Bondy Bait Reviews?

[Muskyfish1]

I have a pearl regular sized Bondy Bait that I have tried out a few times for short periods and keep looking at sitting in my box thinking it is a way cool lure. I just never really have done jigging like you're supposed to with this bait, especially for Musky!!! I'm wondering if others out there are using this habitually and what kind of results they're getting. I believe John Bondy had actually won a tournament (musky) about 2 years ago on two of the lakes I fish and I would assume he was using these. If you're surfing this forum John, maybe you'd like to chime in. So again, anyone fishing this bait regularly?, getting good action?, what kind of areas would you recommend fishing such a bait?


Thanks!

[dahlberg]

The success of the lure speaks for itself. Obviously it's designed for vertical fishing. Thus, position as directly over musky as possible and jig lure so musky can see it.....
In order to "reverse engineer" a tool the best way is to look at what it was designed to do. Study the environment in which the lure evolved and it's purpose will be revealed!
best
L

[MikeW87]

I'm a Bondy Bait FREAK! I have around 60 or so Bondy Baits. I started musky fishing about 8 years ago & the Bondy Bait has caught more musky for me than all my other lures combined. My biggest 51.5" X 24" is the biggest I've caught on a Bondy Bait & I've lost other big ones on it that were probably bigger.

I mainly fish the Detroit & St. Clair Rivers jigging Bondy baits but have also caught some nice muskies in some smaller inland Michigan lakes. For jigging in the rivers you fish like you’re jigging for walleye in the river. You need to have good boat control to stay vertical. There's 2 types of hits you'll get when jigging: the first one is when you're lowering the bait & out of nowhere you'll get a hit so hard it will hurt your arm (with the bigger muskies) & come close to ripping the rod out of your hand or a nice tap that you feel in the rod from the smaller muskies. The second type of hit is when you are on the up stroke close to the top of your jig stroke. You'll know this hit by seeing the line jump or go slack. These are the hardest hits to convert into a fish in the net because you have nowhere to set the hook.

I prefer a 8' to 9" Heavy rod for jigging as this still give good hooking power but still enough give to keep tension on the line to keep the hooks pinned in the fish's mouth. I've tried X-Heavy rods but lost too many fish because I was pulling the bait out their mouths. Here's a picture of how to rig a top hook on the bait for better hook-ups: http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j67/z ... 0884-1.jpg

In the lakes I've caught muskies on Bondys, one had a steep break close to shore about 20-22 feet down. I just used the wind & my trolling motor to slowly move the boat along the break & was jigging off the bottom. On the other lake I was fishing a hump that came up 5' off the bottom in 25 fow. I've also used the Jr. Bondy's for deep water pike fishing in a clear spring fed lake, 40 feet down over 75 fow.

You can also cast the Bondy bait in open water & along deep weed lines or sharp breaks. Jon has a few videos on YouTube (links on his website) that show how to jig in the river & cast in the lake. There's also one of Jon's jigging seminars that he gave at the Michigan Musky Shop. You can go to their site & go under their seminar link & watch it.

[Dan Hanon]

MikeW and Larry,

For vertical jigging, wouldn't a shorter rod be "the go" when using the Bondy bait? I don't understand why a 8-9' rod is advantageous, unless you want an "all-arounder" for casting too. For tuna, I have a 5'6 rod, as do many other saltwater anglers. The heavier action rods are often 5'2 or thereabouts. Your input is appreciated. Thanks!

[dahlberg]

For tuna the short rod is great because it is a benefit when you have to pull really hard. Depending on stiffness, it might also give you a little faster "pop" when you snap it. That being said, a nine footer would offer no advantages I can determine for vertical jigging. I'd go with something in the seven and a half foot range to reduce the fatigue factor.
best
L

[MikeW87]

Dan,

When I'm jigging in the Detroit River I'm fishing anywhere from 18' down to 35' so the longer rod helps with the hook set, soften the strike & helps with fighting the fish. Jon Bondy told me when he first started jigging his bait he used the smaller graphite rods & was breaking them between the fore grip & the first line guide.

The strike is much harder jigging than with casting. With casting the lure is moving toward you & so is the fish so the impact of the strike isn’t felt as much as with vertical jigging. When you’re vertical jigging the bait is almost right below your feet & the line is taught so there’s no cushion for the strike & it puts a big strain on the rod. Saltwater guys use the shorter rods but those are made of fiberglass so they can take the impact of a hard strike a lot better than graphite rod. I’ve used a hybrid fiberglass/graphite rod when I first started jigging Bondy Baits but the extra weight wore me out sooner. I now use a much lighter graphite rod (8’6” Heavy Okuma Evx Musky rod) & I don’t get tired out as fast. The Bondy Bait is a workout & it takes about 3 or 4 trips before I get used to it every season. The regular Bondy weights about 7 oz. & the Magnum I think is 11 oz. plus the baits have a lot of resistance on the up stroke. Jon has told me that he sells a lot of his baits to saltwater guys & they catch just about everything on them.

As I stated in my post above the strike can be so hard from a big musky that when you feel the strike in your arm it actually hurts. I’m sure my arthritis doesn’t help much & I’m getting old so a younger guy might be able to handle it better.

Also wanted to add I prefer a graphite rod because it helps me to detect when I get a zebra mussel or some other gargbage on my hooks.

[detroitmuskie]

Doesn't the longer rod with higher speed reel help pick up line faster when fishing 20-30 feet deep? We fish Bondy's on D/SCR Rivers and had much more success with faster reels and longer rods. The same applies for tubes fishing for Muskie on deep channel breaks. Larry, wouldn't we want a longer rod to sweep up the line faster that deep down?? Sometimes I've seen guys with a Toro Winch lose every single jigging fish cause they couldn't keep up with fish after hookset. After that violent strike and hard hookset those fish take off and sometimes it's hard to keep them pinned or catch up when they are that deep??? Thoughts??

[Dan Hanon]

A longer rod won't necessarily allow you to gain line on a fish. Much of a rod's effectiveness lies in its action, or ability to load under strain. For example, I have two 7'8" rods for GT fishing, both from the same company, but different actions. One is rated for 80-100# line, the other for 100-130#. Needless to say, the heavier rod is grueling on the body when fighting large fish because it doesn't load as easily. It's great for chugging 200 gm poppers, but physically demanding to use! The 80-100# rates rod loads easier, so the rod translates less energy directly to the angler (angler's back, ha!). However his rod can't effectively work poppers 180 gms or more. Also, a longer rod has a longer lever arm, so a strong fish can use the increased torque to its advantage! Of course, the reel's gear ratio and speed of your cranking are the limiting factors in actually getting line on the spool! (Assumming you can use the rod to gain some slack to reel in!)

[dahlberg]

There's so many different factors it's hard to explain this but, a couple of thoughts. First, is rod length/butt length. You must consider both the length of the blade and the length of the butt. In other words, you could have two identical 8 foot blanks, build one with a 12" butt and the other with and 18"er and you'd have two different performing rods..
As far as line take up, in a 90 degree "swing" the linear distance the tip travels is 1.8 times the "blade" length. (blade length being that portion forward of where the rod pivots on a hook set) Obviously, all other things being equal, the longer a rod will pick up more line, but there's a point where the length becomes disadvantageous due to the leverage you are giving up.

A stiff nine footer with two feet of butt and having an 8 oz jig hanging on it exerts 3.5 foot pounds of torque on your wrist just hanging on to it while holding it horizontal! Ouch! But more importantly, you actually get much less total pounds on the hookset. it just feels like you are pulling harder because you've given up so much leverage. If you doubt it, take a scale and test it.

As far as "feel", the most sensitive set up is NO ROD AT ALL. A hand line.

Back when most musky guys were using short stiff 5 1/2 foot rods, there were so many fish lost at the boat it was ridiculous. One of the main reasons they were tearing hooks out or straightening hooks is because the shorties allowed them to pull too hard, and with little or no shock absorption.

A better term for "loading" in this context is something designers call "hold out". It refers to the place on the rod where it quits bending when under load.
The closer to the handle the hold out occurs, the more leverage is gained by the angler.

Different types of angling require different nuances in rod design to come up with the perfect stick, and believe me little differences in design can make big differences in performance. The jigging thing is somewhat static compared to casting dynamics, but let me give you a quick example, using fly rod construction as the model.
As you all know, fly rods come in different "weights", 4,5,6,7 etc.and are designed to cast a given "weight of line" that matches the rod. Use a line weight that's one number too light and it will be very hard to cast. One weight heavier, it gets pretty sluggish. Two heavier is bad new.

The grain weight of a #4 line is 120 grains, a 5 is 140 grains. A difference of 20 grains. There are 15.4 grains in a gram! One gram is about 1/28 of an ounce!
so the diff between a 4 and a 5 is only about 1.3 grams. In other words it does not take much weight to make a significant difference when casting.

Getting back to the subject, I like something less than 9' for jigging. A reel that picks up a couple of feet per crank oughta be fine if you've got normal reflexes and aren't using a small reel with 100# line so you've only got a half spool when you jig is down 30 feet!

Good questions, wish I had a way to discuss this in person!
best
L

[detroitmuskie]

Very impressive!! Definitely a eye opener on length of rod differences. This is some very good information and I need to go back to the drawing board on the perfect jigging rod...I was using a 9 foot St. Croix Legend "Big Nasty" with Calcutta 401D or Avet MXJ. I've done well jigging but certainly lost my share of fish. Very cool stuff!!

[Bob Daly]

I tried out the Bondy Bait next to the dam in La Zona. Non stop action. The lure was literally ripped to shreads by the golden dorado but with the wire construction it still caught dorado.
Good fishing, Bob Daly