I fish jigs quite often. I fish football jigs and simple round-head jigs. The main reason Ifish them so much is confidence. Ihave confidence I am making a presentation fish will eat when Ican feel a jig dragging bottom. However, jigs sometimes drive me crazy.
The jigs I use are made by FLWOutdoors Magazine Editor Jason Sealock. And because I live just down the road from him, I often help myself to his jig-making supplies and tie most of my own skirts. Although I should admit, he does tie quite a few for me -it’s a pretty good deal. What drives me crazy is he has piles of different skirt materials. He has different sizes, shapes and textures. He has different colors and color patterns- solid colors, mixed colors, shiny colors, flat colors, striped patterns, swirling patterns, light colors, dark colors. There are enough options to choose from that Ifeel like I may never try them all. On top of that, they can be combined in hundreds of ways to make even more combinations. How would a guy ever find the best one?
It used to be Itried all different combinations of greens and chartruese and browns and blues, and if I caught them well, I tried to link the color to the conditions and assumed I’d just made a breakthrough discovery. Now, I don’t think as much. Instead, I stick to a handful of colors that I know will work,butI alwaysstay open to the idea of trying crazy things just to be different. After all, different sometimes makes fish bite.
One ofthose oddballsImadeis a bright red jig skirt Itied on a bright red jighead. I haven’t caught anything with it yet, but I think that’s only because Ihaven’t fishedit much. But one day, I will find a patch of hydrilla and toss that red jig into the edge of it, and I’ll prove bright red is a good jig color.
Another is one I tied of round rubber. It has a green-chartruese head I made with powder coat intended for crappie jigs. The skirt is a combination of two parts black and one part chartruese. It’s thick and gaudy and looks like nothing I’ve seen in nature. But there will be an overcast day, or maybe a bright night, when that jig is money. I can’t wait.
I’ve grown fond of my handful of standard jig colors, and I haveavoided pulling my hair out while sifting through Jason’s collection of skirt materials. But not long ago he showed me some new skirt patterns he was going to experiment with. And I’ve got the urge to make a few wild jigs and give them a whirl.You never know, one of them might be my next go-to jig pattern.