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The Ugly Bug


 
The Ugly Bug (1/32 - 5/8 oz.)


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Description
 

The Ugly Bug® (1/32 - 5/8 oz.)

Helpful Tips: Ugly Bug
Along with its 85% (approximate) ability to work out of rocky bottom structure, the Ugly Bug is graced with two other features. Because of its wide forward head design, the jig balances level when vertically jigged. Suspended presentation is always level, a feature which increases your strikes from fish such as crappie, walleye and lake trout.

The other added feature is the Ugly Bug's ability to stand up at a 45-degree angle when resting on the bottom. When working bottom feeding fish such as walleye and many saltwater species, this position allows the jig to be scooped up easily off bottom by the fish's lower jaw. This bottom resting presentation is even more enticing when the Ugly Bug is tipped with live bait.

Color Selection
Use brown, crawfish, black or orange for smallmouth bass. When lake trout fishing, select white, yellow, orange and chartreuse first. For walleye, the white, yellow, orange and crawfish must be selected first. Bluegill prefer the black and green in small sizes while crappie tend to like the white and chartreuse.

The wedge-shaped pivoting head performs best when worked with 8-pound line. Enough pressure can be applied on 8-pound line to cause a snagged Ugly Bug head to pivot up on itself and dislodge from the snagging rock crevice. In rivers, visibility of 8-pound line is diffused by current movement. Where you had a need to use 4 or 6-pound test, you can now switch to 8-pound and save as much as 75% of your hang-ups.

Working the World Famous Ugly Bug: Why It Works So Well
The Ugly Bug Jig was created in 1969 by Dan Gapen, Sr. to fill a gap in lure selection available which imitated the aquatic crawfish and hellgrammite. Dan, a riverman by choice, also needed a lure which could be retrieved downstream, natural presentation in river systems, and do so without being constantly snagged on bottom rock.

With this in mind, a soft plastic body was constructed, rubber legs added, and a head design similar to that of a crawdad's tail was constructed. The head, after a number of design switches, was created that was wide in front, narrow in back, with slopes underneath. It took a couple of summers to work out the problems, but finally in 1969 the new little lure was ready for the market.

Crawfish run backwards when pursued and are often carried downstream with river currents while in flight. Most of the time this flight takes place in bottom rocks. The Ugly Bug makes an ideal imitator. With its wide wedge head front it may hang up in bottom rock when retrieved downstream, but will generally pivot up and out of the snag immediately. The reason for this is the fact that Dan's design allows for the point of pull, the hook eye, to protrude from the jighead back beyond the forward wide part of the Ugly Bug head. Mechanically, with the narrow back end, this creates a pivot form when pressure is applied.

Fishermen heading into the rock-infested lakes of Canada prefer the snag-free, bottom-walking Ugly Bug jig 3-to-1 over any other jig. The Ugly Bug's ability to walk rock gets it down on bottom and keeps it there. In Canada, use 1/4 oz, 3/8 oz. and 5/8 oz. in bright colors for walleye.

Helpful Tips: Ugly Bug
Bluegills: Anglers seeking out trophy size bluegill (pounders) along flooded hedgerows, or deepwater weedlines, find the 1/16 oz. black Ugly Bug does the trick. By casting in along structure, allowing the jig to drop straight down, then lifting high with a sweeping action, and allowing the jig to once again drop, bluegill are tempted to hit each time the jig descends. Watching line on surface tells when a strike occurs. A small bit of worm tipped on the jig helps.

Smallmouth: The Ugly Bug is deadly on river smallmouth bass. Use of the 1/8 oz. size is preferred by ardent rivermen. The preferred color is crawfish or brown. Casting this lure up into the current, in those shallow rocky areas, is deadly on Mr. Smallmouth.

Walleye: Lake fishing, over rocky areas, is best accomplished by the use of 1/4 oz. Ugly Bug. If it's walleye you're after, buy the light colors such as white, yellow, pink and chartreuse. These lighter colors should be tipped with minnows. Darker colors such as orange, purple, black and crawfish, should be used during the hot months of summer and must be tipped with nightcrawlers.

How to Select Your Ugly Bug Jig
There is a basic rule to purchasing the Ugly Bug jig. In spring, buy light colors. In the heat of summer, buy dark colors. In fall, go back to the light colors of spring. In spring and fall, tip with minnows. In the hot months, tip with crawlers or leeches.

Deep lake water and spawning areas downstream from huge river  dams require the use of the larger 5/8 oz. Ugly Bugs. Many of these areas are fished best by vertically jigging this size and tipping it with walleye size sucker minnows.


Average Customer Review: Based on 2 reviewsWrite a review.

  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
1/16-3/8 oz ugly bugs September 28, 2011
Reviewer: Haywood Tyson from Winston Salem, NC United States  
I have used the ugly bugs since the early 70's.  The 1/16 oz brown ugly bug with white legs was deadly on smallies in the Rum River and in CO in the reservoirs.  Since moving to NC I have used them on the coast for redfish with equal success.  Bob Tyson

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  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
Ugly Bug July 12, 2011
Reviewer: Keith Erickson from Montevideo, MN United States  
Have used them before and they are excellent,
Dan Gapens  products are the best.

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