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With the last snow the lakes in the area have close to two foot of snow cover. Most people including myself pulled their hard sided houses. Very few lakes have a plowed road so it is walk out or snowmobile travel.
I am not that mad at the fish to hand pull my Otter 1/4 to 1/2 mile through two foot of snow.:-(
This is a good time to replenish my ice fishing lures and get ready for the spring bite.
I am getting ready for the snow melt down and panfish run.Attachment 116378Attachment 116379
I never thought of doing that, but it really looks like I could come real close running 32nd or 48th oz tanged heads inside 1" Southern Pro tubes. Hooks would be 8s and 10s ... I have all that stuff but never thought about putting it together that way. (Not that I intend to tie that tiny of a thread!)
Keep warm, sounds like you get some 20 below temps tonight.
Real soon we start looking for the first open water as the temps start to moderate, once we get past this particular cold snap. Then it starts around here too as the pannies come up to sun in the warmest waters and gourge on the first insect hatches.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob/MN
Hopefully we have enough snow around here that spring thaw will bring up our lakes a bit or this spring is going to be a whole different ball game than we have had before. Last spring we had very high water and excellent fishing, this spring may be very low. It is sometimes hard to figure here in the Metro since so much of our interior lake levels depend on what melt goes down the storm sewers.
Right now I am digging out the lights to start my garden plants, setting the sweet potatoes to get the slips going, sorting my onion sets and potatoes, that sort of thing and very soon starting the peppers and tomatoes. New this spring for me will be pruning my peach trees. This will be their second winter in the ground and I am hoping for more than the single fruit I got last summer. There were quite a few more set but we got a couple of early hail storms that pretty much stripped the new fruits. You would be more than a little far north for that, and we were too, until the last couple of decades.
I see no reason why the inside head would not work for a vertical presentation.Quote:
Originally Posted by no1son
I also have used a 1/48 once inside head with a #10 or #12 hook with the one inch southern pro tubes. The down side is the panfish destroy the tube in short order and we were constantly adding new tubes. This is why I made the lead body, rubber tailed jigs. You can catch fish all day and the jig will show little ware or tare. The feathered tail is less durable but still stands up better than the tube. Also the feathered tail jig seems to work better bare bones during the hard water season.
Don't get me wrong the tube is a great lure for catching fish, it just isn't as durable.
<BTW> It is a good idea to use the small jigs barb-less, especially when using a bobber, as many fish swallow the jig .
No question whatsoever that sunnies are murder on tube tails! I find oddly enough that as long as there is still one, the tube continues to work well; so I normally only replace the tube if all the legs have been torn off. At times it even pays dividends to remove all but a couple to start out with.
We hit a lot of sunnies in our crappie fishing, and they are definitely plastic destroyers, not just on tubes, but also often even worse on twisters of all sizes. That is my biggest gripe with the GULP Alive 1.5" jigging grub. It definitely catches fish, but generally you only get a single one per bait.
I seldom feel the need to use a bobber, but you definitely have a point about the small sized hooks going down real easy. But IMO for sunnies you have to go small in hook size a lot of times or all you get is nibbles short of the hook, resulting in a dramatic increase in destroyed plastic tails.
A trick to get more miles from a tube is to add rubber or silicone legs to your inside jig head. Add a dab of super glue to the jig head and insert it into the tube. This helps to keep the tube in place and eliminates splits. As the plastic legs disappears the rubber or silicone legs will still be in place. Actually I have found that painted heads with the rubber legs works just as well as a tube in most cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by no1son
The picture is a 1 1/2 inch tube,1/32 once head,#8 hook. The legs can be trimmed to fit a 1 inch tube.
Attachment 116543
Looks real good...
It does look good doesn't it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Crappie 1
The added rubber legs do also. I don't normally fish my tubes with the head inside though, seldom retying unless I lose the jig. That would be an adjustment.
I can also see how jig inside can get deeper hooksets, which I try to avoid, since I plan to release everything, the whole thing being a fish target rather than having a distinct segment directing attention to the business end (the hook) .
To work the rubber legs would require retying to change tubes, which I do now without retying, using ball headed, tanged jigs with the hook inserted through the nose rather than doggy style, generally changing out until something clicks. Then I work a productive pattern over how ever many trips it continues to work, sometimes using the same tube for multiple trips (my trips are generally no more than a couple or three hours at a time, though).
If I can find the crappies on a decent bite, the tubes will last pretty well. They do not ruin a tube a fraction as quickly as sunnies do. If I am on crappies, a single tube may last me three or four trips spanning more than a week at times, since I leave my tackle rigged between trips.
I am going to have to think about this some, but I guess with the current cold snap I have some time to do just that. Always looking for another presentation that works. This one looks real promising.
I don't have that kind of jig head; so another excuse to get more tackle! Gotta love it!
One thing that made life easier when changing jigs is the E-Z clip. We now use the clips year around, no more of the constant retying on the water.
I have found the down side of the outside head is a increase in lure size when a small offering is needed. Also with the outside head the tube has a tendency to slip down to the bend of the hook. Of course a dab of super glue on the jig collar will help prevent this. If I use this type of presentation I pre rig the tubes to allow the glue to set and vent.
You get away from slipping tubes by carefully selecting jig heads with positive tangs. I cast my own with reversed tangs which also gives more open hook gap. I do not have a problem with the tangs tearing the tube bodies. Commercial tanged jig heads generally have worthless tangs. And when you can get good ones those are most likely to be upward tangs anyway.
Me and superglue have had some disagreeable arguments in the past. I don't use it.
If the tang on a commercial made jig is a problem it can be cut off and the tube glued in place.
Some of my fishing friends use collarless heads and a dab of super glue.
The super glue works well with Southern Pro Lit'l Hustlers and Bass Pro Squirmin Squirts.
LOL. My problem with the tangs on most commercial jigs is that there isn't enough of one. Most don't do a thing to prevent tube slippage, they are pretty much worthless. Those tapered tangs that Do-It is now offering in their jigs molds don't cut it either, not for holding tubes up on 1/32nd oz jigs anyway. I have heard about Super Glue before and IIRC there is one specifically made for fishermen. Over the past few years I have quit using Super Glue for anything, even around the house. Like I said before me and Super Glue don't get along so well. To me it is just another distraction; so I cut it out.
I am sorry to hear you have had issues with the super glues. It has been used in industry for many years., ever since Eastman’s 910 first came out.
I have used it over the years on my plastic bass and panfish lures with slippage issues. I am confident that this approach will help solve the slippage issues on commercial jigs for other fisher persons on this forum.
If there is a better glue or approach out there I would sure like to hear about it.
LOL It's sorta a personal matter of preference for me, shall we say. The Super Glue products are very good items generally. I am not saying they aren't. But for whatever reason I find myself more accident prone when using them. So I tend not to, if I can avoid it.
You have a system that works very well, mine is a little different but in a lot of ways that is more a relatively tiny matter of difference in preparing the rigging to produce very similar presentations. That is pretty obvious to me. I like your presentations a lot and use a number that are very similar. The bottom line as always is where the barb meets the the fishes' mouths.
I really don't think I have a problem with tubes slipping on my jigheads. I went through a whole of different sets to get there, but IMO it is no longer a concern of mine. Jig spin is something else, and that I still haven't completely solved.
You are almost certainly correct that Super Glue will be a help to other fisherman. I ended up casting and painting my own specific jig heads, because I cannot find just exactly what I want for sale. Most other fishermen aren't going to go to that length, and for the most part they don't have to either. I personally don't happen to like to use Super Glue; so I worked out a different method, one that I think works as well for me, but is a bit more messing around in some ways, a bit less in others.
It is just about time for me to get down the molds and cast and paint some more. That season is just about on us again.
The lakes in the area are still limited to tracked vehicles and plowed roads. We are supposed to get anywhere from four to nine more inches of snow.
I now have my jig boxes pretty well replenished and ready for the march panfish run. I hope mother nature will cooperate and give us a slow thaw and not burn the snow off in a short period. Attachment 118147Attachment 118148
Those all look interesting. Even some shad darts, which can work real well just jigging. I haven't been out for a few weeks now, some other things have had to take a front seat.
But I am looking forward to spring thaw and maybe a few more times on the ice, too. We have quite a bit of snow on the ground and a lot of that will end up in the city lakes, what doesn't sink in. We need the moisture both places, badly. In past years we have already started to fish some open water, often wading through snow banks to get to it by this time, and occasionally doing very well on crappies. We need to see rising lake levels around here though or the spring panfish run is likely to be a little to a lot weak this year.
We aren't looking so much at more snow, but there is a possibility of some rain this week end. I have very little snow to shovel, so I got one of those little 12" SnoJoes. Works pretty well, third winter and then I hit an edge of the rock wall and broke the impeller. End of that, but the manufacturer had the part and shipped it out the next day with no freight charges.
I use the electric corded small yard implements; they fit my size yard just about perfectly. And no gas to worry about, which is just fine by me. My tiller is an electric Mantis and it is both handy and works my backyard to a T.
A larger lot or a country house and they wouldn't be big enough. But on a 40 x 120 city lot, I think they are just about perfectly scaled, and just about as handy and dependable as you could ask for.
Bright sun today and thawing temps. Not so bleak right now.