Top Five Baits In The Albemarle For 2013........A Tribute to The Bug/Jig Makers on Bigbluegill.com

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

 Being a lifetime bluegill fisherman I often reflect on the past and what baits worked well in what type of conditions.....For many years, I would often just fish a plain hook with live bait or a plain ball jig tipped under a float and experienced great success in many different settings, whether that be the swamps and canals in southern Louisiana, farm ponds of friends and family, lakes and reservoirs throughout the south......I always had pretty good luck......I would occasionally pick up a new bait off the store shelves to try but more often for crappie or bass than gills......That all changed when I became a member of bigbluegill.com several years ago......I began networking with some of the lure creators and this evolved into testing a few baits at first in 2011 and that was soon replaced by routine use in 2012 and beyond.......I began fishing in 2013 with a wide selection of custom baits and it's very interesting to me how effective the various ties were throughout the year.......I thank the guys that have been gracious enough to allow me to fish some of their "go to" baits.......I caught gills every month in 2013 and wound up with a total of 6,082 on 51 different baits of many different colors and sizes but here are the top five in the brackish waters of North Carolina's Albemarle.....

# 1.......The Filament Jig in 1/32 ounce.......From the "River Critter" line created by Jim Gronaw.....These baits were employed under a float tipped with live crickets or grass shrimp for the best results......Almost two thousand sunfish were landed on this seemingly simple bait including over 1,400 during the three week Abney family vacation....

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

# 3.........Tooty's Cotton Candy Silent Stinger.......a micro bait that became a lot of fun on the "slow fall" and appealed to multiple species.......I had best results on this smaller bug in our warmest weather and landed over 925 sunfish on this bait......

As pictured....this bait was also tipped for best results.....Tooty has refined this bait for 2014 and I will be fishing this pattern in a #6 size which could send this bait to the top.......

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

# 2.......1/32 Gronaw Grass Shrimp in olive.......a spin off of it's pink cousin......Jim created this jig after close study of the brackish water grass shrimp anatomy....specifically the egg sack on a pregnant grass shrimp which is olive...........This bait accounted for nearly 1.400 sunfish and really shined in may during the shrimp spawn as the gills are staging for their own nesting......

These baits were also tipped for best results in my region......either a cricket or a live grass shrimp for the best results.....