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Never had much confidence in jig fishing until I found the right combination. I got a 3/8 black & blue strike king elite series jig. I cut a trigger x black sapphire 4 in flappin craw in half for a trailer.
This has been a working combination for me the last two days with the drop in temp on top of the constant rain/overcast
Size hasnt what ive been at for me lately... Only one over a pound... But I did lose one 1.5 to 2lbs range (still getting use to jig strikes)
Whats working for others?
I only really use 4 baits in small ponds. Jigs, 4" worms, spooks and traps. Jigs and worms in black, blue, purple or a combo of the three. For me I try to use as little weight as possible. Traps I use red or more of a natural color. Spooks I pretty much only use a spook jr with a black top and white belly. Some of the local farm ponds are really fun to fish with a good top water bite. If those 4 don't work switch ponds. :P
ha, ironic. Sub the rattle for the crank during certain times of the year and a hula-popper instead of a spook and weve got the same line-up
I really don't fish that many ponds anymore except when I go back home by Dale. Only small lakes I fish are some of the lakes in the apartment communities here in Evansville. And in small lakes I'll take traps over cranks any day. I always think you get a much better reaction bite with traps than cranks in lakes without a lot of pressure. That and they are usually pretty shallow with lots of grass to rip the traps through. Just my 2 cents on why traps over cranks.
matt just give me a call a couple of days before you get into town and i can show you some tricks with a jig, been caughting some big fish at bluegrass last week (18 1/4 and a 21 1/2 ). my boy wacked them on a swimbait on monday, he had a 17 and a 19 inch bass. then start to teach me how to caught them on a swimbait lol. the student has become the master type of speech.
Justin- I use cranks very well as a reaction bait during the summer. Most of my crank bites come one of two ways
A) Hitting the water i tend to let the ripples die to see if they come up and swallow it... I also will give it a couple twitches and have seen them strike it after that.
B) After the twitching, I usually just reel it in... With cranks in ponds Ive found bass really only strike on the initial dive of the bait. After that they dont really chase it (In my experience Pond fishing)
Now dont get me wrong, I love the rattle and I think it does a better job getting a reaction bite away from the banks when it might end up right on top of a unsuspecting bass. I will on catch a bass on any part of my rattle retrieve where as the crank is usually done after it gets away from the banks. But the Crank is way more effective on banks IMO where Bass tend to hang out in ponds and you can keep it in their strike range a bit longer than a rattle.
Paul- I will probably be down towards the end of june next. Im the best man of my guys wedding and so we are throwing a bachelor party in mid june for him so I have to conserve the funds till then... trips to evansville always end up costing me more than I plan too.
All I can say is if you got a pond near you and a black/blue jig... F'in go.
Blue Gill are spawning and the bass are going ape **** here... I gotta think its the same way through most of the state at this point.. Caught a 2 lber and 3 lber today in the same pond both feeding on spawning gills.
However if the fry is out Ive had some trouble getting them to bite with such a large abundance of easy prey.