Archive for August, 2010

Writing about and photographing tying a jig is harder than I thought. I should do a video. I’m going to have to do a video. The pics should help for now to get someone started. I keep it simple when I tie. I tie with minimal tools and a vice I bought from a tackle shop 6 years ago for $20. It screws onto an old hardback fishing catalog. That’s it.

I use a variety of materials but mostly have a 10 or 12 jig rotation that I tie repeatedly throughout the season. I’ll tie some oddballs to see if they’ll work and that always keeps me in new patterns that turn out to be killers every season. I tie some duds also.

The great thing about tying your own jigs is it’s cheap, you don’t need a lot of tying tools or materials, it keeps you busy on a day your stuck inside the house, the patterns you come up with are yours and are endless, and using jigs and catching fish on ones you tie is a huge producer of Erie Steelhead and highly rewarding.

I’ll go through the steps and tools you need to tie a jig. One thing I do not do is palmer the hook. This is when you wrap thread or hackle around the hook and down the shank and then tie your jig on it. It keeps the neck from sliding on the hook. The reason I skip this is half the time a jig might only last me a day or two on the streams anyway if it’s drawing strikes. Even the best machine tied and glued jig can’t take that abuse. I actually want the neck of the jig to slide down when a fish strikes. This can save the body and material from the mouth of the fish and the neck retains it’s tightness. Material is less likely to be pulled out causing the neck to tear. Once you dehook a fish just slide the neck back up and cast. It will not ride down on the hook unless a fish strikes. It’s just my theory and others may do it differently.

Tools you will need: Buy a basic vice and tying kit. This should include all you will need for jig tying. In the first photo is what I use- small scissors, fly head cement (to seal the tie), size 70 red tying thread (you can use white or black, red is best), a whip finish, and a bobbin to hold the spool of thread. Note on bobbin: I do not use this conventionally. I do not thread the line through the shaft of the bobbin and wrap thread using it. I simply use the bobbin to hold the spool. I then use my hand to strip enough thread off the spool, and wrap the thread around the hook and material with my hand. This gets me the tightest wrap. You can still do this with the thread through the hole in the bobbin shaft, I just don’t personally like to hold the bobbin in my hand when wrapping.

Jigs- You’ll need collarless jighooks. Don’t use jigs with a collar that are made to hold a soft plastic lure on them. I get them at Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops. You can use plain lead jigheads, white, black, chrome, gold, or any color you like. I go with plain, white, black, and chrome.

Sizes- For jigheads I tie 1/64, 1/32, and 1/16 ounce jigs. I’ve used smaller but 1/64 suits me just fine in ultra low and clear water. 1/16 is a favorite of mine and many think this is too heavy for Erie streams. With this weight I have great depth control for deeper holes when blind jigging, and I can swing these in good current and get them down in front of fish against banks or in good drifts. I generally tie longer jigs on 1/16 and shorter jigs on 1/32 and 1/64 but it’s not a rule. I have some long ties on light jigs and short ties on heavy jigs.

Lengths- Shorter jigs from 1-1.5 inches of material are best to be used for more vertical presentations. If I’m standing in front of a pack of fish or there are a ton of fish in a slow pool and I only need to work right in the space in front of me I’m using a short jig. I’m barely tossing it out and working it in front of every fish I can see. Longer jigs from 2-3 inches are best for casting and swinging in current. These act as more of a streamer and have a more pronounced action. Shorter jigs I usually tie with marabou or some type of synthetic flash material and longer jigs I tie with bucktail combined with flash.

Materials- You can tie almost any material by itself and it can work on fish. Bucktail, marabou, synthetic hair (there are a ton out there), Flash materials like Flashabou and Krystal Flash, and on and on. I tie a few jigs with just flash that do well but I do a lot of combining. White marabou or bucktail combined with one or two colors of flash material is a top pattern. Experiment with different combinations and you’ll figure out what colors work best. You’ll find that marabou is very soft and has a great action but does not have any bouyancy in the water like bucktail. On heavier jigs you have to jig faster. With bucktail it’s a slower fall and different action. I tie mostly with bucktail because I like heavier jigs. I leave the marabou for the ultralight jigs, and the bucktail for the heavier ones. When using Flashabou and Krystal Flash you’ll find they also are completely different. Flashabou is ultra limp and Krystal Flash is a little stiffer. The latter is also has a more subtle flash, the former is almost mirror like. You’ll find there are times you need more or less or no flash at all.

Colors/Patterns: To get you started I’ll give you a few of my favorites, and they are simple to tie. Like the Flatfish lure there is a rhyme and reason I’m using a certain pattern. White patterns with a little flash tied in are best after sunrise and throughout the day. Darks work best under low light and even at night. A black jig at night is easily seen by fish looking up at the night sky. Brighter colors work well in the early morning or evening and with a dark sky overhead. Very flashy jigs work best with full sun. Krystal Flash being more subtle will work in sun or grey skies. Purple Flashabou seems to work tremendously on dark days and in sunlight. I shouldn’t neglect to mention bright orange marabou or bucktail and glow in the dark materials. They can both work at the right times.

Tie combinations of white marabou or bucktail with 1 color of flash material to start. Then tie some jigs with just 1 color of flash material. Tie short and long jigs in 1/32 and just long ones on 1/16. Tie a few long ones on 1/64 for that low water in September and October for spots where the water is low and barely moving. A lightly jigged 1/64 ounce jig tied with just Flashabou on a sunny day can make a Steelhead already angry about the water situation even angrier. I should mention other colors of marabou and bucktail other than white. Black and brown are great ones to start with. They die these hairs in all the colors of the rainbow so use them also.

I won’t give out all my secrets or top guns but blue Krystal Flash tied short on a 1/32 wouldn’t do any good at all. Neither would white bucktail with white Krystal Flash, or brown bucktail with purple Flashabou (the peanut butter and jelly), and yellow Krystal Flash is no good either. Definitely do not tie white and chartreuse marabou on a yellow jig head, or black and chartreuse marabou. They don’t work either. Also white bucktail with green or light blue Flashabou never works, and if you tie big gangly 1/16 jigs with brown bucktail then either chartreuse or yellow marabou and a couple of strands of pearl Krystal Flash and swing them in current, you’d completely waste your time. I’d give you more, but some jigs just have to remain in my vest only.

On to tying. I’ll tie a simple jig, and exagerate for detail in the pics. Using white bucktail and rainbow Flashabou. Clamp a 1/32 ounce jig in the vice, locking it until the jig doesn’t move when you flick it with a finger. Using scissors cut off a 1.5-2″ portion of bucktail and flash. I moisten them both with my saliva or water from a glass to make tying easier. Pinch materials together and hold materials on the neck of the jig. Position your fingers so you have room to wrap thread around neck of jig and material without hitting your fingers. Keep in mind whichever material is on top will be the bottom of the jig because of how the jig is placed in the vice. It’s best upside down. I usually make sure the flashy part is on the bottom, but you can experiment. Make sure you have thread pulled out of the spool, enough to tie the jig with. Using your hand or using the bobbin tool, wrap line tightly around the neck of the jig and the top of the material. You don’t want the neck to be very long, it should be as short as you can make it. Once you’ve wrapped enough line tightly, grab the whip finish tool. Cut the thread with scissors leaving about 18″ to use on the whip finish.

This is where it gets tricky. Follow with me on the pictures. Watching a whip finish video on Youtube wouldn’t hurt either. Hold the thread in your left hand while grabbing the whip finish with your right hand. Put the hook of the whip around the thread and to the right. While holding that thread with the hook take the s curve portion on the bottom of the whip and turn it to the right, wrapping thread around that. Still holding the thread with your left hand pull the whip finish up and over the vice. Both the hook and the s curve should be holding the line firmly. While holding the thread with your left hand and to the left, begin wrapping the whip finish around the head of the jig. The hook of the whip will be on the left of the jighead, the s curve on the right of the jig head. Continue wrapping around the jig holding the whip horizontally. Wrap around the jig 6 or 7 times, then pull it tight and off of the whip finish with your left hand. This will creat a seal around the neck. Repeat this 2 to 3 times, using the same length of thread.

The jigs should look pretty snug by now. Snip the rest of the thread off with scissors as close as you can to the neck. Next, dab a drop or two of head cement on the neck (do not get this on material) and you’re done. Confused? So was I when I started. I even had people show me and it took some time for me to get it right. I’ll try to put a video up when my wife is home and can film it for me. The finished jig in the photos isn’t a top notch tie because I was trying to take pictures at the same time, but it will catch plenty of fish. That’s the beauty of jig tying. If I can tie up a bunch of jigs that are effective on Erie Steelhead, anyone can.

In the next post I’ll detail how to use these effectively, which might or might not be as confusing as this post. Good luck, and send me some pics this season of fish caught on your jigs!

-JB

When: This lure is strong from September to December. The cold water in the winter keeps it from being my first choice then but it still will work in smaller sizes during that time. It goes back to a top producer in March until the season ends in April.

Where: Creek mouths and along the shorelines in the lake when fish are staging. Once fish are in it can be used from the creek mouth to the higher stretches. There isn’t a place where this lure can’t be used in some manner.

Why: It’s a reaction lure. Fish hit out of anger or instinct. It’s a snap decision. Sometimes you will get follows without a strike, but more often than not a fish that locks on to it will strike. Some fish will charge from 20 feet back and through fish to get to the lure. Others only want to take it on a swing when it is wobbling in front of them in current. Either way, it’s not a slow strike. The most important factor is the speed of the lure. It works at a slow retrieve, and wobbles in good current without any retrieve at all. This allows the fish a lot of time to make a decision. Unlike other lures that require much more room for a fish to chase, like a spoon or spinner, you only need about 10 feet of water to use this lure. Depth control can be obtained with split shot usage and raising or lowering your rod tip and utilizing the diving behavior of the lure.

Sizes:
F4- 1.5″- Use in the slowest of pools and in slow drifts in very cold water in the winter. Also in very low and clear water. Not a good choice when you need to get down deeper due to it’s small size.
F5- 1.75″- A better choice when a smaller size is needed. Dives better than the F4 for more depth, but a good shallow water choice. Slow pools and slow to medium drifts against banks. A split shot about 8″ above the lure will give you better casts and depth control. Optimum choice in pools where fish are scattered in different directions. Casting through the middle of the pool will usually get a chaser. Swinging in light current in front of fish or casting and retrieving at an upstream angle will draw strikes.
F6- 2″- A good all around size to have. If I had to choose one size it would be F5 or F6, but F6′s are difficult find in stores. Can be thrown in the lake and in the streams. Best in current but is small enough to use in slow pools. Swinging in current at fish’s eye level or casting and retrieving in slower drifts at upstream angles will work.
F7- 2.25″- This seems like a monster compaired to what some use to catch these fish. Next to a size 14 nymph or tiny single egg, this beast doesn’t even seem like it would work in our small streams. IT DOES. Excellent for throwing in the lake but really excels in good drifts and medium to fast current. The flow is enough to work the lure and you barely will retrieve it as it works in the flow and is swung across current and across the fish’s field of vision. Swing it in front of one fish, swing it in front of packs, it will draw strikes. Also a great choice below waterfalls or washout holes. Use split shot to get it down further but fast current should be enough. Keep rod tip low and get it down in front of fish. Retrieve as slow as you can with the lure still wobbling in the current. Feel the rop tip vibrate and when it stops or you feel a strike, set the hook.

Colors: There are some basic categories most colors fall into.
Whites- Rainbow Trout is in the white category, with just a hint of blue and pink. Others are Pearl, Luminescent (white in daytime, glows at night), White/Chartreuse is a white with just a hint of lime on the sides. Whites will work all day from morning to evening. Best used when you can actually see the lure yourself, about a half hour after sunrise. Good through the morning and best to keep it in the rotation through the daylight hours as you use other colors.
Yellow/Red/Black Dots- This is in a category all it’s own. A classic color for any lure, it is another one that can be used from sunup to sundown. As with the Whites sunlight or dark skies do not seem to matter when using this color. Good in discolored water.
Flourescents- Oranges, Pinks, Chartreuse, these are best in the first and last hour of daylight. Orange is a killer on fresh run fish. A good one to pull out also when the bite is slow as it seems to always tick off at least 1 fish in a pack. They just can’t stand it sometimes. Again sunrise and the first few runs of fish this lures is huge. Stained water would also be a good choice for these colors. Stained, not muddy.
Darks- Frog, Perch Scale, Black with Green or Red Dots. I cannot understate the importance of having a few dark colors. They are best when the sun is high and bright, but will work in dark sky conditions as well. Another option to keep in the rotation in the middle of the day.
Firetiger- A color all it’s own. Will work best early in the morning and with dark skies, but can work at any time.
Metallics- Never have done well on chrome or gold, but Metallic Greens and Blues can work well. A newer addition to my box, I’ll keep you posted on results. Did well last spring with them.
Glow in the Dark- As mentioned it works as a white in the daytime but if you want to try night fishing early in the season this is the lure to use. Light it up with a strong flashlight or black light, cast out, and watch it work. When it goes black, a fish just inhaled it. Set the hook! One of the best things you will ever witness.

General How-To: How do I fit 10 years of fishing this lure into a few paragraphs? Here goes.

Slow pools- Use smaller sizes. Cast and retrieve at upstream angle. Work lure just fast enough for it to wobble correctly. If necessary use shot to get lure down to where fish are holding. Like jigging you want lure to work at eye level or slightly above. Use rod tip to lower or raise lure accordingly. If fish are holding in one direction cast beyond them, than retrieve and swing in front of the pack while holding rod as far upstream as you can. The more upstream the lure travels instead of across stream the better. Not many fish will make a 90 degree turn to chase. Some will, most want to see traveling upstream in front of them. If the pool is swirling and fish are holding in different directions, work each direction. Also cast in the middle and retrieve through the center of the pool. At some point it will be in front of a fish. Note: In pools with fish stacked on top of eachother this lure is tough to use. You don’t want to snag fish. You can try working the top of the water if you have the room above the fish, or try working the front of the pool to the first line of fish. If you can’t do that, go with another option. Note #2: Only retrieve a Flatfish lure as fast as you have to for it to have the right action. In otherwords, reel as slow as you can get away with while maintaining a wide wobble.

Again on sizes, smaller ones work best in slow pools, slow drifts, low water, clear water. They can be equally good when casted and retrieved through pools or swung in light current. Bigger sizes work best in drifts and against banks, medium to fast current, normal to high water, and clear to stained. These larger lures are best when swung or held in current. Casting and retrieving them is best for the lake shore or in the first stretches of the stream mouths where the water may not be moving that much.

Using Flatfish in current: You can hold these lures in current and make them dive and work in front of fish to get strikes. Do it right and it seems way to easy. Never get the lure too close to the fish in any situation. About a foot from the mouth is as close as you need to go. Use shot if you have to, just get the lure to the depth of the fish and let it work. If the current slows you may have to reel a touch to keep the right action.

To fish holding against banks: This is where some finesse may be required. Getting the lure to dive at the right time in current when standing across from a cut bank that fish are holding on can be tricky. This is where the flotation of the lure comes in handy. Cast across and against the bank and let the lure drift down to the fish. With 4-5 feet to go until it gets to the fish get your rod tip down and on the upstream side of you. Stick it out as far as you can. With a tight line, get the lure to dive in front of the fish with room to spare. Get it to work in front of fish as long as you can. When the current pushes the lure back toward your side of the stream, keep it going by reeling a little. The lure “swings” from the bank, across the fish’s field of vision and the main current, and back your side of the stream. This is swinging. Just like swinging a streamer with a fly rod, and a jig with a noodle rod. You are using the current to your advantage. You will reel very little. Within time you will develop the right touch, and synchronize the minimal reeling, with rod tip placement, line tightness, lure depth, and lure action. All this adds up to violent strikes that may not even require a hook set.

Some final tips and recap:

Reel this lure as slow as you can while maintaining a wide wobble.
Match light conditions to colors. Whites and brights to low light, Darks to bright light.
Get a rotation going and don’t hesitate to go against all color rules when the bite slows.
Use the right size in the right situation. A large lure will rarely work in a slow pool or very slow drift. A small lure will not be enough to properly fish good current.
Work lures in front of fish, upstream when possible. If fish are holding in multiple directions you can cast and retrieve through the middle of them.
When swinging and working fish in drifts use angles. Don’t cast to fish directly across from you. Get upstream from the fish, cast downstream and across, and work the lure back to you. Use your rod tip and get it out and upstream as far as you can. Make room for the fish to chase. A fish will stop chasing when it sees the shoreline and rarely makes a complete right or left turn to follow and strike.
In the winter or in very tough conditions downsize!
Fish staging in the lake just off the mouth and too close for spoons and spinners? Forget about floating bait. Put on a Flatfish.
Water stained up from a rain but starting to clear? Put on a Flatfish. It can be used as a search lure up and down a stream when you can’t see fish. Not much good in muddy water, but anything better than that, it will do you good.

I think I’ve just about covered it. If I come up with anything else I’ll repost, but that’s the basics, without actually getting on the water with me and seeing this lure in action. It’s a tool, even a weapon, in the right hands. You don’t have to use flies and baits the size of a gnat in tough conditions. That doesn’t mean you can powerfish these lures like you’re burning a spinnerbait over weeds for bass or musky either. It takes some time to develop the touch to use these right. Some situations like holding them in current in front of fish are easy for anyone to do. Swinging in drifts against banks is another story. In any situation I try to find a way to use this lure, and it’s yet to let me down.

When I figure out how I can use one while ice fishing for Steelhead I’ll let you know. Good luck this season and I hope everyone reading this who hasn’t tried these lures will do so. It’s just one more way of hooking fish and having a huge amount of fun on the Erie tribs. If you want to see fish chase and strike instead of drifting and trying to tell if a fish sucked in your bait or fly this is the lure for you. If you want to see your lure get crushed and inhaled instead of watching for any tiny movement in your float, this lure is for you.

If it works for you, send me a pic this season to post on my site with the fish and the lure in its mouth. I’ll start a gallery of Flatfish caught Steelhead only. I’ll post mine in about a month.
-JB

I’ve had a 10 year love affair…with a fishing lure. The Worden’s Flatfish, made by the Yakima Bait Company in Yakima, Washington. There are other lures that are essentially the same; the Kwikfish by Luhr Jensen, the Lazy Ike, and some others. No one offers as many sizes and colors as the Original Flatfish. Fitting that a lure that is so deadly on Erie tributaries for our lake run Steelhead comes from a state with arguably the best ocean run Steelhead fishing in the world.

Years ago when my grandfather passed away I was lucky enough to get much of what was in his tackle box. He was a lifetime Salmon and Steelhead fisherman in the Pacific Northwest and mostly Oregon on famed rivers like the Columbia, the Willamette, and the Sandy. I was never old enough to fish with the man, but I inherited many of his Flatfish lures. When I first started fishing for Lake Erie Steelhead a decade ago, my thought was if these lures worked for him for Steelhead in the Northwest, they were going to work for me in Erie. Yes the fish and fishing are a little different, but the reasoning behind using these lures is the same.

Looking into his tackle box I noticed a pattern. Different sizes of the same color and different colors of the same size. I knew I wouldn’t be pulling out a 4 inch Flatfish lure to throw to 5 and 10 lb Steelhead in the smaller streams of Erie. I did know that I would take along the smaller sizes in a few different colors and find out if they would get any attention. There are so many fish to present a lure to in Erie….I was going to find out if one of them would react to it.

After catching my first Erie Steelhead on a jig given to me without knowing what I was doing at all I explored all of my options for my 2nd trip. I got some egg sacs, some emarald shiners, and the only thing that actually made the trip in my vest and didn’t come from a bait shop, were 2 Flatfish lures in the 1.5 inch size. Yellow with red dots and bright orange. I figured I’d start small and go bigger if I had to, but knowing that I would be fishing low and clear water I figured it wouldn’t be too much different from bass fishing; downsize and finesse fish when you face tough conditions like low and clear water.

I had all the fish I could want in front of me to test out the lure. Tied one on the moment I hit the stream without even thinking about using eggs or shiners. The second cast I made I hooked up. For the next 6 hours I threw the same lure over and over in front of fish at an upstream angle and when I wasn’t hooking up with fish, I had them following all the way back to my feet. I knew then of at least one technique I would always be using on Erie Steelhead.

Over the years I experimented with colors and sizes and eventually built an arsenal of my bread and butter colors in the right sizes. I figured out colors to use in relation to sunlight or lack thereof, sizes in relation to current and time of year, and whether to cast and retrieve at an angle or swing the lure across current depending on how fish were holding.

Every season I pick up on one or two more wrinkles to using this lure effectively and it now has become something that stays in my vest every month of the Steelhead calendar. The only time I can’t use it? Ice fishing.

This lure is one way to get the most explosive strikes, the fastest charging fish, and generally the biggest, baddest fish in the streams from September through April. If you tire of watching a float all day and drifting flies or bait past fish that have way too much time to think about hitting, put on this lure. Work it correctly and fish will chase, strike, and give you the most exciting moments you can have on the Erie tributaries. I still have many days where I am throwing the same Flatfish for 8 hours and hooking up all day walking up and down a stream.

In the next post I’ll give you the basics, a complete how-to, color choices, sizes, all you need to know to hook fish on this lure.