Favorite bait to tip jigs and why?

best to learn from the pros

I like to buy live sandshrimp, and use the tails. I put the hook through them and tie some magic thread around em to keep them on for a few casts. I feel like that mustard looking stuff that pours out of them attracts very well. This setup looks ugly but works.

Drew

Prawn. The size of your thumbnail. You can heat them in the microwave for 10 seconds to make them a little more rubbery. The beauty of these is you can fish a jig tipped with prawn for an hour.

IMVHO regarding steelhead, if you feel like you need to fish bait below your float, then fish bait with a little yarn, the jig is not needed. If you want to fish jigs then fish jigs. They are meant to be a visual stimulus, so fish them accordingly.

R those dem tings u yous 4 dem floats?

prawns work good

I agree with Abu.... Woah.... Didn't think I'd see that typed my on computer anytime soon, but he's spot on

JD

Although I'm no pro.... If I'm not fishing bait, I'm not fishing steelhead....

As said above, bait with jigs will produce results above and beyond (especially on those fish that have been worked on already by others)... If you're fishing virgin water and only fish a jig, you'll catch but I can assure you if you go back through that same water with bait you'll catch another...

Keith

One of my many pet peeves is when people say they caught a nook or ho or big steelhead on a jig, then, when asked, state what bait they had on the jig. If you catch a fish on a jig tipped with shrimp, you caught it on shrimp, ok!

I rarely bait a jig. It's usually unnecessary for steelhead, fouls up the jig, and as stated above, there's better ways to fish bait.

That said, the biggest springer caught among my buds was caught on a shrimp-tipped jig. Made the STS Hog Pen!

Agree with some of these last few posts. I don't like to fish with bait in general. But, I have a bag of frozen raw prawns in my freezer and take out a couple and put them in a sandwhich bag before each outing. They usualy just sit deep in my pocket and wind up the garabage when I get home. Baiting a jig, I feel, does a disservice to the power of the jig. I've had days where it has given me the +1 or 2, but those would have been the only fish I would have hooked if I kept a hunk of bait on my hook all day. When fishing with bait, most my hookups come after the bait falls off, the scent is lingering, and the presentation has been restored. I generaly use Raw prawns, sometimes I'll throw in some juices or cures if I know there might be lower vis. It's also a good excuse to take those first few casts when It isn't that light out yet, or last few casts when it's to dark to see your float.

If you feel uncomfortable fishing without bait on the jig, you need to kick the crutch and start hooking more steelhead than you ever emagined.

A lot of things being missed here gentleman. Let me enlighten, before Vedder gets to this. There are several variations/types of steelhead jigs, each one of them having their own place in jig fishing. First all, do jigs NEED bait to catch steelhead. NO! Steelhead are territorial fish and oftens times strike in defense. Ok, now, lets talk about different types of jigs and cases where bait may up your hook up ratio. The Yarn jig for instances is the most actionless jig one can fish. Steelhead will hit them like they are, but in the case of yarn jig, loading it with the scent of your choice or tipping it with your choice of bait will almost always outfish the straigt yarn jig. Next is the old faithful Palmered Marabou jig. This jig has a lot of action to it and in most cases should be fished by itself for the simple fact is that bait/scent that is applied gets on the marabou and mats the jig down thus taking the utmost important action out of it. If you do apply scent or bait to a palmered marabou jig, just scent up the head of the jig or the chenille body if it has one. If you apply bait like mentioned in an earlier post, just use a thumbnail size chunk of prawn or smaller. If your one that adds sandshrimp tail or eggs, you are killing the purpose of the buggy lookin action packed palmered marabou jig. Might as well just put some feathers in your egg loop with your bait. Rabbit jigs of excellent action as well and will mat up just like the marabou, so with this jig, it is best to fish it without bait and if you want to fish scent, just simply scent the head. Schlappen and hackle jigs are tied in all different ways, some with long tails on them and some short. If tied with a short tail, I like to apply shrimptail or prawn chunk. If tied long and untrimmed, scenting the head shall do just fine. I also like to fish bucktail jigs for steelhead, such as the Macks Lure Rock Dancer jigs. Bucktail is pretty stiff without much action so scenting these should not hurt it too much, but in most instances I find myself just puttin scent on the chenille body or head. Well, with that said, if your stuck on using bait with a jig, use a straight jighead with your bait of choice behind it and my guess is you hook just as many fish or maybe try a jig and worm tail. Just my .02. Good luck.

You can also tie a jig with EZ eggs. It will catch a few

Here we go again:

1. Been fishing summerrun steelhead since 1980.....1st 10 years was 100% sandshimp, prawns, spinners or plugs. I caught many fish, basically cause not many people fished the river I fish.

2. About 1989-90, I started carrying 2 rods to the river...1 for bait and 1 rigged for jigs. I always fished bait 1st cause like many on here, that was all I knew.

One morning, there were 5 of the regulars, guys that fish about everyday, fishing the same drift.....cast, drift, cast, drift...etc., couple of hours like that, nobody had anything. So I asked if they mind if I tryed a jig.....response was go ahead......now the only jigs I had I that time were some "bucktail jigs from Cabelas", 3/8 oz. and "ugly looking". The hole we were fishing was about 4-5 feet deep, so I picked a depth of about 3 foot, whipped that bobber and jig out there....went about 6 feet....bobber down.....about crapped my pants......got fish, then on the 3rd cast, got another....that started my jig fishing.

I still carried 2 rods for about 5 years........Now its 100 % jigs and 99.9% "naked", no bait......

Retired since 1997....3 years in a row fished every morning June 1 to September 15......all jigs......now use 13' 3-piece Lamiglas and its fun.

Don't tie my own, just have the luck to have a friend that has his own web site and ties some "fish catchers for me". Together we have learned 10,000 % about beaded, marabou, schlappen.....big jigs to 1/32 oz., botton line.......YA DON'T NEED BAIT, most of the time!!!!!!!!!

Like DrifterWa I too learned to fish jigs while summerrun fishing. Back then, you never heard of anybody using a piece of bait on their jig. I believe the first time I ever tip a jig with bait was picking up Periwinkles and tipping my jig with those. Anybody else ever do that? How about the white wood grubs ya find in the firewood stack? How about a hunk of crawdad? Bumble Bee pattern jigs worked well too. Used to tie straight marabou in with my egg loop and drift fish it and do pretty good as well. Would ya tip a Popsicle Fly or flesh fly with bait? Hell no.

+1 , Rainshadow IST or XST1562 all the way, what a blast.

jiggy:

If you're going to fish jig...I recommend a long rod.....10.5 - 13'.....now you don't have to pay "big bucks"......there are quite a few around $70.00 and they are nice.....Shimano, Shakespeare, Okuma......but if you have $$$$$$$$ then have a custom rod built for you....or you can pay for a Loomis $600.00+

Match that up with a 2500 or 3000 spinning reel, some Hi Vis braid, a few good floats, some jigs, leader, learn how to set "up the float" either fixed or a slider.....join the crowd when the rivers drop into shape...

Excellent wisdom to bait tip the steelhead jig or not, from all the previous post. I don't bait tip my steelhead jigs very often either for the reasons already stated, it tends to ruin the action and profile of the steelhead jig. I will always scent the jig head where legal though.

There are a few artificial and natural baits that will add enticing action, scent and improve the profile of the steelhead jig though. Think long and worm like, as Castaway stated. Marabou/Rabbit collared steelhead jigs work well in combination with standard size plastic steelhead worms. Two baits I'll use sometimes with full feather/hair bodied steelhead jigs are Squid tentacles/strips and Berkley Powerbait Trout Worms. These two baits add to overall appeal of the full bodied steelhead jig and do not ruin the action or profile of the full bodied steelhead jig, but add to it. I will cure and dye the squid/tentacles just as you would any steelhead/salmon bait. You can cut strip/worm like tipping baits from the body of the squid also.

Here is a bait some fisherman are using, what looks like very small octopus tentacles for tipping their steelhead jigs. I have not personally seen this bait, so I can not tell you for sure what they are. They do not reveal what the bait actually is.

http://www.sticklebackbait.com/

Uh oh. Look in jiggy's signature. This thread is a marketing skeem! No more posts!!!!

Ohwell, he won't take off becuase baited jigs would be a shitty market to be in.

Haha. That's funny. Sneaky bastid!

The ole' bait and switch!

Noticed this right off the bat, but when it went in the other direction, I went ahead and put my .02 in. He tried the same thing on another board and got called out on it. Its obvious as hell that its nothing but cured/dyed squid and octopus tentacles. "Best to learn from the pros". What a joke.

I'm not affiliated or connected with this site in any way. Just saw it myself on the other forum. Thought it was interesting and related to the subject, that is all.

If so, (I'm still skeptical), Jiggy is still a douche.

He's using us to try and develop a product line. It won't work because fishing with bait on jigs generally sucks.

Squiggy....
Pay for your advertising for cryin' out loud.
Reputation has a direct reflection on sales in this market.

When it all comes down to it... Bait with a jig outfishes jigs without bait... Winterruns especially and Summeruns a close second... Although summerruns tend to be a bit more of that "over-achiever" type they will get aggressive at anything in there immediate sight assuming they're virgin fish and not spooked....

Here's my take on jigs based on my observations... Jigs are a great tool for a fisherman to effectively cover average to intermediate holding water.... To me, average to immediate holding water is that of the "gut of the run to the tailout"... It's water where 65% of steelhead lay. More or less when you fish a hole you can effectively present a jig in 65% of the water you cast to....

As you fish these holes your percentage of strikes rise as you fish that "gut of the run or tailout" based on the presentation of the jig...

But to me, as you fish that 35% of the water that's challenging to present a jig (The headwater or seams that are a bit deeper or quicker) you stand better odds to hook the fish laying there with bait involved.... From my observations, a steelhead will react to a "properly" presented jig fairly well in that 65% type water but as you fish that faster water their nose becomes a priority as well. It assists them with making that split decision to chase down the offering and strike it.

A great example is comparing the jig fisherman to the bait drift fisherman. A bait drift fisherman will destroy a jig guy in faster type waters and moderately outfish them in standard holding waters and tailouts...

Just my observations, hope that helps...

Keith

Bait is indispensable at times...the other 73% of the time it's greatly, greatly overrated.

Fish on...

Todd

Ive always been a jig with prawn guy, not quite as much for summer runs though, but winter brats.....definitley. I am positive a non scented/baited jig would do just fine but in reality, it cant hurt one bit when legal to do so. Only downer about the prawn though is sometimes it will make my jig run vertically and not horizontal in the water column. Other than that, only reason I wont have prawn with me on the water is if I'm in selective gear rules water or I forgot them at home.

oops

naked jigs


(summer run)

i too fall under the tipless group. if you want to run bait run bait. but jigs trully do fish very well all by themselves. keep the jig horizontal and in the proper zone, and your fishing. i've witnessed summer steelhead hit a jig 3' under a bobber, in a 9' run. so steelhead will rise to a jig just as they would for a surface fly. however winter steelhead the jig must be down in the fishes zone.

Here is the real story. I would love to go out and pay for a add on every site and mag there is!. truth is i am a dude that has found my line of work come to a standstill this last year. with kids and house to pay i figured i would try to make money doing somthing i know and enjoy. I am not a salesman by anymeans .Just trying to find ways to get my name out there on a tight budget. sorry if i have p-ssed people off should have check out this computer stuff a little closer before divin in. sorry again fellas, understand if i see a banned message in the future.

Good, sorry about the remarks. Thank you for your honesty. I understand. I hope you can develop a bait that will knock our socks off. I hope that you continue to be involved in this forum. It doesn't cost anything to be fisherman who likes to chit chat. It does only if you want to market something.

Good Luck

Thanks. gunna take a little while to get used to the computer world. Just when i wanted to see if you would like to check our jiu jitsu practice on mon, weds and fridays. (jokin). luv the flash video. sorry again to the sponsors!. Dont know about the water up your way but here on the oregon coast i think the water will be fishable by this weekend!!.