A New Nearshore Pattern For The Great Lakes

Some of my best producers are hair jigs I tie myself. The natural breathing action of the hackle, marabou, and deer hair add a subtle degree of life that plastics can’t match. In clear-water situations, I stick with hair. Jigs tied in hues of olive, brown, and natural deer with a touch of gold flash resemble gobies well.

Tube jigs were the first good goby imitator used by Great Lakes smallmouth fishermen, and they also work well for browns. Berkley’s original Power Tube is a good option. Team tubes with a quality 1/8- to 1/4-ounce tube jig. Another bait to try is the Berkley Sparkle Power Tube Minnow. This is In-Fisherman Editor In Chief Doug Stange’s favorite all-around tube—he finds it a hot bait for goby-eating smallmouths and likes the Pearl Blue Shad and Emerald Shiner colors.

Tubes fished weightless on a Carolina rig can be deadly, too. I generally use a 1/2-ounce egg or bullet sinker, a #7 Crane swivel, and a 3-foot section of 10-pound fluorocarbon leader. Use the typical extra-wide gap (EWG) hook or something like Gamakatsu’s Skip-Gap hook. Carolina rigs take a beating from rocks and zebra mussels so retie often. A 4-inch piece of clear, flexible tubing ahead of your slipsinker helps prevent abrasions. I buy air-line hose from the aquariu m store for about $2 for 15 feet. I pour my own bullet sinkers, and the hose slips over the nose of the sinker. I put a dab of super glue on the parts before I slip them together.

Retrieves should closely resemble the natural swimming pattern of a goby. An easy lift-drop is better than aggressive jigging. Gobies pop up off the bottom, glide, and settle back down. I’ve found that this retrieve is best done using only the reel. Cast out the jig or Carolina rig and let it settle to the bottom. Point the rod at the lure and crank two to four turns. Now, watch the line. Strikes occur as bait settles back to the bottom. With the rod tip pointed at the bait, I’m in a perfect position for a quick hook-set.

The biggest difference in fishing this system for smallmouths and brown trout is size of the fish. A good smallmouth is 5 pounds. A good brown is 25 pounds. But, brown trout aren’t dumb and they’re wary, so beefing up the tackle isn’t an option. I use 8-pound Silver Thread Excalibur and 10-pound Stren Magnathin lines. Smooth drags are a must. For jig fishing, I like a 71⁄2-foot extra-fast-action rod. For lobbing Carolina rigs, I have a 101⁄2-foot moderate-action float rod that works great.

When it comes to gobies, Lake Michigan brown trout have taken lemons and made lemonade. Chinooks, coho, and steelhead haven’t adapted to the new food source. Neither have some anglers, who continue to work spoons and crankbaits well above the feeding zone of these goby-gorging browns. For those willing to probe bottom, enormous football browns await.

*Marc Wisniewski is an outdoor writer and lure manufacturer from Greenfield, Wisconsin.