Make at home Bottomfish Jigs

[gstours]

   Here is a couple i,m building out of scrap steel that will eventually be lost to the hungry rockpiles on my outer coast.
I,m not sure what colors work for Red Snapper, LingCod,  I,m open for ideas?

And this is how they start life.  Like sotra Lifeless.

After some paint dip they will get skirts over them or hopefully some JigSkins... and a couple of assist hooks. 

   These weigh 12-16 ounces , anything heavier will be made of toxic lead.      Fish Hon!!!!!!!

[MarkT]

How about copper or burnt orange?  I have good luck with jigs in those colors for rockfish and lings.

[Fishy247]

I was going to suggest orange with some brown bits. Purple with some black can be a good color sometimes also. Maybe throw in some glow in the dark paint or wrap one of the other colors in the glow Jigskinz wrap.

Mike

[jurelometer]

Hi Gary,

Requesting permission to be a killjoy

Reds/oranges/browns will not be discernible at the depths and clarity where these fish hang out.  It is a good bet that red rockfish/lingcod eyes do not have cones for most colors.  Of course, this does not mean that your jig is invisible.  It will be picked up by the rods in the fishes eyes- which can discern light vs dark, but not color. 

Not saying that brown/rootbeer/orange does not work- just that it is more likely that the relative lightness/darkness is the key.

The exceptions are neon/fluorescent colors-   these are reactive colors- that take in light at one wavelength and send it back out at another.   So at depth - a fluoro green jig can take in UVA light available at depth, and  send it back out as green.   It does not rely on the green light waves that will never make to that depth.  Of course if the fish doesn't have cones to see green, it won't matter.  Lingcod spend enough of their time in shallow water, that greens/blues might be visible to them.   I never have been able to find any papers on this.

The deeper, darker, or murkier the environment that the fish resides in the more rods and less cones it will have in it's eyes.   In addition to seeing color, cones also have a faster response time.   So in general,  a deeper water fish will not be able to see moving  shapes clearly.   But it will be able to determine a general shape at distance and depth much better than a shallow/clear water species.

So what looks more lifelike to us, does not necessarily register the same to them.

For reds/lingcod in very shallow water, I have to admit a bit of a soft spot for the rootbeer colors - they seem to work for me, but it is probably just bias.  In deeper water ,  I want something dark (contrast when the fish is looking up and something light or reflective (contrast when the fish is looking across/down.   I want big slabs of light and dark to make a  solid silhouette, no fancy patterns or zebra stripes.   If I am trying to favor the lingcod over the reds, I try to use more dark colors and neon greens.  I seem to catch more reds with chromes and stiff fiber shrimp flies.

On the other hand, if the jigskin with a photo of a T-bone steak  works for you and you have confidence in it, this is the best bet.     Confidence is everything in this game.

-J

[Dominick]

A t-bone steak won't work.  A picture of Chili's BBQ will do it.  Chili has copyrighted his food pics so they can't be used without a license.    Dominick

[jurelometer]

A t-bone steak won't work.  A picture of Chili's BBQ will do it.  Chili has copyrighted his food pics so they can't be used without a license.    Dominick

Hmmm,  a bacon wrap jigskin could be a big seller.    Maybe you and Chili should start a business 

-J

[whalebreath]

Here in BC  the further north you go the better anything Glo works I can't see Alaska being any different particularly as some of the offshore islands like the Queen Charlottes are in sight of SE Alaska.

The photos are of typical inshore Ling/Rockfish jigs made from stuff found lying around-a base coat of white and some glo paint & glo skirt.





Much the same thing for a bit deeper water

[Gfish]

Cool! Them banana trolling sinkers make pretty good jig bodies. I'mna have to try a few like you got 'em.
Gfish

[Steve-O]

I like what whalebreath is showing.  Enough weight to get it down there and a hoochie for some action. If there are fish nearby, they will bite that.

My homemade jigs all worked well - last summer and fall on Prince of Wales island.

A thrift store butter knife or table knife with googly eyes and assist hooks caught fish no problem. I picked up a bag full of knives for 3 bucks ( the heaviest handles I could find ) and either cut the blades off or left them on....didn't matter to the fish. Then either painted an eyeball on, glued a googly eye on or used a sticker I printed on label stock. Heck, even a Sharpie® Marker would do an eyeball.

The other thing I found most effective was prismatic tape. You can get it from Dollar Tree - three rolls for a buck. Or spend a bunch more at a tackle shop or ordering it from Cabela's  or similar store.

I tried glow paint with mixed results. Never could tell that fish liked it any better than not.

What got the fish on the hook was the action of the jig. twitchy- twitchy- pause- lift- drop- twitch- pause- twitch- twitch- BAM! set the hook and reel up your catch.

When my Idaho friends fished next to me their first time off the dock for Cod I out fished them 3 to 1 easily until they got the jigging action down.

I would wrap some silver prism tape around your re-bar and scrap steel jigs, add a hoochie and assist hooks and call it good.

IF you're hanging up in the rocks a lot , make the weight the "weak link" in the jig and the mainline should go to the hooks.

I caught decent sized P-Cod to 30", rockfish galore and sculpins to no end all on the same jig.

The China rockfish was caught on a knife handle, red prism tape stripes, hoochie and hooks. The same jig caught a bunch of juinior lingcod back to back. So many the the deckhand said " quit dropping that deep - we're catching Black Bass rockfish, not those!"

Stripes work in my opinion for contrast, pattern and all baby salmon have bars called parr marks - like stripes.

[Steve-O]

These are flat fall jigs that work very for either bottom fish or those higher in the water column like schooling black rockfish.

The other jig caught Cod, rockfish, sole, great sculpins, whatever it got in front of.

Silver prism tape, glow paint on one side, eyeball on one side, black dots on both sides, coated in epoxy.

[Meanwhile]

Just a fresh pipe jig.  I tested these 2 weeks ago, lings and bottom fish loved them.

[Hardy Boy]

We top rig a 16 oz pencil lead with two crimped 12/0 siwash hooks crimped on 400 lb test. You offset the hooks 90 degrees and then add you favorite skirt and tip the top hook with some salmon skin or a piece of octopus. The large single hooks hold the fish really well and the swivels also help fish twisting off during a fight. This jig works well for halibut, lings and all species of rockfish

[Hardy Boy]

These jigs also work really well for bottom fish and is my new go to halibut jig. I make these from a commercial mold but use a wire instead of the fixed hook used in most lead head jigs and attach a 8/0 siwash hook using a split ring, add your favorite skirt. Once again the large single hook is tipped with some fish skin or octopus.

[gstours]

Thanks for the great Idea everyone!  I,m getting some plans to buy some prism tape nest trip to town.   I never thought of removing the big solid hook on the leadhead jigs either?    They would hook up better and hold better too I,d think?   Must try.    Thanks.