"Greatest Lure Ever"

By far the most versitile lure ever invented is the "Good Ole Jig".

Leadhead jigs have been around for a long long time. The best part of fishing with Jigs is depth control. For the most part, you can always find the bottom. A jig with the right weight can easily find bottom. Just throw it out, leave the bail open and when the line goes limp, you have bottom. From there you can work a jig a lot of ways, For wallye fishing you can tip a leadhead jig with a whole variety of plastics including minnow or crawler imitaions like the new Gulp Series from Berkley.
Many guys tip their jig with a trailer hook when fishing with live bait especially when fishing with minnows. Never bury the trailer hook into the back of the minnow. You just let it flow and trail along side, and it works very well.

Many fishermen tip their jigs with live bait. Minnows early in the season, and later when the water warms 1/2 peices of crawlers or a lively leech works real well.
The beauty of jig fishing, is you can cover water while drifting, pitch the jigs to shore or cover, you can anchor and throw light weight jigs, some guys like to work their jigs by "snap jigging". and some guys who really want to do the lazy mans way, use the jig in combination with a slip bobber, this is especially a good way to fish for crappies.

For bass guys and gals, jigs are one of the most deadly ways to fish large mouth and small mouth as well. I have seen more quailty +5lb bass caught on a "Jig and Pig" than any other lure. A Jig and Pig is a pretty simple set-up, variuous shaped jig heads from round to football to bullet shapes, with a plastic, rubber or bucktail skirt, many tip these jigs with plastic trailers such as crawfish, plastic worms, or twisters. This type of fishing usually requires a heavier set-up with medium to MH weight rod and 14-30lb line, since you are fishing heavier cover. Many guys fish with heavier jig all the way up to 1oz to fish the heavy cover such as millfoil. A solid rod in the Med - Med/heavy is recommended along wiht +10lb line.

The Jig Worm is another deadly bass bait. Smaller lighter weight jig head with wide gap hook, used with a plastic worm. Some of the hottest ones out there today are "shaky head jigs", the hook of the jig stands up a little higher and along with it the trailer worm. You can just thro it out to cover, let it sink to the bottom and instead of reeling back on a sterady retreive, just shake the jig a little bit as it lays on the bottom.

Fish with a jig and you'll become hooked on how easy and effective it can be. The only problem with jig fishing is you always seem to collect more and more jigs every year then you probably need, So many colors, shapes, trailers, and now jigs with rattles. Try it you'll like it

Keep it Simple Stupid

You know the ole adage "Keep it simple stupid", really does well for people of all ages.
Fishing doesn't have to be rocket science. Some of the best memories I've had growing up were fishing with a cane pole for bluegills and sunfish. As we get older we may branch out and try new things or use a bit more sophisticated gear. It just doesn't have to be hi-tech to have fun and by the way, catch some decent fish.

Kids especially like to to do it the simple way. For the most part they just want action, closed faced spinning reels are OK, but it really doesn't take that much to show a youngster how to use an open face spinning reel. Throw in a few slip bobbers small jigs, small panfish leeches, garden worms, or waxies, and panfishing can be a lot of fun the ole simple way.

The other part of K.I.S.S, is you can't tackle it all at once. So many lures, techniques, places to fish. It's not that hard to narrow down your choices. There are some pretty good books that talk about the lakes and rivers close to the Twin Cities. I suggest picking out a lake close by, read what you can about what fish swim in the lake. Panfish is always a safe bet everywhere.
Simple is always a good piece of advice, especially if you really want to get a kid hooked on fishing. just my $.02

Welcome

My name is Dave Coughlin and I started this fishing blog to share helpul tips and techniques I've learned to help others improve their fish catching abilities. With so many lakes and rivers and especially with so many new sporting goods to hit the market every year, it can be kind of intimidating and overwhleming to sort it all out.

Fishermen, both men and women alike love to spend their hard earned money on the latest and greatest tackle to catch more and bigger fish. In postings to follow I will share a few of my opinions from my little corner of the world here in Minnesota.