Jigs & Teaser-tails,
Spin-baits & Grubs
by Pete Kaye

INTRODUCTION by Dep. Ed., Brian "Bunny"  Barwell
Pete Kaye doesn't like losing his lures in snags — who does?! — and so these little so-called "snagless" mini jigs, teaser-tails, spin-baits and grubs suit him just nicely, getting him an early New Year 20+ lb pike ..... and so they may just suit you too .....

NEW VENUES, NEW METHODS
Until the year before last, on my local venues I'd mainly been fishing what you might call everyday middling lures; by that I mean lures weighing roughly between 1/2oz (15gm) and 1.5 oz (45gm). Also I really hate losing lures in snags so I am a big users of snagless spinnerbaits.

Since we've moved house I've found that the rivers closest to our new home are a fair bit smaller and not quite as deep as the ones I’m used to fishing and to my delight, I have discovered that these new venues have plenty of perch, some very nice chub and a few trout, as well, of course, as those exciting omnipresent pike.

Our house move and consequent change of local venues to slightly smaller waters prompted me to think more seriously about tackling them with much more suitable smaller lures. Not really knowing where to start, I had a surf of the Internet and soon found Nick’s excellent website and emailed him for some help and information.

As I told Nick about my phobia of losing lures and that I was a big fan of spinnerbaits, he suggested, very obviously now in retrospect, that I might like to try some smaller versions plus some jigheads, grubs and teaser-tails. He also kindly gave me a few pointers about where to look for good selections of them

NEW LURES, NEW TACKLE
After surfing around, I ordered one of those packs of jigs ‘n’ grubs from BassPro, plus a bunch of other mini-spinbaits and packs of assorted teaser tails etc

As soon as they arrived and opened the main parcel, I immediately realised, as I should have done before I ordered them, that there way no way that my everyday middling lure weight tackle was going to be able to cast these smaller lures very effectively. I likes the look of the lures, though, as I hate losing lures in snags and they all looked pretty-much snagless, just what I wanted.

So next I set-about finding some new lighter tackle that would handle these lovely little lures. First I had a look in a couple of local tackle-shops, but drew a blank because I guess, this is a niche type of market and a very small one at that. So, once again I resorted to the good old Internet and eventually found and ordered (via Father Christmas) a much lighter lure rod, small fixed-spool reel, 20 lb BS braid and some 20 lb BS wore to go with it; I always use a wire trace when I’m lure-fishing. I nearly chose a baitcaster rod and small multiplier reel but in the end I decided to stick with a fixed-spool set-up because I’m not sure that even a very small multiplier would be able to cope with some of these small spin-baits: anyway, I’m a lot happier using a fixed-spool reel.

NEW YEAR’S REVELATION
Early in the first New Year after our house move, at the first decent opportunity that the weather allowed, I thought I would experiment with my new-found “snagless” mini jigs, teaser-tails, grubs and spin-baits and my new lighter lure-fishing set-up.

To stay out of trouble i.e. big snags, as much as possible, first I decided to fish a small tributary that runs through a local farmer’s fields; it ends-up joining the Thames eventually.

I don’t mind admitting that, even with years of experience with big spinnerbaits, it took me a fair while to even start getting the hang of fishing these little spinbaits and jigs with their teaser-tail grubs. I found that the retrieve rate is surprisingly very critical to get the best wiggling action out of their tails.

I use the classic bottom bumping ‘n’ bouncing technique with as slow retrieve as possible; sometimes, though, because of my fear of snagging, I fish them quite a bit higher in the water. Normally though it’s as slow and deep as possible.

During the next few hours I tried most of my collection and selection of jig, grubs & spinbaits, and the various jighead weights and eventually settled on the 1/8 oz (3.5 gm) versions because they are easy to cast accurately, they are fairly non-spooking and they are heavy enough to get down deep quite quickly except in faster flowing sections maybe.

Then I decided to get a tad more adventurous and to test just how snagless these little mini-spin-baits really were, so I made several careful and deliberate casts into the weedy snags along the margins of the opposite bank. On about the 20th cast, the water erupted, and so did some weed too I fancy, and I found myself in a good tussle with a strong pike which, soon netted and weighed, tipped the scale at 8 lb 5 oz.

I continued-on upstream, walking and casting, and developing my mini-jig techniques as I went-along ….. until I felt a big thump through my rod and feared that I had finally hit an immovable snag: fortunately this snag very quickly decided to move off upstream, pulling very strongly indeed.

Cutting the story short, I was somewhat staggered to net and weigh a very nice pike, especially for the size of the river, of 21 lb 1 oz ..... in fact I was surprised and pleased at just how much firm but careful pressure I could apply to my quarry with my newly-acquired light set-up, and just how quickly I was able to bring it to the net; it could only have been two or three minutes, including its attempts to dive into weed-beds on its way to my nice big net.

For such a small lure to deliver my first 20+ lb pike so soon in the New Year was a revelation in my lure-fishing and after that I was thoroughly hooked on the potential of these small be very effective jigs, grubs and spin-baits with their wriggling, jiggling teaser-tails

GIVE THOSE GRUBS A GO !
Since then, at least as far as pike are concerned, I haven’t managed to repeat that 20+ lb capture with mini-jigs on my local venues, but I have had many nice perch up to about 1.5 lb. So far though, chub have eluded me and my little jig-heads with their teaser-tail grubs, but I am quite sure that, given more time and more experience, I’ll be able to add a nice fat chub or two — even some small ones will do — to my list.

As for which types of jigs, grubs and mini-spin-baits I prefer, or rather, I would recommend, my advice would be to try-out quite a big selection (they’re very, very cheap) on your own venues and see which work best for you. I know this may seem rather obvious and not very helpful, but believe me, it is the best way because I have found that one type seems to work well in some of my venues but is useless on others …. and don’t ask me why!

I have found that some of the single-hooks on which the jig-heads are based aren’t all that good — too big, too blunt and with barbs that are too big. I prefer hook sizes 2 or 4 if I can get them and as far as mini-spin-baits are concerned, I really rate them on most of my new venues.

As well as the many nice fish I have caught with these lures, the thing that has pleased me just as much is the fact that, although I have lost a few plastic tails to pike and perch, as yet I haven’t lost any to snags! And I’m sure that they’ll please you too so if you’ve got some lightweight lure-fishing tackle already, or fancy getting some, take a tip from me, and give those grubs a go!
Pete Kaye

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If you've got any questions or comments,
please contact me Brian Barwell (Dep. Ed.)
or Nick Caine, (Editor)
email us at: NickCaine @ Talk21.com