02-11-2003, 11:42 AM
[cool]Even better than wobbling, they tend to zig-zag...almost like "walking the dog" beneath the surface. When hook eye placement is on the flat surface, as with a crank bait, you get more wobble and vibration. When the hook is on the top of a "hammer head", the jig tends to run first off in one direction and then back in the other. If the head is fairly straight and flat, it becomes more like a wobble. If it has a more pronounced bend, it will have wider zigs and zags. If you troll at the right speed, the lead "keel" keeps the jigs tracking well, without spinning.
Since these are "home-hammered", there is no standard of uniformity. Every one turns out just a little different shape, even when poured the same size on the same size hooks.
When I first started playing with these, back in the early eighties, I took them to Powell on a spring trip for largies and crappies...when they were still prolific. I tried casting them along the shoreline and caught a few decent largemouth, a couple of walleyes and several chunky stripers. Later, on a slow troll back to the marina (Wahweap), I let one out behind the boat, while my partner trolled a Shad Rap. I hooked a half dozen 5-7 pound stripers while a succession of other lures caught nothing.
I have introduced them to a lot of species in a lot of waters since, and they seem to have "the right stuff". The salt water fish in the Sea of Cortez rip them to shreds, but they eat anything you put in the water. They also work well for deep jigging, as in the Texas lakes where stripers, whites and wipers bunch up just off the bottom in fifty feet of water.
I have never fished them for the beloved macks of Bear Lake or the Gorge, but I'd be willing to bet that decorating one with the right flavored fish meat would make them acceptable to those predatory monsters.
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Since these are "home-hammered", there is no standard of uniformity. Every one turns out just a little different shape, even when poured the same size on the same size hooks.
When I first started playing with these, back in the early eighties, I took them to Powell on a spring trip for largies and crappies...when they were still prolific. I tried casting them along the shoreline and caught a few decent largemouth, a couple of walleyes and several chunky stripers. Later, on a slow troll back to the marina (Wahweap), I let one out behind the boat, while my partner trolled a Shad Rap. I hooked a half dozen 5-7 pound stripers while a succession of other lures caught nothing.
I have introduced them to a lot of species in a lot of waters since, and they seem to have "the right stuff". The salt water fish in the Sea of Cortez rip them to shreds, but they eat anything you put in the water. They also work well for deep jigging, as in the Texas lakes where stripers, whites and wipers bunch up just off the bottom in fifty feet of water.
I have never fished them for the beloved macks of Bear Lake or the Gorge, but I'd be willing to bet that decorating one with the right flavored fish meat would make them acceptable to those predatory monsters.
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