let me hear your thoughts

[zooker]

the last few weeks i have caught fish in a strange manner. this has got me to thinking.-oh boy that could be hazardus-
the manner of catching the fish is a bit unquie-the first one happened by accident-i was goofing off as i past thru under a bridge i pitched a spinnerbait to the butment let it flutter in a dead drop. it fell 2 feet and stopped sitting in 30 feet of water i set the hook. when i got the bass to the boat i notice i had it hooked funny. the hook was thru the fishes nose not in his mouth.. the blades were in it's mouth..

i tried this on several more butments it worked to some degree as i had the bait stop 10-12 times but only hooked up 4 fish doing it..i actually switched to a hildenbrant spinner bait-designed to be used as a drop bait..

the switch never clicked till i got into a discussion with some salty guys about butter fly jigging..the light went on big time. i paid a visit to bps they have quite a selection of free style jigs.. i have been having a better hook up percentage using the xps free style jigs..

it is definatly worth buyin the extra rod and reel-like i need better excuse-i started using the freestyle jig with a spinning rod-same as i do off shore- but a 7 foot mh spinning rod is a bit stiff and SLOW for this style of fishing.

the keys to this style of fishing is using the RIGHT tackle.. i have been running 20 pound braid on the reel using a ball bearing swivel and connection it to 12" of 40 pound ande floro. then a straight hook up to the jig..that being said -i don't use a swivel offshore- but the rest is almost the same set up as i have taken snowy grouper in 800+ ft of water..
now as i discussed the "jigging spoon" with reb he brought up the single worst aspect of the old school jigging spoon. it will hang up in a heart beat.as the hook is always on the bottom. these new free style spoons have "flying hooks" that hang down 1/2 the lenth of the spoon. hence nothing hanging BELOW the bait to hang up..

though it is working right now. do you all think it would work later in the year when the water gets colder??

yeah yeah i know i will catch hell from brother love about long post..

zooker