Fun with jigs

I'm getting set to head up to Valdez for a week of kayaking fishing from a remote cabin in Prince Williams Sound.  To that end, I'm starting to figure out what tackle I'm going to bring up.  As I have a lot of miscellaneous tackle lying around, I decide to cook up some jigs instead of opening the wallet up and buying more tackle.

Last year while out bottom fishing out of Santa Cruz, I was running out of jig heads as there was a fast drift going and we were fishing some very snaggy bottom.  I had a hex bar in my box, but I really wanted to fish a a rootbeer worm. So I sat down and got busy.  I attached a 10/0 to the top split ring of the hexbar and put the worm on it.

This "contraption" was so funny looking that the captain, and longtime friend, exclaimed ... "what the hell are you going to do with that thing, bonk them on the head and knock 'em out?"  I just smiled and said something sarcastic as I drop the "jig" over the side.  Down it went and immediately the rod loaded up.  "Hah!  You snagged again, didn't you", the call went out from the captain on the bridge.  But I felt the "snag" shake its head and I just smiled and reeled.   "You don't really have something do you".  "I dunno", I responded sheepishly.

Up popped a 16# ling, biggest of the day.  The next drop and the same thing happened, 10# ling in the box.  Sometimes I get a lucky idea.  Here's a pic of that 16# ling and you can see me holding the "jig" in my other hand.



Anyway, back to packing for Alaska.  I thought I'd take what I learned make a few "jigs" up.  Here are the results.

First up is a jig I'm sure will be a success.  My favorite worm to use up in AK is a 10" Kalin Big N in glow.  This worm has caught a lot of fish up there.  It has a bulky body and a big wide tail.  Usually I rig it on an 8 ounce jig head.  This time I used a hex bar.   I have quite a few hex bars in random sizes that were gifted to me at one point.  You got to see the action on this sort of rigging.  When dropped the bar splays away from the worm creating a longer look.  When pulled up the thing collapses creating a bulkier look.

-Allen

OK.  So next up I rigged a similar jig, this time with a 8 ounce ball sinker.  One of the things I have in my mind is how much to pack.  I always seem to pack too much, but on a 5 day trip to the outback, you don't want to run out.  But nor do you want to pack too much heavy lead.  So I've been thinking of ways for sinkers to pull double duty.  A sinker can either act in a traditional manner with bait on a leader behind it, or now I can rig it jig style as well.  No need to bring a sinker and a jig head.

-Allen

And another one with a 4 ounce torpedo sinker.

-Allen

Hmmm ... I got a coffee can full of 1 ounce egg sinkers.  What can I do with that?  Well, out comes the wire cable and crimp kit.

-Allen

Hmm ... I wonder ... different config with the egg sinkers this time.  The sinkers will actually stick out like pectoral fins!!!

-Allen

I'm on a roll with these egg sinkers.  I rig a string of 5 and shove them up a large B2 squid.  In this pic you can see that I put an attach point in the middle of the belly.  I did this by slipping a swivel into the sinker chain.  I want to see what the action is like with it there.  I do have the option of just attaching to the front too.

-Allen

Very nice use of material at hand and good imagination.  Fish will never know what hit em

Rob.

Hmm ... I wonder ... different config with the egg sinkers this time.  The sinkers will actually stick out like pectoral fins!!!

-Allen

yeah, and possibly work like rattles on a bass jig too

Yup.  I've been thinking about how to incorporate rattles into the jigs.  Bill at NCKA make swimbaits that he molds rattles into the tail section.  Nice!.  A couple of the plastics are his works of art including the rootbeer worm on the "original" and the green swimbait.   I also would like to work a piece of sponge into them ... scent keepers.  I'll be liberal with the herring oil on these jigs.

-Allen

Neat stuff Pole. Really interesting design direction!

Z

That's what I call "going BIG!"  I think my heaviest rod is a salmon mooching outfit that maxes out with a 5 or 6 oz banana sinker...and is only rated for up to 4 oz.  I'm probably going to have to get some heavier gear if I get into sturgeon fishing, or ever go after those 7-gill sharks I hear about.

I've been tossing small plastics (6" worms and twirl tails, 4" and 5" plastic minnows) on 1/4 oz. Gamakatsu jigheads, with med/light spinning gear from the Jetty rocks. I painted the heads metallic blue, for no particular reason, but they worked well with "motor oil,"  olive metal flake, and green metal flake plastics.
These worked well for the Black Rockfish out there.
When casting from the Jetty, heavier jigheads sure do get down fast, but stay down too close to the rocks...you lose a lot of them. This is also due to having to retrieve them UP the slope of the jetty rocks.. If I were fishing from a boat, i could use heavier weight.

 So I went to the light jigs so that I could fish them slower and not lose them in the rocks. Been using 12# test. Sometimes I use my old line from my steelhead/coho reel when i re-line that with fresh. I mean, why waste it...just going after rockfish on the Jetty. Last time I checked, I had about three different kinds of line spliced together with barrel knots on my jetty reel, an old Penn 450SS spinning reel. (Maxima Chameleon, Ultragreen, and P-Line on the business end. Gawd I'm cheap!:D)
  5" Carolina-rigged minnows have worked well out there too for the rockfish, with 1/2 oz slip sinkers.

GO BIG is right!!!  These jigs are targeting big lingcod and halibut.  Last year the lings we caught off the kayaks were 36-44 inches.  We had 50+ inchers from the big boat.  My largest, at 44", was caught on a live 18" greenling, which makes these jigs look small.  Several of the lings came up with 5# salmon in their guts, with the tail sticking out their mouths, which makes these jigs look even smaller.  They were stuffed, but were still "hungry" enough to strike our offerings.

I'll have lighter stuff for rockfish.  I'm with you on the motor oil.  Motor oil anything in any size will catch all sorts of bottom fish as is what I reach for first if I'm fishing for rockfish.  In my youth we used to hit up the jetties quite often and fished it exactly as you're talking about.

Next time I'll paint the lead.  I was thinking about that ...

-Allen

Lings will eat the craziest looking things, like the pipe jigs that did so well out of Neah Bay last month.  Gonna have to make up a few of those soon. 
P.S.  Anybody got a spare tire iron?   

Rob.