11-08-2012, 04:20 PM
[cool][#0000ff]When dropping into brush and sagebrush the type hook you use CAN make a difference. For example, when using the small casting spoons I usually use single hooks rather than treble. But on jigs the SIZE of the hook is more important than type. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A large hook with only a little tipping of bait will find all the snags. But a small hook...mostly covered by bait...will act as its own weedless hook. That's why I usually make most of my jig heads with two or three different size hooks. And the problem with fishing heavier "store-bought" jigs is that they always come with larger hooks than you want or need.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unfortunately, hooking the underwater structure is not the only way to lose tackle to it. I have lost several nice perch on my last two trips when they grabbed the jig, got hooked and then did two granny knots and a half hitch around the most convenient stickup in the area. They really seem to know how to use that brush for their Houdini routines. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Brown trout are even worse...especially under the ice at Jordanelle. I have lost count of the number of browns I have lost to wrapups and breakoffs. And they seem to instinctively know just where to go. On an ice fishing trip there about 4 years ago TubeBabe and I were fishing holes about 50 feet apart...a ways offshore from a steep bank. We each lost two or three browns that all headed in the same direction under the ice and wrapped us on an unseen submerged tree between us and the shore. We could look at our lines going down into the hole and each pointing in the same direction after every breakoff.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Your wife has the right idea for fishing the sagebrush...use a dropshot rig. Put a sinker on the bottom and a jig about two feet up. Active perch will come up after it. And, as we could see on sonar, there were plenty of fish higher off the bottom than that. Two weeks ago I caught quite a few fish...and fewer snags...by just dropping my offering down about mid depth and waiting for the fish to come up to it. But when they have lockjaw they won't even take a luscious bait bounced off their snotty noses.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have had some good days fishing the sagebrush flats through the ice up in the north end of the lake. They are there also for the hordes of baby perch that swarm into the underwater cover for protection. And the predators hang around to pick off the unwary ones. I have watched on camera as perch work in and out of the cover...with the baby perch trying to swim out of the way to avoid them. Then I have seen big schools of big chubs sliding in...with some big browns hiding among them for camoflage. When they get close enough the browns break out and raid the grocery store...slurping up perch of all sizes. Scary.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fishing that brush is always a challenge. It is where the action is but unless you use the right gear and the right tactics you will be bendo on brush more than fish. But you cain't ketch 'em where they ain't.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The most recent pics I have seen of the flooded sage brush would seem to indicate that there is not going to be much more of that kind of fishing in the near future. Sagebrush is not as tough as the old scrub oak and other structure in the lake. What remains is waterlogged and rotting. I have broken free a lot of small twigs of it even with fairly light line. But, for the time being, it is still there and still tough enough to win the tug of war with anglers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]A large hook with only a little tipping of bait will find all the snags. But a small hook...mostly covered by bait...will act as its own weedless hook. That's why I usually make most of my jig heads with two or three different size hooks. And the problem with fishing heavier "store-bought" jigs is that they always come with larger hooks than you want or need.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Unfortunately, hooking the underwater structure is not the only way to lose tackle to it. I have lost several nice perch on my last two trips when they grabbed the jig, got hooked and then did two granny knots and a half hitch around the most convenient stickup in the area. They really seem to know how to use that brush for their Houdini routines. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Brown trout are even worse...especially under the ice at Jordanelle. I have lost count of the number of browns I have lost to wrapups and breakoffs. And they seem to instinctively know just where to go. On an ice fishing trip there about 4 years ago TubeBabe and I were fishing holes about 50 feet apart...a ways offshore from a steep bank. We each lost two or three browns that all headed in the same direction under the ice and wrapped us on an unseen submerged tree between us and the shore. We could look at our lines going down into the hole and each pointing in the same direction after every breakoff.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Your wife has the right idea for fishing the sagebrush...use a dropshot rig. Put a sinker on the bottom and a jig about two feet up. Active perch will come up after it. And, as we could see on sonar, there were plenty of fish higher off the bottom than that. Two weeks ago I caught quite a few fish...and fewer snags...by just dropping my offering down about mid depth and waiting for the fish to come up to it. But when they have lockjaw they won't even take a luscious bait bounced off their snotty noses.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I have had some good days fishing the sagebrush flats through the ice up in the north end of the lake. They are there also for the hordes of baby perch that swarm into the underwater cover for protection. And the predators hang around to pick off the unwary ones. I have watched on camera as perch work in and out of the cover...with the baby perch trying to swim out of the way to avoid them. Then I have seen big schools of big chubs sliding in...with some big browns hiding among them for camoflage. When they get close enough the browns break out and raid the grocery store...slurping up perch of all sizes. Scary.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fishing that brush is always a challenge. It is where the action is but unless you use the right gear and the right tactics you will be bendo on brush more than fish. But you cain't ketch 'em where they ain't.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The most recent pics I have seen of the flooded sage brush would seem to indicate that there is not going to be much more of that kind of fishing in the near future. Sagebrush is not as tough as the old scrub oak and other structure in the lake. What remains is waterlogged and rotting. I have broken free a lot of small twigs of it even with fairly light line. But, for the time being, it is still there and still tough enough to win the tug of war with anglers.[/#0000ff]
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