Boy did I learn a lot !

I wanted to post this, just because I now know that I need to keep an open mind, when it comes to jigs now! Because of the circle (long trollers) I'm in most people and guides in my neck of the woods uses round ball heads to troll with. When Wally Marshall shows up with his pro staff tournament team...guess what they pull-push with? minnow heads! They let me rumage through their tackle just to get an Idea what they are using....most of their heads were lightwire sponcer on the side of the boat....with some jiffy jigs...every type of trolling and pushing terminal tackle...naturally....and the asortment of soft plastic's by the pounds! now one of them is an expert in the long troll the other in pushing...one is the electronic's expert the other is lake map and lake info guy...it was a neat deal...and a great cordinated effort....just missed the minnow head deal all together...funny get something in your head...and can't get it out...I will start pouring a few minnow heads just to see!!! How they pull or push....later Liftbite PS rod holder set up is a whole new game, they were using holders I had never seen before....got to investigate that next!!!

I try to offer minnow heads to almost every customer and some want to try some, but most just want the ball head I guess because that is what they know. I am pretty sure they will go through the water a bit different. In spring I use Rooadrunners most of the time so I don't use either ball or minnow simce the Roadrunner is neither.

I do like the minnow heads though and would use them if I was not going to pull a spinner type jig. Even have minnow glow heads in my Sig.

I understand why they use minnow heads, it's because of the action you get in the water. Round heads are designed to track straight and true when pulled through the water. Minnow heads are erratic with movement. For instance, twitch a round head jig and it will come straight at you, with and up and down movement depending on the twitch you impart to it. The minnow head will not come straight at you when twitched, reacting with erratic movement depending on the strength of the twitch and the angle it happens to be at as it's twitched. Also, you get more of a minnow profile of the bait due to the head's design.

Small difference's sometimes make winners. We tend to get comfortable and stick with the same things. Then we compound the problem by telling others how we do it, thus encouraging them to join the crowd.

Experimenting is good!

Charlie

Another thing a lot of guys get caught up with is hackle tails and don't like marabou. I do think it's a lack of understanding marabou as they think when they pull it out of the water and it's all clumped up that it will stay like that. If anyone has ever used marabou and just held it beside the boat to see how the actions of that stuff is, it will make for a different take on marabou. I use a lot of Roadrunner this time of year and with marabou tails and when you just hold it in the water so you can see how it works, it looks like a swimming minnow tail or small fish.

I use the slab daddys by wally marshall. I like them but they tear up alot or the paint chips bad on them.

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Originally Posted by JohnPaul

I use the slab daddys by wally marshall. I like them but they tear up alot or the paint chips bad on them.

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Most of all of us have experienced the same issues...thats why I tie out own...most of us on this site do too...I pour my own heads with the hook of my preference...I bake my powder coatings to harden,,,then I tie the colors I just imagine....will work with a mixture of all the try and true colors...Mine very seldom tear up...usually loose to brush pile...
had one I loved let a freind use last time he went to cast and hit my line and pop...into the deep...I liked to died!!! lol

I get disappointed if I have something go wrong with a jig that has not caught at least 100 crappie, however this lake have a lot of timber so you do lose some now and again. I don't have any ever come apart, I would really be upset about that. Even the little Roadrunners with marabou tails, I have seen the crappie eat the tail off over a weeks time this year, but that guy caught a lot of fish on it before retiring it.