Paddletail fouls while vertical jigging?

[eyechaser2485]

Any tips to prevent paddletails/swimbaits from hooking it’s own tail when vertical jigging? Tried some large saltwater jigs and big paddletails last fall and kept hooking the tails and fouling the lure when jigging. Thanks

[That Minnesota guy]

I have had the same issue in the past with with Twister Tails. I use a wide gap hook and take my needle nose pliers and bend the hook towards the body just a bit. Seems to help and haven't lost any fish because of it. It's not foolproof but seems to help somewhat. I'll be interested to see what others recommend.

[Kevin23]

That's why I quit using them unless I am drifting or trolling forward. A go-to pitching bait, but not a good vertical jigger. pulse-r are terrible about that! If you are not hooking your tail, your hook isn't sharp enough lol

[Bill Krejca]

Sometimes having a lure twist around the hook when vertical fishing can be prevented by using a very short shank. Long shanks are normally a disaster when used with a lure designed more for casting. Problem can be alleviated/prevented to some extent by sort of flipping the lure out a short ways instead of just dropping it to the bottom. After getting to the depth you want the lure, it can be a matter of jerking the bait more sideways and slightly up and down rather than the perhaps normal up and down action. You have to be very aware of the normal vibration, and if it feels different, the lure is probably fowled up. For this reason, I prefer not to use the baits in question for strictly up and down presentations.

Bill

[REW]

eyechaser,
One thing that has consistently worked for me when i have this issue is to go to a 4 foot leader made of stiff 15-20lb mono lone.

Then, due to the drag and stiffness of the line, the lure tends to flare out to the side when vertically dropped and it tends to keep the tail from getting fouled on the hook or line.

Give it a try and see how it works out for you.

Good luck

[Plotman]

We sometimes rig them “flat” or sideways instead of the normal way. This makes the bait react differently when jigged or retrieved and sometimes means the difference between getting bit or not.

[mjayn]

Just feed less of the bait onto the shank of the hook and it will stick out at an angle. Never noticed any decline in bites, still acts a decent swimbait when retrieved and the paddle tail is too far from the point to get stuck. Looks funky, but works.

Wacky rigging works as well.

Sometimes I will liphook the bait like a live minnow, double action. I used to do this alot when swim baits just came out. Works really well with the plastic baits that are segmented for extra action.

[packpro]

We just got back from our annual Canada trip. We fish one difficult portage. That lake gets fished 5X a year at most. If it is turned on it is easy for two guys to catch 100+ fish in 6 hours. One day we took 8 dozen minnows in. The next we took only 4 dozen in. That forced us to fish artificials more than 1/2 the day. This is the very unscientific result for this particular lake. None of the artificials worked when vertically jigged. They quickly got covered with vegetation that had to be removed every retrieve. Gulp, paddletails, and green twister tails worked pretty good when horizontally retrieved on the top of the weed line. Just ticking the weeds. We experimented with depth and speed of retrieve. Puppet minnows ripped jigged did not produce. For us on this lake, jig and minnow were the best, by far. We still would have had a good day using a horizontal retrieve and the artificials.

[Huntindave]

Originally Posted by Plotman

We sometimes rig them “flat” or sideways instead of the normal way. This makes the bait react differently when jigged or retrieved and sometimes means the difference between getting bit or not.

Or impale the bait so it rides up side down on the jig. The fish don't care and the tail will usually do it's thing just a bit further from the hook point.

[mjayn]

Seriously just skew it out a tiny bit like this saltwater version so you can see some of the shaft. This isn't a great angle but the bait is angled slightly away from the shank, not parallel. You can bend the tail up to make sure it can't reach the tip. Also the bend is less restricted is much less likely(impossible) to catch the paddle.