Hair jig conditions

If the river is really dirty does a hair jig still work, or do you want the water clear?

Yes it still works. Play with tipping it with a minnow to add scent if you’d like.

100% yes. Water temp is maybe a little cold for them now in my experience, though. They also work great in the spring during high, muddy water with a big snap/fall retrieve (as taught to me by Joe B).

What water temperature works for hair jigs?

I generally switch to plastics once water temps get around 45 degrees.

Tom Albrecht wrote:

I generally switch to plastics once water temps get around 45 degrees.

Agreed. Of course, there’s no hard and fast rule but I like hair jigs during the fall when the water is in the 50’s. To clarify, I’m casting and swimming them just like I would a plastic.

WE fished the upper P4 all last week…Plain hair worked well on Monday ,but the temps fell rapidly and the plastics RULED! We left a brutal week where the water temps fell from 44.5 to 38 on Friday morning…as did the flow. Walleyes all but disappeared by Tuesday. Four of us fished hard and caught about 100 fish. 95% Sauger. Only two over 20″… We had a fish fry and took home some 16-17″ eater Sauger. Very few walleye came in to Everts fish shack last week.