Spring = Jigs Larry's Fishing Hole   by: Larry & Linda Dozard

Since Good Crappie Fishing is associated with Spring, we find ourselves getting out the jigs.

Weather you fish for Crappie, Bluegills or Walleye, we truly feel jigs are one of the top baits for catching all species of fish.

We prefer jigs for Crappie or Bluegills over live baits which must be kept alive; however, live baits do have their place. Jigs are so versatile and can be brought to life by slow drifting, trolling, casting, dragging, pitching, vertical jigged and the great Float-n-Fly (fished under a small bobber) method.

We find hair jigs to have a more natural look and when tied full and proper they will imitate a variety of minnows, leeches or even insects. They can also hold scents longer and if tied well, can be fished often while lasting a whole season with little wear.

A great jig presentation for those deep Crappie is to tip a jig, lower to bottom, reel up a couple inches and simply put the rod down (but watch it) while slow drifting with maybe an occasional wiggle.

The Float-n-Fly technique is another fun and great way to catch Crappie and awesome for those suspended fish. Just set the jig under a bobber at the fish’s depth while slow drifting with an occasional twitch. Since Crappie feed up, watch for your bobber to lay over signaling a bite. Sometimes aggressive jigging will catch active fish so just mix up your presentation till you find what works. Experiment with colors, tip jigs with a minnow or use scents to find what fish crave. As the season goes on, learn to fish deeper where you can find and catch Crappie year-round.

We have tested several different types of jigs over a 5 year period and this past year we found, tried and fished what we think may be the best hand-tied hair jigs from Jimbo’s Jigs made by Jim and Carol Nelson right in Illinois.

They have a wide variety of multi-color jigs like the Crappie Knocker, the Bluegill Knocker, a Bass Knocker with or without sparkle tail and the Bass Dazzler with tinsel attractant.

In fact, Jim and Carol’s Hand-tied Calftail Hair jigs seem to breathe in the water and are irresistible to fish.

As we did, you too can save yourself the frustration of poorly tied jigs that will not hold up by visiting www.jimbosjigs.com or call 618-452-3536 for better jigs. It is just like they say “try our jigs and it will be love at first bite”.

Also as a follow-up on Jimbo's Jigs, Crappie USA Pro anglers Ben & Vicki Short of Bartonville, IL tell us, “we are really impressed with Jimbo's Jigs which were the only things working around cold fronts and tough fishing conditions at last few tournaments”. CONGRATS to Ben & Vicki for finishing the 2004 year in 1^st place in points for Region 3 and 4th overall in the U.S. for Crappie USA and they believe it is due to using Jimbo’s Jigs.

We talked about our review of the great Hand-tied Calftail Hair jigs from Jimbo’s Jigs. Last month Jim and Carol added NEW Hand-tied Calftail Bluegill jigs and Hand-tied Bucktail Bass jigs to their original line of Crappie Knockers and these too seem to be irresistible to fish.

Check their jigs out on the web at www.jimbosjigs.com or call Jimbo’s Jigs 618-452-3536 we are sure you will like them!

For more Product Reviews, Fishing Tips and Fishing Report visit our WebSite at: www.larrysfishinghole.com