Have you Heard of This?

Greetings Lawrence,

I’ve been following your podcasts with great interest. While they focus on Canada, the general topics also apply to the issues we face here in the U.S. as well. For example, I thought your podcast dealing with the pollution of our waterways was especially enlightening and motivated me to investigate the contamination levels in our various fish species here in Lake Barkley Kentucky where I do most all of my fishing.

Lawrence, have you ever heard of bait referred to as a “flapper?” I just ran across it, and didn’t know what it was. So, I researched it. I am curious to know if you have ever heard of it, and if you have ever used it?

Ron

Hi Ron, glad to hear you’re enjoying my podcasts.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but I’ve been doing a bit of digging on the Flapper question and came up blank. My advice with baits like this is you either believe they work and use them, or don’t bother as they will only get a half-dozen casts before being put into the tackle box with a promise to one’s self that there time will come.

A bait I’ve grown to love is the rhythm Wave from Jackle. It’s a soft plastic swimbait you rig on a jighead or swimbait jig. Just cast and reel. Works at all depths, good around weeds, and fish can’t resist. Another nice quality is there’s only the one hook to deal with when handling the bait or unhooking fish. EagleClaw makes a great swimbait jig for this bait – 1/4 oz. in black is perfect.

For lighter more finesse fishing people are using small light wire jigs with a size #2 hook and maybe a 2-inch soft plastic trailer like the tail of a Senko. Light line around 6lb. Spinning tackle is best to allow for the bait to sink. This rig is called the Ned Rig. Good for high pressured fish and lots of fun on light tackle. Catches fish of all sizes.

Both the above rigs can be fished barbless, which actually makes setting the hook easier because you don’t need that extra pressure to get the barb to penetrate as well as the hook point. And, if you catch something you don’t want to handle, just let the line go slack beside the boat and the fish self-release. If you plan on harvesting, often the hook will have fallen out once the fish gets in the net.

Tight lines my friend,

Lawrence