J-mac and Curlytail—This rigging fishes more compactly than the J-mac and Shaker, so it can be fished in lift-fall fashion like a traditional jig-and-plastic, although you should begin by making straight, slow retrieves.

This option fishes well tipped along the bottom when pike aren’t aggressive. Move it past a fish’s face, but at least on the initial retrieve, make sure your retrieve doesn’t approach them aggressively. Don’t sneak it up on the fish. Move it past several feet away.

If you can get the fish to respond enough to move to the bait, you usually catch them. Sometimes they just slowly overtake it from behind. Other times they move toward the bait but won’t take it. Try killing the bait. Often these fish approach the bait as it rests on bottom. When the fish is right on the bait, use the rod tip and a wrist snap to lift the bait up 6 inches before letting it drop again. Many times a fish darts forward and slurps the bait in.

This combo is the best I’ve found for fishing over weedgrowth so thick that it’s matted. In many Canadian lakes, pike move into and under weedgrowth that’s in one or two feet of water along shore. They just lie there. At times you can see them, other times not at all.

In this instance, fish the jig-and-curly combo like you’d fish a plastic frog. Make a modest cast—you have to get a fish out once you hook it, or get to it with the boat if you can’t move it—then just steadily drag the lure over the heavy cover. Pike explode right up through cover in which they can’t possibly see the bait but can apparently feel or hear it.

My rule on color is to stock at least three choices: dark, white, and a bright option like chartreuse.

Owner Bullet Jighead-Shaker/Swim Shad Combos

Bullet heads, or conical designs, roll easily in combination with shad bodies. Jigs constructed with wider bottoms to stabilize them don’t roll well, but suffice so long as the jig weight and shad body length are well matched. The best jigs have long hooks. I use Owner Ultra Saltwater Bullet jigs in 1/2 and 3/4 ounces.

Here again, the best overall shad bodies I’ve found are from Lunker City and Big Hammer. I carry 4.5-, 5-, and 6-inchers. The 6-inch body trims back in any increment to about 5 inches if necessary. Another good design is the Berkley Saltwater PowerBait Swim Shad, measuring 5 inches. This one doesn’t trim well because it’s a little thicker than the Shaker.

Many times fish strike these rigs so hard and swallow them so completely that it’s obvious they’ve been completely fooled. Few things I’ve ever fished over the years at times get fish to commit so totally and recklessly.

Working Jighead and Shad Combos

Everything I’ve said about positioning to bring baits past fish, and working the smaller combos on the bottom in front of fish, applies here. I always have a J-mac option on one rod and one of the Owner jig options on another—sometimes two of these options on two other rods, a bigger Shaker and smaller Shaker on different-sized heads.