Old Stand-by
Everyone has their lure, their old standby. Sometimes you get seduced away from your trusty companion by expensive crankbaits, high maintenance trolling rigs and glamorous spinners. While my best lure growing up in cedar water was a size 2 Meps in neon green, nothing has produced more fish for me in Colorado than a simple 1/4oz Black Marabou Jig. You can buy them for less than 50 cents a piece and you can make them even cheaper. While I've had fun and luck with various colors and additional accessories, my most consistent has been with plain old black.
Marabou is the name for particularly soft and fluffy under-feathers, most commonly from turkey. It is dyed a variety of colors and has a very lifelike appearance when it hits the water. Like my father-in-law always says "nothing moves like marabou." I usually tie the feather around the shank a little above the bend of the hook, tie it in well, then wind the rest of the feather up to the lead head. A few wraps and you're done. It's tempting to tie in other materials, and double reenforce your body, you can even use thick chenille, but really, there's a very good chance you're going to be leaving this lure at the bottom of a lake. If you're fishing correctly with this kind of jig, you'll probably lose a few. I have fun tying in hackle sometimes, it gives the jigs one more step of liveliness. You can also tie in a bit of Krystal Flash when you're fishing murkier water. These are cheap to buy, easy to tie, and one of the most productive lures for just about any species Colorado has to offer.
I ran out to Vallecito to follow my own advice and hit up the rip rap for some Smallies. There were ominous clouds all around so I didn't take the boat out, just decided to fish the rip rap, which has dirt at the bottom of it. I tried some crankbaits, some little pointer minnow types, spinners, kastmasters, nothing. I switched to old standby and quickly caught 6 nice smallmouth. They were bursting at the gut, they're really feeding down there! Old standby worked again and it was a great time. I also found lots of nice lure parts on the bottom there. Give it a shot this weekend, you won't be upset. If you're up there on Saturday, I'll be playin' my guitar at the Schenk House from 6-10ish!
Marabou is the name for particularly soft and fluffy under-feathers, most commonly from turkey. It is dyed a variety of colors and has a very lifelike appearance when it hits the water. Like my father-in-law always says "nothing moves like marabou." I usually tie the feather around the shank a little above the bend of the hook, tie it in well, then wind the rest of the feather up to the lead head. A few wraps and you're done. It's tempting to tie in other materials, and double reenforce your body, you can even use thick chenille, but really, there's a very good chance you're going to be leaving this lure at the bottom of a lake. If you're fishing correctly with this kind of jig, you'll probably lose a few. I have fun tying in hackle sometimes, it gives the jigs one more step of liveliness. You can also tie in a bit of Krystal Flash when you're fishing murkier water. These are cheap to buy, easy to tie, and one of the most productive lures for just about any species Colorado has to offer.
I ran out to Vallecito to follow my own advice and hit up the rip rap for some Smallies. There were ominous clouds all around so I didn't take the boat out, just decided to fish the rip rap, which has dirt at the bottom of it. I tried some crankbaits, some little pointer minnow types, spinners, kastmasters, nothing. I switched to old standby and quickly caught 6 nice smallmouth. They were bursting at the gut, they're really feeding down there! Old standby worked again and it was a great time. I also found lots of nice lure parts on the bottom there. Give it a shot this weekend, you won't be upset. If you're up there on Saturday, I'll be playin' my guitar at the Schenk House from 6-10ish!
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