Bondy Baits

[ThreeRiversEsox]

Per the article in Musky Hunter a while back, I was wondering if anyone in this area has ever tried to vertical jig the deep river breaks for muskies. Jon Bondy makes a bait that has brought him alot of fish out of the Detroit River, whichmade me kind of curious. Apparently they jig or slow hop these rubber baits as they drift and have had some good success with them. I wasn't sure if this technique was something new for muskies or if there were any local guys out there who have tried it. I know it works in lakes for walleyes using blade baits, anyone have any input on it??

[Red Childress]

I have used a couple of different rigs that are similar to the Bondy Rig that basically boil down to being a castable downrigger, but with enough weight, they can be trolled very effectively. The downside to trolling them is that you can get the bait down so fast, there sometimes is not enough distance between the motor and the fish........the result could be spooking fish in low clear water unless your dropper weight is reduced to get the rig further behind the boat.

One of the reasons the Bondy rig is so deadly on the Detroit River is the amount of current they fish out there. 9-13mph current really puts the muskies on the bottom and the Bondy rig works great for that application. I think it would also work well on the Niagara as that system has some serious current that we are not accustomed to here on the Allegheny River.

[ThreeRiversEsox]

Thanks for the info Red. You gave me a great idea with the rivers down here around the Burgh with all of the dams.

[Red Childress]

You will (of course) have to vary the weight of the lead to match the depths you want to achieve. I never use anything that sinks above the lead whereas Bondy uses a shallow dawg on his but I think the stiff current of the Detroit will keeps the dawg from fouling up on the mainline. I usually run a longer leader off the mainline to get back off the lead. Wiley's and grandma stuff have worked for me in the past. This rig runs great going against the current. I have seen guys in the 3 Rivers area chucking a similar rig in and around the plume area of the Water Treatment plant hunting the walleye family on the Ohio River.......that was 12 years ago.

If you are going to run multiple baits off the mainline, be sure you DO NOT EXCEED 3 hookpoints, or 3 treble hooks totaling 9 individual hook points. The PFBC says 3 trebles per 1 rod are the max allowed in our waters.

[toothyfishman]

I have a couple and have tried them with no luck.
They do look good and I feel they will work, just maybe not where I was using them?

Better have a good retriever along, you'll get them hung up for sure!!

[Red Childress]

I think there is a guy who sells retrievers on this site somewhere.......get the beefed up version from him at the Butler Show. They will not only get the lure back but bring the tree top with it!!