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Knife-edge jighead in cobia dart when sinking or retrieveing.

If you had to fish with just one lure for the rest of your life...

 

Forget it! We've all pondered that bit of nonsense long enough, so let's skip it and get down to some real nitty-gritty.

 

If you had to survive with just one lure, which one would you choose?

 

The question already has something of an “official” answer. Back during the war that television's Archie Bunker kept calling “WW II—The Big One,” life rafts aboard military planes all carried survival kits packed with items best calculated to sustain life if the crews were cast afloat for days, or possibly even weeks.

 

Possibly the most important single item in the kit was a bucktail jig—a fishing lure made of a little bit of hair and a little bit of lead. It could spell the difference between life and death, and often did. A dolphin or oceanic bonito caught with that bucktail could provide not only food but water. That's because raw fish, like raw human, is composed mostly of water, and in more than a few cases, chewing on a few fat fillets staved off dehydration until rain started falling once more.

 

Bill Upperman of Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first well-known commercial jig-maker, supplied a huge quantity of bucktails for those survival kits. Exactly how many servicemen they saved will never be accurately counted, of course, nor will the far vaster number of fish that light-tackle anglers in Florida caught on Upperman bucktails—along with its many imitators and competitors—during the first few decades following Archie's Big War.

 

Even though Upperman and his namesake lure have long since departed the scene, and even though jigs with plastic tails now hog the marketplace, anglers still buy plenty of bucktails—bucktails of many different sizes, colors and head styles, including the familiar lima-bean shape of the original Upperman. And why would we buy them unless they still worked their old fish-catching magic?

 

 

Bonefish are especially fond of skimmer jigs.

If you are middle-aged or younger, you may be wondering why those survival kits held bucktails instead of plastic anyway. The reason, of course, is that in the 1940s soft plastic tails (also called baittails), were not yet even a gleam in some molder's eye. And even if the plastics had been available back then, who would have wanted to stake his life on a lure whose appeal might well disappear at the first tug of some immature amberjack under a weedline? The one huge advantage that a bucktail jig has always held over a baittail is durability. You don't have to keep digging out and pinning on new tails all the time.

 

But, in today's more complicated fishing world, can the ancient bucktails be depended upon to produce as much action as the modern baittails, with all their natural feel and colorful diversity? Ah! That's the sort of question that makes for great arguments—arguments that can never be resolved, no matter how many dockside libations are consumed to oil the debate. As for me, I'll hedge the question by pointing out that my own tackle kit contains many more of both baittails and bucktails than I will ever get around to casting.

 

Let me pause for a moment and explain that when I say “bucktails,” I am referring to much more than deer hair. There was a time when every leadhead jig was dressed either with animal hair, synthetic hair, nylon filaments or feathers, but bucktail predominated to such an extent that its name became conversationally established as a label for all of them. Some of the “bucktails” in my tackle box are actually built of nylon, and many of them are additionally adorned with feather and tinsel.

 

Like most light-tackle casters, I was temporarily blown away from bucktails after the onset of the plastic revolution about 30 or 35 years ago. For perhaps a year after my sudden conversion I truly felt that I would never again tie on a bucktail, but I began to re-think that conviction one day at Flamingo in the Everglades National Park when Al Pflueger used a white-and-red bucktail to haul in several chunky snook. Casting to the same spots and giving the same action to my similar jig of white plastic, I managed only one undersize “sneak.”

 

Even allowing for the fact that Al habitually catches fish from under everybody's nose, the conclusion finally became unavoidable: bucktail was outfishing plastic—a severe jolt to my mindset at the time. Since there seemed only one way to verify the startling theory, I shamelessly begged Al for one of the magic lures. Sure enough, I promptly found myself struggling with a 10-pound snook.

 

 

Pompano jigs with short bristles catch more that just their namesake.

A freakish incident? You wouldn't ask if you knew Al Pflueger. The famous South Florida angler has used that particular bucktail so often and effectively over so many years that in some circles it is called the “Al Pflueger Snook Jig.” It has even been offered for sale under that name by independent jig makers and small tackle dealers. The original design, however, was not by Pflueger but by Millie's Bucktails, a then-prominent Florida Keys lure supplier. Many more folks than Al claim this style to be their favorite snook-fooler.

 

The jig is simply a white bucktail, about 4 inches in length, tied with more hairs than the typical Upperman. Also, it sports a single red feather a tad longer than the hairs, and often a few strands of shiny Mylar as well. I have no doubt that the feather and the Mylar help attract both buyers and fish, but the real “secret” to the lure's deadly appeal lies in its thickly tied bucktail hairs. The killer retrieve is a series of slow sweeping motions, rather than abrupt jerks and bounces. During the pause between sweeps, the hairs blossom out to provide a larger profile, one that simulates a rather sizeable baitfish, such as a small pinfish or a pilchard.

 

Many different versions of similar bushy bucktails can be found in tackle stores all around Florida, some of them as ornately designed as trout flies. A number of snook specialists who work the bridges in Tampa Bay and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast

, like a bucktail even heavier and bushier than the “Pflueger Jig.”

 

Of course, no bucktail jig really skimps on hair, because, in addition to whatever action the angler might choose to impart, it's the pulsating motion of the bucktail that does the dirty work. When pulled through the water, the hairs cling together, making a skinny outline, but during the brief periods of rest between pulls, they go into their dance—a slight, restrained motion but one that is obviously imitative of a living organism. Marabou feathers, plucked from a stork, wiggle even more enticingly than bucktail when the lure is idle in the water, but for some reason marabou has never become a pet of saltwater anglers. Many crappie jigs are tied with marabou, however, and I keep a few of them in my saltwater box for occasional use in catching small live baits, pinfish in particular.

 

While it's true that trailers made of hair are far more durable and longer-lived than plastic tails, this advantage disappears when fish with sharp, cutting teeth invade the scene. Mackerel, bluefish, barracuda, and even blowfish, are all masters of administering instant crew-cuts to bucktails. Mackerel alone—because they are the most common toothy critters along all our coasts— have probably clipped off more bucktail hairs than a deer farm could grow in a year. Mackerel fishermen noticed that fact many years ago, and have long since retired their bucktails in favor of nylon jigs.

 

 

Gag grouper taken on a bullethead jig.

Unlike bucktails, which breathe, or screw-tail and paddle-tail plastics, which shimmy and writhe, nylon jigs contribute no action of their own. The material does sparkle like a baitfish at certain light angles and some models are luminescent, but the lure still is only as effective as the action given to it by the fisherman, which for mackerel and other fast swimmers usually takes the form of a rapid and whippy retrieve. Even our more laid-back species of gamefish, from trout and redfish to grouper and snapper, don't seem to mind the absence of wiggling tails at all, and will eagerly pounce on nylon jigs that are hopped slowly on or near the bottom. Pompano, in fact, are such enthusiastic gobblers of nylon that one particular design has long been known as a “pompano jig.”

 

Pompano jigs are recognizable by their short bristles, extending no farther back than the bend of the hook. Keeping only that feature in mind, you can make pompano jigs with nearly any leadhead you might have on hand, but round, peanut and bullet heads are the shapes most widely chosen. And after you make (or buy) a few such jigs, be sure to offer them to any other fish you can think of, not just pompano. They are particularly effective for jigging in channels, or in modest depths offshore. The common weight range is from one-quarter ounce to one ounce.

 

 

Jigs are handy for throwing at dolphin.

Oh—another important thing: Whichever head style you might select, be sure it is molded with a very strong hook, because many really huge fish—including but by no means limited to—tarpon, kingfish, amberjack, grouper, snook and 50-pound cubera snapper (that one was mine) all seem to look upon pompano jigs as tasty tidbits.

 

Now that the matter of shape for your jigs has come to a head, you should note that it doesn't really matter very much for potluck fishing. At certain times, though, you might have to either meet a particular demand or go home with an empty cooler. So let's look at the capabilities of various head types.

 

Bucktails with heads that are rather thin and vertically flattened are often referred to as knife-edged. They do not keep to the straight and narrow but tend to dart or corkscrew while sinking. Arrowhead jigs, which tend to sink somewhat faster than knife heads of similar weight, also dance a little on the dive. In heavy sizes (for casting tackle; up to three or four ounces) both designs are popular for deep-jigging. Sometimes, amberjack or king mackerel will go wild for a lure that sinks erratically after having passed up another jig that dives fast but straight.

 

A “skimmer” jig has a thin head that's flattened horizontally, and this style is anything but a deep-sinker. This design planes upward on the retrieve and, if head and hook are properly balanced, the hook rides point-up. No mystery, then, why this is the style used for bonefish jigs, which usually are tied with bucktail, although feathers are often incorporated. While seldom used in arenas other than the South Florida bonefish and permit flats, skimmers are nevertheless ideal for shallow sight-fishing everywhere.

 

A head style frequently called the “boxing glove” is somewhat similar to the skimmer in that it has a rather wide head that keeps its hook running upright; however, the boxing glove head is fat, not thin, which obviously makes it heavier and quite workable on deeper flats and in channels.

 

Bullet-shaped, peanut-shaped and round heads all sink fast and on a fairly straight path. They also track straight on a troll or steady retrieve. This likely is the most-used family of heads for nylon jigs and is very common in bucktails too.

 

Of course, there are endless slight variations in all the basic head shapes. Some jig-makers simply make molds of existing heads, while others design their own molds, incorporating such niceties as cutout lips and bulging eyes. Custom design is not rare for bucktail trailers, either. A few are as colorful and elaborate as any trout fly, and incorporate almost as much fancy material into the basic bucktail.

 

Don't tell any artistic jig-tiers I said so but—beautiful as many of their creations are—fish just don't seem to be as appreciative of fine art and intricate design as humans do. Oh, sure. Fish will hit the fancy things, all right, but they're usually just as happy with plain colors.

 

As with bass worms, color choice in jigs—whether bucktail or plastic—is another great topic for debate. In my opinion, however, the weight of the jig and the action you give it are so much more important that color becomes virtually inconsequential. And I only threw in that “virtually” because in some waters sheer visibility becomes a factor that calls for darker or more vivid colors. White and yellow are the old standby colors for bucktails and I don't believe they can be improved upon for overall angling.

 

If, after all this discussion, you now find it difficult to decide between bucktail and plastic, don't worry about it. Just use both at the same time. Stick a plastic worm on the end of your bucktail. Anglers have been doing just that with great success for about as long as the plastic worm has been around.

 

In any ca

se, do as I do. Keep plenty of bucktails and plenty of plastics within easy reach. They're all jigs. And all jigs are pretty darn productive.

 

FS