beads for bluegill

[John McKean]

Prompted by huge success last season with vertical jigging for big bluegills ,perch, and crappies on PA/Ohio's Pymatuning reservoir, I've been tying jigs daily in anticipation for the coming season. Yet in checking ice fishing results throughout the north, I'm rather taken with the use of a single BEAD to tip ,used instead of bait. These are mostly featured on the modern models of a "Russian jig" (actually a specially curved spoon -brands like Ken's Hook, McGathy "slab-grabbers" , etc), which seem to totally takeover an angler's attention, once he gets on to them. My latest jigs look very neat with a bright red bead at the bend of the hook, and acquire a swimming action! Of course, our spooners here could use this trick easily, saving a bunch on live bait, or acquire yet a new type of effective jigging spoon by seeking the well honed commercial models.

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

Sounds neat John.....any photos you could post? Be interesting to see.....

[John McKean]

Don't know that the following pic will take, but here's some pics of the ice "jigs" that are such a rave .Note the very visual bead in the back!  I'm thinking, too, take any bluegill jig and place a bead over the hook,cut back any material that extends beyond that and you have a winner!!

Beach, Ice Fishing, Ken's Hooks, Perch, Walleye

Great Scale Look

Look at the Rainbow of Colors

Hot Willow Leafs

Colorful 2″ Regulars

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

Thanks John......always seen the beads used for salt water applications......no surprise the gills would hit them.....neat looking baits for sure.......

[John Sheehan]

Thanks for posting John .Let us know how they work !

[james bluto gillette]

those r cool looking baits john

[dick tabbert]

I like it sorry I never thought of it.

[Lord of the Fly , Rods]

John ,Glad to see your always coming up with something new, at first glance those thing look  like hippy leaches, cool looking , keep up the good work. LOFR

[carl hendrix]

another great idea!!  thanks for sharing!!  think I'll make a few for myself!!

[dick tabbert]

Great info John

[Leo Nguyen]

Wow, those are definitely eye-catchers. Add a bit of live bait, and there's a two for one special attracting the bigger predators.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Very interesting spoons.
What about your jigs, can we get a look at those ?

[John McKean]

David, I'll TRY to get a photo of the jigs up, but I'm a notorious dub at posting pics that I take! My ties are quite simple, for a mental image,tho - I use a 1/24 oz round jighead, place a big ringed red plastic bead over the hook bend & lash it in place. Then I wrap a thin layer of natural,unprocessed wool  from bead up to the jighead, finishing with a few short strands of white/gold satin on each side for motion&flash. I really think the red bead ,tho it sets the small jig into a side to side wiggle, is the visual trigger that they hone in on & is most conducive by roundness  to the hoovering take of bluegills!

LOFR, Hi ,ole pal! Thanks for the compliment, but I can't take the credit and really have to thank folks like the family at McGathy's Hooks who have really fine tuned the use of a bead as a replacement for bait (their site has lots of good info and they even offer a video on working bead jigs!). Heck, my homemade lures have worked superbly ,but any small jig or spoon with a bright bead as the tail will work for this method!