Crappie Prep - Pinkies and Red-N-Whites

Here are several ties that I've prepared for November crappie.  White craft fur has worked well for me recently.

Each jig weighs about 1/16 of an ounce and has a #4 red hook.

A Swim Jig For Schooling Shad Situations

Earlier this month, I purchased a "new-to-me" eyelash yarn from Jo Ann Fabrics.  It's called Lion Brand Fun Fur Exotic.  The color is "silver fox".  This material moves nicely in the water.  Its silver color is very shiny.

I've combined it with a multi-toned gray craft fur that I purchased from Jo Ann on the same day.  Visually, I like the pattern's appearance and its looks in water.

Pictured below are simple craft fur ties on the left as well as my shad-styled swim jigs.  The jigs are 1/8-ounce with #2 hooks.


Have had initial success with the swim jigs on largemouth bass in Eagle Creek Reservoir of Indianapolis.

More Chenille Flukes & Worms

Tied the following lures before my trip to Tennessee.  Had good intentions of using them there, but the situations did not warrant it.  Hopefully, I still have a chance this fall to fish them in proper situations.

Have discontinued using bungee cord rubber in favor of leather boot lace.  It has an action similar to the rubber when wet.  Also, note that I've begun tying two-tone worms with chartreuse tails.

Recent Fishing Trips - October 20-23 & October 26

Took a trip down to Hixson, Tennessee with the intention to visit my in-laws last week.  Well... most never saw me as my wife told me to go fish.  And fish I did. :)

Spent all four mornings of October 20th through the 23rd fishing below the Chickamauga Lake Dam on the Tennessee River.  A sportsman's paradise.  There are many different species of gamefish to catch there and what a productive river!

Spent most of my time fishing near bridge abutments.  White bass were schooling and willing to bite.  Spotted bass provided some good battles too.  I caught a few largemouth bass, yellow bass, bluegill, and two of my largest black crappie of the year.  Unfortunately, I do not have photos of the crappie.  This became a fishing trip for me, so sorry about the lack of photos.  I fished! :)

My crappie were easily better than 12 inches long.  By how much? I'm unsure.  I caught them on hand-tied craft fur jigs (1/8-ounce) similar to those pictured below, but with red hooks.

I could not entice the white bass with these surprisingly.  Most of those were caught on Yum Mystic Minnows.

Pictured below are two of my white bass catches.  The first is slightly smaller than my average catch.  The second is one of the brutes.  I believe that I caught about 15-20 white bass each morning.  Many were similar in size to the fish in the second picture.

That's a three-inch long swimbait lying across the fishes mouth.  This was truly a nice-sized fish which put up a heck of a battle.

Here is a photo of one of the "fishermen" fishing next to me during the trip, a much better fisherman than I.

Finally, I did a little shore casting over at Eagle Creek Reservoir in Indianapolis last night.  Caught a total of 33 white bass and 8 yellow bass in just under two hours.  Fished a black-bodied, silver-bladed UV Roostertail Spinner (1/8-ounce).  Often, the fish hit the lure just as it entered the water.  My largest was a white bass of about 12 inches in length.  It was nice to catch so many white bass since I did not catch any true bass other than yellow bass there last year.

The rest of the lures that I fished:

Pictured clockwise from top left:

• Yum Mystic Minnow
• 1/6-ounce white Roostertail
• 1/8-ounce white Roostertail
• 1/8-ounce black UV Roostertail
• 1/16-ounce black Roostertail
• 1/4-ounce yellow Roostertail
• Captain Mick's Minnow Swimbait

LashMax Yarn Jigs for Bass

Plum brown heads (Harbor Freight mix) with caffeine (dark brown) LashMax eyelash yarn tied in over the collar.  Used brown and orange craft furs for the tail.  Cinched everything down with brown-colored trilobal polyester thread.

Heads are 1/8 of an ounce with #2 hooks.

Ultimate Yarn Jig 'N' Worms

I've been tying with eyelash yarns for the past two months.  A fellow tyer mentioned that one of my yarns might make a nice replacement material for silicone skirt applications.  The yarn is durable and has very good movement in the water.  So, I agree. :)

Here are a couple of my latest "mover and shaker" ties.

The hooks are offset slightly from the chenille and rubber tails, so there's plenty of gap available for hooksets.  Jigs are 1/8-ounce ball heads with #2 hooks.

More jig ties with new and different eyelash yarns are on the way...  I hope that you'll stay tuned.

It's Not A Fluke... More Flukes!

I really enjoy tying these now that I'm in control of both, the thread and the weedguard. ;)  Used two more "new-to-me" yarns this evening.  The first fluke pictured is tied with a #6 yarn called Northland Lofty Chenille (honey color pattern).  The second is tied with a fuzzy #6 chenille yarn called Bernat Fab Faux (sable color pattern).

This fluke has an Eagle Claw 249WA-1/0 hook.  It's about 6" long.

This one was has an Eagle Claw 249WA-3/0 hook.  It's 6.5" long.

I field tested one of my other flukes recently with a medium spinning outfit consisting of a 6 foot rod and a reel spooled with 6-lb. copolymer line.  I was able to cast it a pretty fair distance with it wet. :)

Forget about casting one of these dry unless you use a fly rod outfit of about 8-wt or more. ;)