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Discovered recently that Sportsman's Warehouse has just received a limited amount of floating jig heads.
Not nearly as cool as TubeDudes, but they will do for those of us that can't get some from him. LOL
The Riverdale store has them for 99 cents a package, but I only saw a few. The ones pictured are pretty large, perhaps large enough to float a piece of sucker or carp for catfish. Just saying..........
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Thanks for sharing the tackle informtion with the rest of us. it is always nice to know what is coming up new.
I did place a an order with Tube Dude for a FLIG starter kit. He said I should get it in a week. He is very nice to those of us still trying to learn to fish. Compared to him that is most of us. I think his payback is for us to report back on how well his jigs are working for us. You might give him a try.
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Northland tackle sells them its call the high ball floater. Five good colors, good price.
P.S. Pat yours are prettier and i bet they test better to.
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[#0000FF]Floating jig heads have been proven effective and have been available commercially for many years. As I am quick to point out, most of them will work...at least on some species, some waters, some of the time. If you can find and try a few easily and at a reasonable price then go for it.
Actually, I am really not trying to stir up more business for my "fligs". They are not expensive in terms of materials but they are very time intensive to make. If I charged for the time I have in making each one they would be pretty spendy. But I am not trying to get rich from them...just making them available to fellow tanglers and recover some of my costs. I'd rather go fishing than make fligs.
Yeah, I make mine in the "basic food group" colors for Utah fishies...and in a wide range of styles and sizes. But I suspect I may be overthinking it as far as the fish are concerned. The big attractions of fishing with floating jigs are 1. to present the bait a bit off the bottom and 2. to add some color to your bait or plastic to create more visual appeal. Kind of like floating "bling beads".
The one negative I have to offer about the Northland floating jig heads are the quality of the hooks. They are not super sharp...like the Matzuo hooks I like to use...and they are light wire untempered steel. In short, a big cat or wiper is more likely to straighten the hook. One other downer is that the heads are dip-painted...so the eyes are always full of paint and you need to clean out the eyes before you can tie them on your line. But, at three for a buck the price is affordable.
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I second Pat's claim on the wimpy hooks on the commercial fligs... I was very disappointed with the hooks when I tried to get them out of the cats I caught on them...
Pat I also have another flig question... Been trying the new ones you hooked me up with and love the hooks in them, but I'm having a problem... I put a little heavier sinker on the line instead of my hanger shot and now I keep getting robbed of bait and never seeing the hits when I'm fishing the flig... Do you think I have too heavy of a sinker on that rig? I'm bank tangling not in the toon... And I had nightcrawlers on for bait and suspect the mudcats were the culprits..
Been hard to give the fligs a good test because it's so cold and windy lately that the fish are just not biting very good... The fish I have caught lately have all been on the bottom with a sinker.
Thanks so much for that package of fligs they are wonderful quality and I know when the conditions get right, they will be the ticket.. Looking forward to getting some good weather and getting a float in... Be fun to tangle with a kitty from the floating platform... Later J
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[#0000FF]If you are not feeling the hits...even with a heavier sinker on your line...chances are that they are not channel cats. But rigging with a sliding sinker or setting them up as a short dropshot above the sinker will change that too. (see diagrams)
When big channels are active there is no nibbling. They "gulp and go"...dragging sinkers and stealing untended rods. Only rarely are they delicate or finicky enough that they pick at the bait.
I have seen tank banglers at Utah Lake who tie two or three big sinkers together at the end of their line and then add a six inch snelled hook leader. And they caught fish. In fact, I saw one of them almost lose a rod. So it would be difficult to use TOO MUCH weight...short of an anvil.
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Back in my "no money" days, I used discarded spark plugs as weight. I put a swivel with loops large enough to fit over the terminal end and screwed down the nut. At the spark end, I tapped the side electrode down over a 4-6" piece of heavy wire to keep the sinker from rolling around.
Got the plugs free from service places and never wept when I lost them.
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I think you're right on the not channels... I was catching mudcats that night and so I expect they pick pocketed my hook... they tend to be good at that... I have had the small channels do the same thing at times, but I haven't seen any of the little tykes in this area before...
I guess part of the problem may have been it was after dark and I may not have seen small nibbles like I would in daylight... But I hope to have that fixed with your customization of my rod tips... Sure appreciate that and look forward to trying them out...
Well keep the sun shining and let's get some good weather to get out and chase some cats... I'd like to fix a batch of those fish wings... They are delicious and I let a few friends and family try some as well and now they all want me to make more... Hope I can follow your directions well... Doesn't look too hard, so I hope I don't goof it up... Thanks Pat... Later J
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[#0000FF]I suspect that many of us...older than millennials...have used spark plugs as cheap weights. I like your ideas for modifying with a swivel, etc.
Over the years I have either used or witnessed a wide variety of ersatz sinkers...including big nuts and bolts, tobacco bags full of sand and even railroad spikes in big rivers. Necessity is a mother...or however that goes.
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"I'd like to fix a batch of those fish wings... They are delicious and I let a few friends and family try some as well and now they all want me to make more... Hope I can follow your directions well... Doesn't look too hard, so I hope I don't goof it up... Thanks Pat."
[#0000FF]You guys only got to try the "wings" cold...after a short stay in the refrigerator. They are still great but not near as good as fresh out of the fryer. I'm sure you will do okay on them. Not many ways to mess them up. Just be sure to cook them well done so they stay firm.[/#0000FF]
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FLIGS are a waste of time and money. Especially at Willard when topped with a blue eyed left handed chub or three inch chartreuse gulp minnows. Save your money for stink bait. Just saying. :-).
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[#0000FF]As I have been knowed to say:
Good fishermen can catch fish on even the wrong stuff. Bad fishermen can't catch nothin' even on the hot lure everybody else is killin' 'em on.
Just sayin'...
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[#008000][size 3]True. You'll never see me wasting time with a Gulp minnow on a Flig. Or a Wobble Jig. [/size][/#008000]
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[#0000FF]Good conservation policy. You will harm far fewer fish if you do not use such foo-foo tactics.
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I seem to harm a lot fewer than most people anyway, LOL!
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Question, do they make a floating smaller jig head, I like to throw small 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch jigs for trout. Maybe as big as 2 inch.
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[url "https://www.cabelas.com/product/NORTHLAND-GUM-DROP-FLOATER/2138360.uts?productVariantId=4402175&WT.tsrc=PPC&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=04311914&rid=20&ds_rl=1252079&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyZfUoYbO2gIVCr7ACh2CuwqNEAYYCCABEgIGDvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds"]NORTHLAND GUM DROPS[/url]
[#0000FF]You can buy commercially made "fliglets" from several suppliers. The above link is to the Cabelas listing for one model.
I can make them in any size and color down to a size 4 hook and a pencil eraser sized head. And they do work for trout and other species. I also make a bunch with size 2 hooks that catch trout, perch, crappies, white bass...and walleyes, smallmouths and catfish. Late last fall we were doing better with small fligs than larger ones.
The key is always balance the size of the flig with the type and size of the bait you will be using...and to rig the sinker with the right weight and right length of leader for how you will be fishing them. You can fish them from shore...still or with a bit of motion (slow reeling). But most of us do best by slowing dragging them behind a boat or float tube.
I am attaching a pic of some of the small fligs I like to use.
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My choice is the number 20 Firetigger. The small walleyes love them, especially with the right orderb.
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[#0000FF]The fire tiger pattern was developed almost a hundred years ago by bass fishermen in the east. It quickly proved to be attractive to many other species and has since been painted on all kinds of hardbaits, spinners and jigs. I have even made some flies in the fire tiger pattern...and have painted plastics in it.
Utah fish of almost all species seem to really like fire tiger. Can't think of any species I have NOT caught on it.
Don't know if you have tried any of the #22...the pale perch. That was my own creation about 10 years ago for Starvation...for the baby perch eaters. It has since proven itself on almost all waters and all species too. Then there is the RCK...Red-Chartreuse-Killer....etc.
I do believe that depth, speed, presentation tactics and other factors often are more important than color. But I have also been reminded (by the fish) that sometimes they want what they want (colors) and you better have it or smell skunk.
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Thought I might shair with you the customized musky spinners in my own Firetigger pattern. I just did the feathers of course. But boy they do work.
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