JIG FISHING AND SPINNING WITH FLIES

JIGHEAD AND SPINNING WITH FLIES PT - 1

the ultimate cross over fishing method
(spinning with flies section will be at the end of the jig fishing article at a later date when i can get out to film some stuff) will also be adding some underwater footage of the flies so please keep checking back 

so some time ago i decided after much prodding for a fly you could lure fish with from long time friend duke i decided to bite the bullet and do him some casting flies which in all fairness he did very well over the course of a summer and pretty much proved that you can actually lure fish with flies .

so also in some dark corners of my brain i had toyed with the idea of using jig heads like this but with a fly tied on over or below the ball

so i tied some of these up and gave to lure fishing friends to try who said yup they were good caught fish and all that but it was nothing new really as the Americans

 have been doing this for many years especially in winter through the ice , pretty basic but they do the job 

so having done these i started to think i could probably expand this quite a lot with the next generation of jig heads that were hitting the market and being on facebook and watching norther lure and urban fishing legend ant glascoe jr demonstrating  various things on facebook i got to thinking that theres a hell of a lot i could do crossover wise with flies 

ant demonstrating a beard fly selfie in his helicopter he uses to move swims 

so where to start  

 there is so much out there jig wise and you can get lost in a word of google searching and links to various sites who all offer pretty much the same stuff so i plump for uk shop agm fishing and uk lures 

https://www.agmdiscountfishing.co.uk/

or

 http://uk-lures.co.uk/

who pretty much have everything i needed ,for anything else i use good ol ebay so what did i plump for to start well i went with these dragon jig balls from ul spinning on ebay ul spinning and found they were very good and accepted pike flies up to around 5/0 (sometimes the fly eye can actually be to big for the wire over loop to get it connected up but work very well on smaller sized flies 

6/0 wide gape hook on a 25 gr dragon ball 

so i tried these for a while and overall i thought they were ok so where next so i had a look around and found these at uk-lures cheburashka

so i then found and tried these cheburashka balls which are actually quite cleverly designed and the most importantly they have a very thin wire which accommodates the hook eye on pretty much all the flies i have which obliviously is a major bonus  , so these work really well  and was impressed 

so whats next 

well first up saw ant demonstration this mustad fastach x rig which is actually a fantastic set up for flies with the option on actually changing to whatever weights you wish to use , fantastic idea  which i shall be investigating further over the year 

ive also bought some of these heads 

now these open up a whole new world of possible combinations so looking forward to trying lots of different ideas and bods on them  

so what gear am i using 

well actually i used to be back in the early 90s a massive lure junkie and had god knows how much gear but sold it all when i went all fly , so i had an idea of what i wanted and the set up i was going to use and i really didnt want to spend lots of cash on this as fly is my main method  but i have a couple of places i fish that this comes into its own .

so reel is a jarvis walker scorpion baitcaster (tackle tarts look away now) jarvis walker is actually Australias oldest tackle manufacture from around 1946 and produce also my favorite flurocarbon (rovex) so they havent been in business that long by producing rubbish anyway thats the reel and its loaded with 20lb spiderwire again this is my choice and no doubt if you lure fish a lot you probably own big brand names but thats cool whatever suits your pocket   

again this reel does everything i need it to do and im happy now the rod 

i bought this very cheaply of ebay and they retail for around £15:00 on Chinese sites and casts 1 oz 

OK not top of the range but does the job perfectly around 7 foot long ive really had no issues with it and cheap as chips , again way back i had all the name gear and was a bit of a tackle tart but haven't got the funds to spend that kind of cash again and hey this rod does just as good a job so happy with that and im seriously not a tackle tart and find its a great little rod for harbors and canals and also from a boat .  

saying that i also have a longer 9ft rod i use from to shore or lager waters but more on that later 

why fish jig flies 

as much as im a decent fly fisher casting wise and i can roll cast there is situations where you simple can not do it , a fine example is a recent conversation i had with a commercial fishery that i wanted to fly fish for perch but they wouldn't allow me too so hey ho ultralite lure rod and jig flies come out .

of course the other thing as well is some folks just cant fly fish and thanks a fact

or they dont have the money to shell out on lots of new tackle which is a far and valid argument for not doing it , but jig fishing certainly get you on and in those spots you cant fly fish   

how to fish jigs

this little section is based on how i used to do it and how those anglers who are currently fishing my jig flies are doing it , there is a whole big bad internet out there to teach yourself as i said this is from my own experience there is a lot more experienced guys out there  

from boats  

pretty self explanatory method 

from the bank 

this is where i find my longer rod comes in handy as it stands to reason that if you have a longer rod then theirs a bigger angle between you and the jig so when as i do you jerk it back it will raise higher in the water than a smaller rod , so i kinda use a sink and draw type method as above .

as i said we all have our own ways we are confident about fishing certain methods and this is mine and especially with flies and the movement in the water on these heads is very cool 

of course there is many retrieves you can use from simple up and down next to structure , sink and draw , fast flips of the rod tip to make the fly look very erratic to simply winding it back with a few pauses and it great to experiment to see what they want on the day 

this is a very cool video to watch from the guys at from waters edge tv as the methods are similar you just replace the rubbers with flies 

check out there facebook page here FromTheWatersEdgeTV

ok lets take a look at flies attached to the heads 

big fly for pike with a dragon tail on a 7/0 wide gape hook with a 25 gr ball   

 another big pike fly on a 6/0 hook with a 25 gr ball
(fly is all synthetics with a touch of fishgill from piketrek)
great fluid motion in the water and perfect for this style of fishing 

and ep fly with a 25 gr ball on 

something a bit flashy on a 5/0 blood hook with a 15 gr ball 

this one the hook fishes up off the bottom 

blended colours on a 6/0 with a 15gr ball 

a large deerhair pattern on a 15gr ball plenty of movement on this 

going down the scale we have a smaller fly of 4 inchs on a 5gr ball great for canal work or saltwater

mackerel fly for bass on a 15 gr ball 

a custom blended ep fly on a 5gr ball this fly also has a rattle built in the the fly   

another blended synthetic this time with a 5gr ball 

of course scalling right down on the flies is also great especially if you use really flashy fibers which predators love, very cool in the salt as well

some silver flashabou pretty much as simple as it gets but deadly especially when your of having summer mackerel fun  

this is a favorite for smaller species and is made from scraps from my pike flies and tied on a no2 dairki hook and attached to a 3 gr cherub ball great in salt and fresh water 

so there you have it part one and i hope ive given you something to think about 

part 2 will feature footage of the jigs in action plus the section on spinning with flies 

SPINNING WITH CASTING FLIES

COMING SOON 

please check my facebook page "dave mcfluffchucker" for updates