Smallie Jigs of all kinds

Before tubes, before soft plastics, the mainstay of smallmouth fishermen everywhere was the hair jig or "doll fly". And with good reason they worked amazingly well. And still do. In fact there has been a huge resurgence in interest in hair jigs for smallmouth the last few years. Almost without fail half or more of my biggest smallmouth every year come on some sort of jig.
One of my most cherished possessions is a signed copy of "THEM OLE BROWN FISH" by Billy Westmoreland. Billy Westmoreland has to be considered the greatest trophy smallmouth fisherman of all time. He caught one fish over 10-pounds, three fish over 9 pounds and 50 to 75 fish over 8 pounds! Here's a photo right out of the book:

Yep that's a smallmouth. Most of Billy's giant bass came on a spin rite or a Fly n Rind. Later Billy also used a plastic grub quite a bit which is how I came to meet him. My brother at the time had a small business selling plastic worms, grubs, and marabou jigs. Well Billy liked the grubs so well that he offered to endorse them at first for free. Here's a photo of one of the old packages with Billy's photo on it:

It was quite a learning experience for me as a kid riding along as my brother peddled his lures. I think I went in every fishing tackle store and bait shop in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana that was open back then. And every now and then we would do a trade show like the big one coming up at the Cincy convention center or at the fairgrounds in Indianapolis. Which was where I got to hang around and listen to Billy Westmoreland talk fishing.
Back then lots of the older fishermen called hair jigs Doll Flies. All because of another legendary figure, Elmer "Doll" Thompson.
Elmer Thompson founded Thompson Fishing Tackle in 1952 and it grew unbelievably. At first all his jigs were tied with polar bear hair and Elmer soon became the largest buyer of bear hair in the world. Every Mom and Pop gas station, bait shop and hardware store in America it seemed had a card of Doll Flies hanging up. At peak production the company churned out 27 million jigs a year:


All for the price of nineteen cents each:

Remember Virgil Ward, one of the early TV fishing personalities? According to an old In-fisherman article Virgil's son Bill Ward was the first to tie and sell marabou jigs. His father did so well using them that he came famous as a fisherman. Another pioneer in selling marabou jigs back then was Leroy Spellman. Here's a picture of some of his old jigs.

Nowadays there are a million makers of hair jigs made out of hundreds of different kinds of materials. Why? because they flat out work. Like I said Billy in later years also fished a plastic grub on a jighead as well as a hair jig. Plastic grubs burst upon the world as the famous Mr. Twister:


Like the Doll Fly, Kleenex, and Velcro, the name Mr. Twister became so famous that the brand name just about became THE name.

Today a curly tail grub is still just about my number one go to lure for smallmouth bass. Besides having great action they come in every color you can think of. I'm partial to smoke metalflake to imitate most minnows and motor oil metalflake to imitate a central stoneroller, the most common little fish in the LMR. But I carry grubs in a variety of fishy colors. Here's a good photo of a grub:

I remember helping my brother hand pour our first grubs out of molds he bought from the Netcraft company. These first grubs were flat on one side and not completely round like modern grubs. It's ironic too because now I but my grubs in bulk from Netcraft. I think their Dominator line of grubs is just about perfect.
Mr. Twister later came out with the Sassy Shad which had a flatter more shad or shiner like profile and a paddle tail. This is the grandparent of todays swimbaits like Big Joshy's or the great Keitech. The one I use the most and love is the River Rock Striker:

This guy perfectly imitates the shiners that are so common in the pools of the LMR and GMR. This is also great lure to throw in January and February for trophy saugeye below the low head dams on the Great Miami.

I fish the different types of jigs all just a bit differently. The swim baits like the RR Striker I try to keep swimming just off the bottom and fish them mainly in pools and below dams. The grub I will also swim but I try to keep it really close to the bottom and ticking it every now and then. I'll also throw the grub right below a riffle to imitate a darter. When I do this I sometimes add a triangle cut out of old grubs to imitate the distinctive fins of a darter:

The Jewel Sculpin, another soft plastic bait, also does a great job of imitating these guys:

As for the hair jigs I really like to throw them in runs and current seams and let them sweep down on a tight line. Ill also throw them in slower water and hop them along the bottom like you might a living rubber jig. Hair jigs are a must have in cold water where their subtle action triggers smallmouth better than just about anything else. Most hair jigs I tie myself just because it's fun:
Personally I don't use rubber skirted jigs as much as other kinds of jigs. Not because they don't work great but instead because I just really enjoy catching fish on hair jigs I've tied myself. But in treetops or other places I might hang up a lot I'll throw a Bitsy Bug Jig. Again if I didn't tie so many jigs I'd probably throw them way more than I do now. If push came to shove, I'd probably give up all the other lures in my box before I'd give up my jigs when stream smallmouth fishing. If your not throwing them in the river you owe it to yourself to start.