Tg8

It is nice to hear, and see. That must be a heck of a core workout on a kayak butterfly jigging. Wow.

This shimano flatfall jig is a blue sardine and the package instructions have you tieoff on the traditional end, opposite of the hooks. I have found i have more consistent hook sets this way and will be trying moving the tie off on one of my xps freestyle jigs I use to see if that improves as well.

Had another great day at keuka. 26 total, 1130-3. Had 4 good keuka lakers 6-8lbers all on the 80gram flatfall jig, pictured with the unfortunate eye from a laker who is now a pirate. I wish I landed that one, it must have been pretty big judging by the size of his eye. They hit hard from 1130-2 then slowed quite abit. They were on points again. The one shot of the fish finder was a humble one, many other instances the graph was loaded. They surprised me again with their interest in the 80 gram boat anchor. My buddy was with me caught a ton, he stuck to the typical jig with soft plastics, and he threw a kastmaster. It was noticeable how the big ones chose the erratic presentation of the large butterfly jig.

Anyone ever use the grubmaster jigs from the ebait site http://www.ebait.com/show.asp?number=60 I like the slo poke jigs and bet they work well. Lots of other nice options on that website. There is a video of the grubmaster at work too.

Tell me about it, they look like jigging with swords. Shimano has a shallow series, that features a flat side and center vortex jig, I'll be playin with those soon. I do like the thought of finding the diamond jig to be an oldy but goody. Something about the versatility and simplicity of the design that makes it rewarding to catch these fish with. It is amazing to see the presentation varieties from the salty big pond folks.

They were hitting hard by the state park Sunday. It started with half ounce diamond jig tipped with green pumpkin grub a couple hundred yards from the launch in 140. The same bait But a half ounce lighter that I caught the nine pounder with last month here. After about 3 all caught mid way or higher in the column I wanted to try the massive 6.5" shadalicious in the deepest water close by 170ft. I marked a few but no consistency and no hits. So I sought out a point to look for some larger numbers. I found them on the first point I chose. Diamond jig pulled up 4 on each cast or drop. I knew they would hit anything so I switched to the flatfall jig by shimano in hopes of catching my first with this new bait. 80grams is ridiculously heavy, especially for 120ft. It went to the bottom so fast. Popped it a few times on the bottom then guided it slowly to the bottom, and bam pulled two up that way. Then I tried some lift-reel-pause up through the water column and bam caught three more on the pause. After that I wanted to exploit their pattern of hitting at the top of a lift with a pause so I grabbed the xps version of the butterfly called the freestyle. This one being almost a third as heavy as the flatfall, I could dance it in place with a few twitches of no more than 6" right at the pause stage up the water column. I believe this is called slow pitch jigging. Basically, walking the dog vertically but at a slower pace and pause or hop at the end. I did notice that the hookup percentage on the flatfall was almost 100%. Where on the xps I felt that I pulled it from their mouths a few times.the flatfall hooked up solid as soon as they hit each time, I believe being the result of having the hooks at the opposite end of were you tie. On the xps freestyle butterfly jig you tie on the ring that holds the hooks, so it does look weird and I think they hit the bottom of the jig that has no hooks. I might tie a hook at both ends next time. I have been waiting for this extreme bite to gain some confidence with these jigs. It was a blast. I am pretty certain no matter what I threw down their would have worked but I did notice a pattern to their hits to a certain extent, so I am going with I learned something. they shut off right as it got dark around 5ish. all the action was between 215 and 445, most of the action was 330-430. I probably caught 15 to 20 all in a single area on a point crushing a massive bait ball. They even spit one of their meals up and it had an uncanny resemblance to the half ounce diamond jig I started out with. The launch water levels were fine and I was the only one launching. Such a shame with the balmy weather we had.I figured more would have been out.

No, the main driveway was plowed, but the back gate was closed. The sheriff said he usually goes out of onanda after the holidays.

Yes, woodville had an inch of ice extending to 50ft+ north past the launch. I do enjoy searching for techniques and tactics to add to the arsenal.

Had a nice afternoon tour of the muddy roads south of canandaigua as I checked onanda then the woodville launch. Had a nice chat at the woodville launch with sheriff hicks who winter fishes out of his champion quite often. By 2:10 I made it to the branchport launch. I couldn't wait to try some tackle that arrived in the mail. I grabbed two shimano flatfall butterfly jigs, 80grams is the heaviest i have jigged with and think I need a more appropriate rod for that and some deeper water. Maybe one hit on that, but couldn't be sure. The second bait I found on amazon was 6.5" shadalicious. They look like musky baits, but I figure bigger baits =bigger fish. Had a few hits on that one, lost my stinger hook. Then I switched back to a 3.5" green shadalicious, then boated 5 between 330-430. I should have gave the butterfly a shot or two at that witching hour but, their will be plenty of time for that.

I found this nice website that has a ton of nice jig spinner combos. Lots of interesting ideas. http://www.newconceptlures.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=127

I sent her back coulda shoulda:)

Here is an image of them. I have been looking into deep water techniques, in hopes to find options for the tough bite. I use the 1oz version and I swapped out the large hook with a smaller one and have been experimenting with trailers. The most successful trailer I have been using is my 4" green pumpkin grub or twister tail. I caught the burbot dancing the jig on the bottom. And the 9lb laker by reeling and twitch pause vertically through the water column. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRjxOrB--7yZKEi9Nwud6t5epyTmUhyqux7i3BXw7uN-_SvvruM9w

while we are on the topic of diamond jigs, here is what I pulled out of keuka two weeks ago on the diamond 9lbs. Thx all for the nice comments.

And I was lightly hopping a diamond jig on the bottom, right where we found a small rock pile at 110. Too funny:)

Here is the cod:)

Was a great day:), that burbot was crazy looking. I'll share the pic when I get it. I heard they taste good. But i was surprised to grab one at 110ft. I thought they were shallow fish.

I didn't notice that it dropped. It looked fine. Could the rain have popped it up:)... Most likely I was oblivious.

Got on the water at about 10:30. Started at the west side drop off. Finder didn't mark the usual numbers, had one hit in about an hour. The wind kicked up and we headed over to the east side for some relief. Stumbled into some rocks at about 105. And found half a doz lakers, on shadilicious soft plastics. Went over the spot a few times before we started to drift further north with the wind. I pulled out my diamond jig, and bam right on the bottom, a 6-8lb burbot. Crazy looking fish. Then we pulled up a 7-8lb laker. My buddy a legit bass pro made a big difference today suggesting moving and targeting some points. He had the rod with a stinger I put on it with 5" shadilicious, he caught a bunch more than I did. I am going with the excuse running the trolling motor kept a few off my tally. On the way back to the launch he pulled an almost 4-5 lb and broke off another. Spectacular day. I will be moving a bit more than I usually do on canandaigua after I found it to find us all our fish today.

Another two eyes tonite. And a nice 1.5-2lb smallie. My largest in the canal this year. They hit hard for 15 min then gone, water clarity is pretty good. They look healthy, good enough to eat nice thick bellies. I'll see them again. When they drain the canal I wonder if any get caught and don't make their way back to where ever it drains to. If I am catching consistent 19" ers they must be making it back to safety.

Thq that reminds me of the ear ball jig. I could have used it tonite. I hit woodville from 4-7. Every bait fish in the lake was in front of the drop off. Fish finder made it look like there was 20 ft carpet of bait, they were jumping. You could see them in the water there was so many. The weird thing about this type of bait fish was the way they swam when they were underneath the boat, it's like they turned up their bellies as they swam, they looked to be at least 4-6" long. I had one hit on my diamond jig.

Thq guys, I'll give it a try.

The darn spinner wouldn't spin, I think the angle due to the jig wouldn't allow the blade to spin. I hit the bass heavy today half a dozen from 2-4lbs. Jig in shallow was the key warmest areas of the lake were the most active.