Jigs , the weapon of choice at the canal.

[Squibby17]

OKAY SORRY guys a "thirty inch" striped bass swam in front of me, I didn't think this site was so gramatically correct, i'llnever make the mistake again

Its too bad I almost fell off the seaweed covered rock I was on when I saw it. My canal fishing ability isn't quite there yet but you have to start some where.

tight lines
squibby17

[tynan19]

Squibby I would suggest you get felt soled boots or korkers for working the shoreline of the canal. That little bit of confidence especially at night goes a long way. Don't take the guys the wrong way they were just joking. Welcome to the site.

[fishsmith]

Good post thanks Saltheart,
I understand that losing gear is a given at the ditch.
Do you pass up the sensitivity of braid for the cost efficiency of mono?
Or is your lines breakpoint at the leader ?

[Canalman]

Saltheart,

Where do you buy your curlytails?

-Dave

[Saltheart]

I use 50 pound Cortland Spectron at the Ditch. My set up is designed to fail at the jig not first , the leader knot second then in the spectron which I hope never happens but does sometimes when you get the line wrapped around something instead of just simply getting the jig stuck on the bottom.

I buy most of the curltails at the off season fishing shows like MSBA or RISSA , etc.

The question about the use of tail;s. Its certainly optional but I think i get better results using a tail on the bucktail jigs. Of course on the bare jigs you got to put something on there. I doubt they will bite a bare jig very often.

[Mr. Sandman]

Outside of the canal fishermen, I find few guys fish bucktails. I even asked in the tackle shops and got a not-too-may guys fish them here. The charter guys troll them on wire but few others use them. It is a shame because it is a very productive way to fish deeper waters or strong moving water. Last spring I was invited on a inpromptu trip to fish dusk on a friends boat. I always bring my own rod, reel, small-med soft tackle bag, and life vest and foul weather gear when I go on anyones boat. (have to have my own stuff..)
I convered 4 others just how effective bucktails can be after boating my 6th to their 0th. All had white curly tail grubs or if there are blues around I will go to porkrind. The key was the depth and position in the rip, once you got the jig in the right spot it wasn't long before on nabbed it.

You can control the depth and sink rate with different heads and tail combos. It really is a bit of an "art" to fish them. When you find the right head/tail combo, along with the right retrieve rate, you can keep the jig at the perfect depth and you know it is there. It is a lot of fun to fish them.

The next time I went out with that fellow later in the season, I noticed he had a big LOAD of bucktails and a bag of curlytails

Where I live you don't loose as many as the way you guy fish the rip-rap ladden canal. I would like to see the canal drained just to see whats snagged on the bottom. Must be a million # of lead.