Anyone Else Have This PROBLEM???

Seems every time I go fishing I catch the fish good on one particular bait, color, or jig and I only have a couple of them. So naturally I go home and order up 5 packs or 15-20 tied jigs so I am covered for the next weekend, but then the dang fish never hit that bait as good as they did that first day and I am stuck with another pile of baits? Seems to repeat every weekend. Anyone else have this issue? Why cant the fish just eat the same bait every day? Sometimes I think going back to a simple bobber and minner would save a lot of money in the end!
This is why I'm in the classifieds selling off extra jigs every month :juggle

Oh, and yesterday they hit red/silver flash jigs better than anything else... so now I have a large order of flash jigs on the way from my buddy. :bash

It's a never ending cycle!!!

Good idea to hang onto them, next time that maybe the jig they want. If they worked once they should eventually work again.

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At five bucks a dozen minners dip into my beer money. But I do take a cast net, just in case...:cheers2

Not sure my boat would float with all the jigs in her.:Rofl

No expert by any means, but weather conditions change, moon phases change, barometric pressure changes, water clarity can change, feeding times change. Its never the same. I went on a guide trip some years back, and he taught me more in 5 hours than I would have figured out in a lifetime about single pole jig fishing. One great tip was, when in doubt, down size the jig. He swore by moon phase and the barometer.

If Plano would make an outboard attachment for there boxes. I could snap the all together to make a boat with enough storage for all the jigs

Just an Idea Plano:biggrin

Yes I have the same problem
I also have the problem of a manufacturer bringing out a new smaller product

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Originally Posted by DRFISHDUCK

Good idea to hang onto them, next time that maybe the jig they want. If they worked once they should eventually work again.

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So true…however, I use a fishing Fanny pack for wading and that makes me think about what to bring.
Bob

:biggrinIt get expensive when you start buying the weekly hot colored crank baits that way....

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Originally Posted by Central Minn

:biggrinIt get expensive when you start buying the weekly hot colored crank baits that way....

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I can't even imagine losing cranks like I lose jigs. That would be expensive

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Originally Posted by Central Minn

:biggrinIt get expensive when you start buying the weekly hot colored crank baits that way....

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Dont even get me started with crankbaits, especially walleye fishing. That's a unique username, where abouts in central MN are you? Headed to st cloud area friday, I go up there a few times each year and have a blast catching your big panfish.

its kinds like the purple plastics that were given to me , flat out odd coloration in a light pearl purple .
never could get fish to bite them , gave both packs away and later in the morning the 2 guys I gave them to started just wearing fish out with them ....
AND AIN'T seen em work since either ,go figure ....:Rofl:banghead

Does anyone think the crappie bite is triggered by ambush, match the hatch, water clarity and temp, all of the above, or what???? Crappie are prolific eaters and I think they eat about anything that gives them the opportunity.

The lake I primarily fish has so much fishing pressure that sometimes I throw baits that are colored like nothing at all in this world.
Works sometimes, but I kinda figure they see all the common colors day in and day out. I still use those like everyone else at times too.

I bass and bluegill fished for many, many years and these crappie are 10x harder to figure out at least for me.
Heard an old timer once say that bass are for someone that just wants to catch fish and crappie are for fisherman. Something to that effect. Can’t remember the exact wording.

In addition, whoever said bass fishing was expensive never fished exclusively for crappie. [emoji23]


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When they are actively feeding they would eat anything of similar size and shape, for instance when they are gorging themselves on a school of shad. If fishing minnows I believe the struggle of the minnow causes them to key in on an easy meal. When dock shooting I het a lot of light bites. I believe that is from the jig falling right in front of the fishes face and them grabbing it.

I know even if I am not hungry if there is a lot of food around I will eat something.

I reckon I’ll never be a true jig fisherman. I ALWAYS take minnows.
Try jigs for a short while, then break out the 14 footers and start pushing double minnow rigs.
Livescope set at 16-20 ft. and roam around.
Bass fishing ruined me for casting I guess.


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[QUOTE=Kevin22;4157859]Dont even get me started with crankbaits, especially walleye fishing. That's a unique username, where abouts in central MN are you? Headed to st cloud area friday, I go up there a few times each year and have a blast catching your big panfish.[/QUOTE

We fish mostly Ottertail county.

Are you sure it’s a problem ?

I visited a feller that bought a shed to store his bass tackle. He had more baits than a bait shop. Packages stuck on little hooks lined the walls. He seemed pretty happy to me.

I believe the unhappiness part would come when the bait they where hitting very well had been left back at the shed hanging on the wall.

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

I believe the unhappiness part would come when the bait they where hitting very well had been left back at the shed hanging on the wall.

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There is a train of thought by some that 4 or 5 colors or even less will get it done . The trick is different sizes and profiles . Fall rates and other things like horizontal and vertical rise rates are often the key to getting a bite .

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

I believe the unhappiness part would come when the bait they where hitting very well had been left back at the shed hanging on the wall.

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There is a train of thought by some that 4 or 5 colors or even less will get it done . The trick is different sizes and profiles . Fall rates and other things like horizontal and vertical rise rates are often the key to getting a bite .

I can vertical jig an area and be catching crappie and then the bite slows to nothing, then switch to a different color jig and immediately start reeling them in. I dont know if it was the color choice or just because I changed colors? I almost always tip the jig with a nibble or small worm chunk.

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Bought a used floating diving crank that was shaped like a bream. Those pond bass would wear that thing out. If you got close to the shore and reeled it up quickly to cast again. Sometimes a bass would follow it up you could throw it in front of the fish and it was on. Explosive strike within feet of where you were standing. Water was tea colored and fairly clear. With a sandy bottom. Those fish wore every bit of the color off that thing it was mostly white when I finally hung it on a deep stump and couldn't recover it. I am sure the profile and theat tight wiggle it had was what brought the fish to it. No telling how many bass were caught and released using that lure

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Originally Posted by DRFISHDUCK

I can vertical jig an area and be catching crappie and then the bite slows to nothing, then switch to a different color jig and immediately start reeling them in. I dont know if it was the color choice or just because I changed colors? I almost always tip the jig with a nibble or small worm chunk.

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Ive experienced this multiple times. Most of my fishing is from shore so it's cast and retrieve for me . I don't know if it's color or jig action that entices bites but like you I'll be wearing them out then it goes dead then I switch up say from a monkey milk baby shad to a white/ chartreuse slabalicious and it's game on again. Guess that's what makes it so fun

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Why cant the fish just eat the same bait every day?

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

There is a train of thought by some that 4 or 5 colors or even less will get it done . The trick is different sizes and profiles . Fall rates and other things like horizontal and vertical rise rates are often the key to getting a bite .

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I am in complete agreement especially when it comes to lure particulars and how their used used.
Yesterday I took along a family relation that never caught fish on lures. At first he thought I was going to give him lures to try that looked like forage. I gave him a quick lesson in what and why fish bite based on what Ketchn wrote and he went on to prove it to himself. This was his first fish hitting in open water, caught on a bright white flat-tail that struck the lure 3x on the same retrieve:
https://i.imgur.com/A3XIWAr.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/8jio5j5.jpg?2

With another lure similar in action but different in color he caught two of the largest yellow perch of the day:
https://i.imgur.com/A0y7Tkc.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/lpDQpiH.jpg?1

I caught most of my fish - including some 11" crappie - on this Crappie Magnet-tail/thicker body hybrid (note the chartreuse tail and motor oil body):
https://i.imgur.com/yn20ySr.jpg?1

It mattered what we cast because of my confidence in those lures and colors. As long as I found fish, we could have used one or 10 different soft plastic lures in different colors and caught fish. We were only out 3 hours, but except for needing to learn the uni-knot, he now knows from experience the basics of the small soft plastics on light jig heads and that fish location is everything! No doubt when he fishes waters near Phillie (where he's moving to), casting these lures from his kayak he'll catch fish once he finds fish.

Some lure types my be more miss-than-hit depending on a combination of many different factors. But when it comes to fish activity, I never assume fish are actively feeding / prone to striking whatever splashes down. In his case he caught fish a few times as the lure was hanging down in the water in a stumpy location in 4' while he sipped water. When I noticed his rod tip twitch I told him to pick up the rod and be prepared for the strike. Sho' enough - fish on! In fact three of his fish were caught with him imparting no action including lifting his jig off bottom to cast it again.

The other thing is using the lure(s) that caught fish but stopped and casting other confidence lures in the same water and locations to see strike number comparisons. If other lures work better, Ketchn's statement is proof why based on lure action, size, shape and maybe color. Even a slight change in lure action can make all the difference.

I learned a trick from a guy I fish with who catches a lot more crappie than me. Instead of carrying several boxes of jigs I've condensed down to one of the small Plano 2 sided boxes with the 10 compartments. One with various jig heads and the others are 2-3 each of different body styles kept with similar colors. (Pink/pink combo colors of baby shad, slabalicious,shad pole, joker all in one compartment) Really cut down on extra crap I don't need to be carrying around and made me just pick a few color combos instead of trying to pick thru 4 different boxes. Seemed to make fishing a little easier and enjoyable.

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Originally Posted by DRFISHDUCK

I can vertical jig an area and be catching crappie and then the bite slows to nothing, then switch to a different color jig and immediately start reeling them in. I dont know if it was the color choice or just because I changed colors? I almost always tip the jig with a nibble or small worm chunk.

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I've shot docks before when you would only catch one fish off each dock per color. It was the weirdest lake I've ever seen, obviously highly pressured fish. You could sit on that dock and cast 100 times and you'll only catch a fish on your first cast. Pick up another rod or change colors/bait and you had a fish first cast and then nothing. I repeated it for 3 days on that lake. I would have 6 rods with different colored tubes and just rotate through, 5 casts with each. I would hit 5-6 docks in a row and pick off 25-30 fish and then change all the baits to 6 different colors and repeat. Never had it happen that severe since, but now I always have it in my mind to change colors before leaving fish and it usually works to pick off a couple more.

It is rare if I don't use Southern Pro tubes every trip . I use insert jig heads in 1/8 and 1/4 . Same tubes in same colors 99% of the time . Umbrella tubes in purple/chartreuse rigged on 1/8 and 2.5'' Little Hustler in orange/chartreuse rigged on 1/4 . Fish react to profile and presentation more than colors or pretty baits . Most baits are gear more to catching fishermen . I have seen times they will bite bare unpainted lead heads . :twocents :biggrin

Stop buying so many of the same jigs at one time. Problem solved. 2 packs should last a month. When you get down to the last half pack, reorder.

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Fish react to profile and presentation more than colors or pretty baits . Most baits are gear more to catching fishermen . I have seen times they will bite bare unpainted lead heads .

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So true so true...
(I will not use any ball head jigs that are painted.)