# Jig works, craw doesn't an vice versa



## drjkl1 (Jul 2, 2009)

I have spent alot of the winter pondering an observation form last year. Far and away my most successful presentation last year was some type of craw, normally texas rigged. Here is my conundrum.

Lets say I am getting good action on a 4" green pumkin craw texas rigged with for sake of argument a 1/4 oz pegged bullet sinker. So I'll grab a 1/4 to 5/16 range GP jig, put a GP paca on and throw it for zippo. Simalr overall size and mass, drastically different results.

Altenatively, I am throwing blk/blue jig with a black/blue trailer and banging fish, so I grab a black/blue craw and throw it for zippo.........

It has me really perplexed. It would SEEM that a similar color and mass of presentation should give me similar results, but it doesn't. One thought that has been proposed is that when I switch from a craw to a jig, my jig is falling faster so I should slow the drop with a bigger trailer.

Anyhow this observation has me stewing in the cold indoors at the moment so I am throwing out there......

Jon


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## stak45dx1 (Jun 21, 2011)

I think a jig drops slower because it causes more drag and I would imagine the skirt gives it a larger profile in the water.


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## buckzye11 (Jul 16, 2009)

Were you fishing alot of different areas? if not, maybe you caught the willing fish that were there with your 1st presentation.
If you were fishing different areas, maybe the fish were on the move, and you happend to be catching them while they were there. then with your next presentation they had already left.
Last Fall i sat anchored on a hump at Nimisila for 8 straight hours(did this for four days), it wasn't so much what i was throwing at them as much as it was the fish being there. And they were there... for short periods of time. Somtimes i'd wait up to an hour or 2 with no hits then in the next 15 minutes i'd catch 6 or 8 fish(using the same lure as the last 2 hours).
Thats all i can think of for your question. I may be wrong, and the fish were just really picky in your situation.


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

Stak hit the nail on the head. The jig is falling slower than the Texas rigged craw, if the weight of the lead is equal. Also as he said, the jig is presenting a much bigger profile, than your soft plastic craw. As far as the adding a bigger trailer, it's just going to make the jig fall slower. The trailer may weigh more, but it also adds more water resistance. Also, all trailers are somewhat buoyant, so a larger trailer is going to be more buoyant and slow the fall. If the trailer has action legs it's also going to make your jig fall slower versus a jig with a more streamlined trailer. Fall rate is definitely something you want to take into consideration when fishing a jig or Texas rigged bait. 

Buckzye..... as you speculated..... when those hump fish stop hitting they could have moved. But they also could have just stopped hitting that particular lure for the time being. I am sure you tried other lures while you were waiting for another round of fish catching, but if you weren't you definitely want to try something different. And not necessarily from the same class of lures. If you were fishing a jig, try slow rolling a spinner bait in the same area. Or a crank bait. If you were fishing slow, try fishing faster. Give them a totally different look, and you may be able to pick up a few extra fish. It's worked for me on more than a few occasions.


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## drjkl1 (Jul 2, 2009)

The craws worked in all kinds of situations: rocks, shade pockets in the afternoon, blow downs, lots of differnt situations. I'd ofen experiment going to spots that routinely produced fish on a craw and try a jig, sometimes same color, sometimes trying a combination of sizes colors, trailers.........I guess the bottom line is I don't like being a one trick pony, so I ponder why jigs aren't producing for me nearly as well as plastics. Then when I have a much rarer day where I can't miss on a jig, what did I do that made the jig so deadly that day? I get how different a crankbait or spinner bait is in its presentation, jigs n plastics aren't that terribly different by comparison. Ah well I'll keep at it.......thanks for the insights.


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

drjkl ........ jigs and plastics are two different worlds. The presentations are the same or similar, but that's where it ends. A jig and pig, or jig and plastic trailer is a big fish bait. I'd hazard a guess and say that the average size of the fish you've caught on a jig is bigger than the average size fish you've caught on soft plastics. The actions different, the profile is different, what it represents to the fish is different. They're just different. They're not normally a bait you can tie on and expect a lot of bites. Sure there are days when the jig bite is really on, but more often than not when you tie on a jig, you're looking for a few bites, from quality fish


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