Trolling Jigs??

[Ray]

What types of jigs / plugs do most people use when trolling spinning tackle?

[ruge13]

I love the deep and shallow jointed 7 inch rapallas in Silver. I have tried the more expensive ones like Yo-Zuris but I can't beat the action on the rapalla's. I have a few with the paint completely gone down to the white plastic underneith with bent up hooks and they still outfish everything else.

[Wes]

Almost always go to a swimmer like Rapalas, Bombers, Mambos. Rattletraps if you want to get deeper. Usually just troll whatever jig I've been casting but I like Storm Wildeyes and paddle tail rubber shad.

Tube and worm beat the heck out of anything else I ever trolled, though.

[RIBill]

Ray: I've relied on:

- 4" sassy shads (pearl) on lead heads, (I've avoided the Storm
WildEye facsimiles as blue fish make short work of them);
- Kalin 5" curlytails (white) on 1/4 oz heads; and
- a small jointed Rebel (I believe its 3" or so).

The Rebel has been deadly (espec. on weaks as S. Ruge can attest), so much so that most of my flyfishing friends have written me off. The hooks are light (its a freshwater lure) and should be changed over to saltwater trebles (size 6).

When trolling, the spinrod seems pretty effective deadstick in a rod holder, but when using the flyrod, I like to prop it off to the side (outrigger style) just ahead of my paddlestroke. Seems to prevent a lot of missed fish vs. flyrod in the rodholder.

At night, Ray, there is no more deadly offering in my experience (I haven't really done the t&w thing which I'm sure is deadly) than a pair of fully-dressed black deceivers.

Lookin forward to your reports. Avoid fishing with Sam.
:p

[ruge13]

Bill your post made me realize 2 things....

1. The hooks on my rebells are a mangled reshaped version of their former shape....that explains why, never swapped the hooks.

2. When fishing with Riley, I trolled it a few times, one particular memory comes to mind. The first time I met him we fished the cut around Woods hole on a moving tide. Bluefish were breaking the surface in just about every rip that set up. I trolled though them with the rappalla a couple times and came up with nothing...Every other time that lure has caught me fish even when I thought there were no fish to be had...

[rockfisherman]

Cocohoes, sassy shads on jigheads. Wildeyes when the blues are scarce. Jointed and straight rapalas, bombers and rebels, with the hooks replaced, as Bill said. That's critical. The floating jointed minnows work great since you don't have to worry about hanging up if you pause. As for hooks, I've been using the Eagle Claw Seaguard 254s in 1/0 for the trailer hook, it is a light, strong hook and doesn't upset the balance of the lure. And then a treble up front. If there is a middle treble I throw it away and don't replace it. Those black deceivers Bill talked about are deadly, I second that.

[RIBill]

Shaun: I'm convinced that you could swim in a pool of piranhas if Sam is with you.

R'man: good point about the fact that the swimmers are floaters so that if you take a fish on the other rod etc, you don't get fouled up on the bottom etc.

the other thing is that I like to use what I call a "trout rod". its typically a lite 6-7'er, with a small stradic reel. the rod has a light tip and as you troll a swimmer, the tip will vibrate just so. if the vibration changes, you know that you've picked up some weed. this way, you avoid trolling around endlessly, pointlessly with a weed-fouled plug. and of course, when you hook up, its a sporting event.

in terms of casting plugs from the yak, I'm equally addicted, but with casting I use a small 3-4" homemade surface popper. there is nothing so enjoyable as a surgical strike before work where you bring on surface eruptions on the flats from husky bass that want to KILL that popper! you know that you've hit it correctly when the sky looks like it did this morning in the West Bay:

[RIBill]

the missing photo: