The Incredible Comeback Of The Jitterbug Among Tournament Anglers…

Randy talks about the old-school jitterbug….#bass #catchandrelease #fishingtrip #fish #bassfishing #fishinglife #angler #fishing #fishingdaily #topwaterlures

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[triplebisme]

Fished the Jitterbug for over 50 years now. My favorite topwater bait of all time, always will be. I don't know how many of them things I have now, and sizes.

[raymondjust]

Love all of your videos Randy keep em coming we enjoy them all sir

[rickvoigt]

Wow, great subject, great memories! My earliest was the last night of our family trip in the Michigan UP. Getting our last night of fishing before driving back to IL the next day. It's after dark, no need for nav lights with a full moon. Grandpa, Dad and Uncle Ray meat fishing for bullheads or anything else to take home and put in the freezer. Had a johnson century push button spincaster; mono was all there was back then.

I tied on an all black jitterbug even though the elders said I wouldn't catch anything with that bait, that color. Well, seems I taught a few lessons that night. One, the black bug works just fine after dark, especially with the full moon. I slayed em that night (slay wasn't even a word back then) and my family was very impressed, enough to hit the bait shop on the way home to put a few in their boxes. The second lesson I learned is to pay attention to your knots and learn to tie them correctly. At the end of our fishing, they starting watching the silhouette of the bug in the water when a BIG bass jumped out of the water and landed on it, mouth wide open. Everybody saw it since the moon was so bright. Of course, as a young kid, I was always in a hurry and my knot was weak. At that point, we all decided it was time to go in.

I still have one left, all black of course, with the old fashion hook hangers. I still throw it with a full moon, but I use braid to be safe. I like the new hook config and also the 2.0 versions that are out now. Surprised that no one has made a knock off it, at least as far as I'm aware of. And don't forget about the hula popper. Arbogast had/has a great lineup! (See if you can find a Hawaiian Wiggler - great old lure but I lost all mine).

One last memory - I took my west coast fishing buddy (who is a fly fisherman primarily) on our annual trip to eagle lake Ontario a couple of times. Gave him one of my jitterbugs to throw on his ultralight spinning setup and he absolutely killed the smallies. That was until a muskie decided he wanted it.

Sorry about the long story. In my late 60's but I can still remember a few things...

[raymondjust]

Jitterbugs work awesome for me and my family an fishing buddy's we own fishing spots in Colorado and Maine and in Montana and this lure brings in the big dogs do t believe what the other people are saying they don't know what there talking about

[heathpass]

I'm 49 and jitterbugs, hula poppers have always been a go to lure if all else fails and they catch fish. We have always put bigger treble hooks on them because the ones stock aren't worth it. I love the action and ease of just retrieve on a jitter. I'll throw one of them or a scum frog if it's a full moon with little clouds at night. Best frog is a scum frog other than that a jitterbug is hard to beat

[benharris]

One of my favorite lures, I caught the biggest northern pike of my life a few weeks ago 38 in 14.6 lbs

[Strat]

Fished for 50 years, always had a Jitterbug in my tackle box. The double jointed one is a blast for night fishing for Northern Pike and Muskies.

[alanweisner]

I didn't know it ever went away ! Ive been fishing it regularly since the early 70s. This off topic, but it's a killer bait on rivers in and around the Rockies for Big Brown Trout at night..Black 💪

[dannyyork]

Fished jitterbug for 40 years, always catch some good ones. Fish tornaments, younger guys will say, what is that thing, lol. But by time where done fishing, they usally got 1 tied on.

[ericwestmorland]

My first big bass as a kid was on a jitterbug. Propably a 5 pounder. Got it from my grandpa's tackle box after he passed.

[Glock-]

I have 3 of the old ones that are in awesome shape 1 small bullfrog color 1 small black one and a bigger black jointed one and I have found every one of them when I was fishing at different places

[dugupdandys]

Just got a good size bass just yesterday on an antique bullfrog pattern jitterbug. Now I'm on a mission to find more..

[tshaw]

It's the 1st fishing lure I ever bought 50 years ago. I threw a black Jitterbug in the evenings for years and caught loads of smallmouth. It seemed to outfish the Crazy Crawler, The Storm Rattlin Chug Bug is no slouch either. Smallies will nail it sitting still.

[keithpowell]

Yes, sir Randy, I am definitely one of those. I keep a rod with a jitterbug tie on all the time and a lifelong favored of mine.

[cbradquillen]

The strikes you get when jitterbugging at night are hands down the best in bass fishing. I don't think the jitterbug has ever lost its place in American tackle boxes.

[timmarkowicz]

I have frog (for daytime) and black (for night) Jitterbugs, and they're one of my favorite topwaters.

[j.moutonpipes]

Bass hit a bug harder than anything else. Been using them all my life.

[andywilliamson]

Thanks for this, Randy. I've been using the bug for the past 54 years and still take big largemouths on it in tournaments.

[johnnywhite]

I know several guys who only fish for 8lb + sized bass. They use custom made magnum sized Jitterbugs cut from balsa and cedar. These baits are much larger than the factory produced Musky Jitterbugs you would buy off the store shelf. Four to five hours of non-stop casting a night for weeks at a time without catching a single fish. But when they do catch a fish it will break the 7 to 8 lb mark.

[victorsimonsen]

jitterbugs never stopped working they just got put aside for the new latest and greatest bait . but some of us are still using them regularly. great classic bait that catches fish to this day. don't sleep on the the old stuff . thanks for sharing