So I was sitting in my recliner this afternoon half watching a movie, half asleep when a thought popped in my head. First, I noted that that hadn’t happened for awhile, and then I pondered it over a bit.
I tie quite a few jigs for panfish, in a bunch of different colors and whatnot. I also tie flies (obviously) for the same thing. Why not just make some lightweight “crappie jigs” to use on my fly rod? Basic marabou-and-chenille jigs are not complicated at all.
Well, in my powder painting ventures, I’ve melted the lead off a few of my #6 and #8 or #10 Matzuo sickle hooks. I grabbed one of the small ones, built up a little thread dam at the kink so I could put a 1/8 oz copper bead on and it wouldn’t go up the 90-degree bend. Then I tied in some gadwall flank and copper krystal flash for the tail, and some chenille I’ve got that’s dark green and brown varigated with copper flash in it. Wham bam… a fly rod version of a crappie jig. I also tied the same thing on a size 8 Mustad 3906 to see if there would be any difference in fishability. The Matzuo sickle bend hooks are kind of the trendy thing in the crappie fishing world right now. They have a hook gape a size bigger than standard on a light wire hook, and the hook point I believe is tapered more gradually. Their selling point is better penetration. I know these hooks FEEL as sharp as good quality fly hooks. I had excellent luck with them this past winter vertical jigging for crappie and bluegills.
Anyhow, I threw my new creations in my fly box tonight, figuring the 90-degree bend hook might be the ticket for putting under an indicator and drifting by some cover at some point down the road.
Well, long story short, I found some crappie shallow tonight that I wasn’t anticipating and my #12 leech just wasn’t getting hooked up properly. The fish were throwing the hook like crazy. Enter the sickle hook. First cast… 9" black crappie, hooked deep and bleeding. On to the stringer he went, unfortunately. But… it worked! I ended up working my way around the little cove I was in and putting 2 more nice crappies on the stringer with my gills and throwing back about as many short ones. Both the sickle and the regular fly hooks worked, but the sickle had a bit more of a hold on the fish. I’m gonna see if they make a short-ish shanked Aberdeen with that bend and maybe get my hands on a hundred to try out.
Here’s a pic of tonight’s take. The gills all came on hare’s ear with bead chain eyes, and the crappie on my copper/peacock-ish jig fly.
I hope I didn’t bore you too much with my ramblings… Just remember to keep your stick on the ice. We’re all in this together!
Zac
Cleaned 21 gills.