i've always been a little sceptical about bucktails. but i've heard over and over again that they're the best thing to use in the spring. does anyone use them while trolling or jigging them off the bottom? and how fast are you moving or are you going with the drift of the current?

Welcome to S-B :btu:

I think everyone will agree that if you had just one thing to use anywhere in the world to catch any kind of fish to survive, it would be a bucktail jig. It's simply that good and that universal.

A lot of boaters and charter types swear by jigging a larger bucktail when trolling but they can also be casted into shore or structure as if you were fishing from shore.

Basically, jiggin a bucktail for bigger fish means getting a bucktail right down to the bottom, even to the point that you occasionally hang up. You are constantly moving yur rod tip up and down to create a pulsing in the jig.

Slower trolling speeds and try a few different colors, Black, Red, Green, White, Pink, & Purple are colors I've seen and used before. Make sure the jig is heavy enough to get to the bottom and remember you occasionally want to snag - that means you're down deep enough... I used to race some smaller sailboats and I was always told that if I wasn't capsizing occasionally, I wasn't racing hard enough. Same thing applies to snaging a jig.

Hope this is a start & good luck....

John

Originally posted by John R

I think everyone will agree that if you had just one thing to use anywhere in the world to catch any kind of fish to survive, it would be a bucktail jig. It's simply that good and that universal.



John, I must be an exception to the rule.....having just one 'thing' to use anywhere, to catch any kind of fish, I WOULD CHOOSE A KASTMASTER ...mid sized...;):D

...but all of John's comments on Jig/Jigging, are right on.....I don't think trolling a bucktail is gonna be as effective as actual jigging though... AT ALL!;) ....

..and your best bet to get a visual on jigging (explaining it, won't make sense...seeing it, is much more resourceful), is to go to the Ditch (Cape Cod Canal)(Fish Funnel)(Whale Passageway)(Sunfish Aquarium)(Striperman Avenue)...ok ok....:D

..and watch the 'EXPERTS' working them....see who hooks up, and follow the leader..maybe even axe some questions...;)

don't forget to add a trailer of some kind either plastic or pork rind. It really adds to the action.

Welcome aboard Reel deal last night in the westport bait o, bucktail with GS 7" jerk 11, other plugs of all kinds 3, I would have to say the bucktail would be the number one for me. Of course it would have to have some kind of GS plastic on it;) By the way I be next door in Fairhaven.

Hi all:

I have to say that the trusty ole' bucktail is my most consistent producer all year. I don't want to start an argument on the issue of color, but white is the only color I've ever used. I vary color with the tail I use with them. I have every color ever made, I think, but all the ones that aren't white are in my cellar--the only ones in my take-along are white.

Today, my son and I took eight keepers off the 50-foot bottom off the coast of Ct. and we both used bucktails bounced off the bottom. and Yes, we lost a few--those lobster pots' lines are unforgiving as hell!!

BTW, as a Rhode Islander, it broke my heart that the one non-keeper that I caught and HAD to throw back (we didn't keep any of the keepers either) was a 37-incher, that was as bright and fat as any fish I've seen this year. It was a sea lice hotel, but it was a beautiful fish nonetheless. That top throw-back slot is a killer in Ct.