winner. If you want something ask Santa please. Of course you can do like me and just order the dumb thing when no one is expecting. I ordered some new fishing line for myself. Ho Ho Ho and all that stuff you see.