If you haven’t tried this Bionic Bucktail jig by Northland I hope you give it a try this season. A friend of mine from Ely turned me on to it. For years, my go-to lure for lakers has been a 3/4 to 1 oz. jig tipped with a 4 to 6 inch white twister tail or double tail. I have had much success with this setup on many lakes in the boundary waters.

Well, I bought a couple of the lures he suggested, and I am sure glad I did!! The lure was just outstanding. On both trips last season, it produced fish after fish. The interesting thing was the color had to be glo rainbow. I tried other colors, but they didn’t work. The glo rainbow is just the closet color to their natural forage base.

I used the 2 oz size and was trolling fast in 60 to 100 feet of water. Funny thing is I also caught walleye and smallmouth with the lure in the deep water. All I did was drop it to the bottom, reel up 4 turns, and paddle pretty fast. I really don’t know how deep the lure was running, but I’m guessing 40 feet. Hope you give it a try.


I used it in Quetico so I clipped the treble hook off.

Dude, you're spilling secrets. Big hair jigs and really big jig/twister combos never work for lake trout. :)

I had used these in the past when they were just called Northland bucktail stinger jig, but I think they max out at 3/4 oz. Yes, a very deadly rig, especially slow drifting with aggressive jigging tipped with a whole medium sucker. Always liked yellow in this presentation.

walllee: "If you haven’t tried this Bionic Bucktail jig by Northland I hope you give it a try this season. A friend of mine from Ely turned me on to it. For years, my go-to lure for lakers has been a 3/4 to 1 oz. jig tipped with a 4 to 6 inch white twister tail or double tail. I have had much success with this setup on many lakes in the boundary waters.

Well, I bought a couple of the lures he suggested, and I am sure glad I did!! The lure was just outstanding. On both trips last season, it produced fish after fish. The interesting thing was the color had to be glo rainbow. I tried other colors, but they didn’t work. The glo rainbow is just the closet color to their natural forage base.

I used the 2 oz size and was trolling fast in 60 to 100 feet of water. Funny thing is I also caught walleye and smallmouth with the lure in the deep water. All I did was drop it to the bottom, reel up 4 turns, and paddle pretty fast. I really don’t know how deep the lure was running, but I’m guessing 40 feet. Hope you give it a try.


I used it in Quetico so I clipped the treble hook off. "

Which eyelet do you tie it off to for this presentation?

I tie to the eyelet closest to the hook. Gives a more horizontal presentation.

Thanks for the tip! My tackle for this years trip will now be 8 oz heavier, bought directly from Northland Tackle.

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I used it in Quetico so I clipped the treble hook off. "

What is your experience regarding the effectiveness of the lure with the treble hook removed ?

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WHendrix: "
I used it in Quetico so I clipped the treble hook off. "

What is your experience regarding the effectiveness of the lure with the treble hook removed ?" Didn’t seem to matter, the hits were pretty aggressive.

Did you tip it with anything?

KarlBAndersen1: "Did you tip it with anything?"

I did not tip it with anything...,

Would a frozen smelt on this big jig just make the presentation even sweeter?

DeanL: "Would a frozen smelt on this big jig just make the presentation even sweeter?"

It sure would..

Adding live bait might work best in some circumstances, but these things can be fished pretty aggressively, especially by "snapping" them and on the final (vertical) retrieve up to the canoe (ever seen a lake trout chase a lure vertically on a Vexilar...pretty incredible stuff). Plus, you can cast a big one a mile and cover some serious water. Adding livebait would certainly limit these aggressive applications.

walllee: "If you haven’t tried this Bionic Bucktail jig by Northland I hope you give it a try this season. A friend of mine from Ely turned me on to it. For years, my go-to lure for lakers has been a 3/4 to 1 oz. jig tipped with a 4 to 6 inch white twister tail or double tail. I have had much success with this setup on many lakes in the boundary waters.

Well, I bought a couple of the lures he suggested, and I am sure glad I did!! The lure was just outstanding. On both trips last season, it produced fish after fish. The interesting thing was the color had to be glo rainbow. I tried other colors, but they didn’t work. The glo rainbow is just the closet color to their natural forage base.

I used the 2 oz size and was trolling fast in 60 to 100 feet of water. Funny thing is I also caught walleye and smallmouth with the lure in the deep water. All I did was drop it to the bottom, reel up 4 turns, and paddle pretty fast. I really don’t know how deep the lure was running, but I’m guessing 40 feet. Hope you give it a try.


I used it in Quetico so I clipped the treble hook off. "

Oh shoot!! Wish I saw this a week ago! I was at the Fishing Expo in Madison WI Saturday and had one of these in my hand debating it and I put it back on the shelf. Oh well time to order...lol Thank you for the heads up on not only the lure but also on how to work it.

I should of clarified that I always dropped the jig to the bottom when I was in 60 feet of water. I kept it at the same depth whether I was trolling over 60 feet or 120 feet. Again, I don’t know exactly what depth the lure was running...

wallee, what time of year were you having luck on this lure for lakers?
thanks for the tip.

July 4th week was the first trip. The second trip was mid August.

I ordered four (2 at 3/4 oz and 2 at 1 oz). they arrived yesterday... I can hardly wait.

This is a dangerous time of year for me. My fishing itch is getting bad and the only way I can get some relief is to buy stuff...

Thanks for the tip on this jig, wallee -- I'll definitely be giving this a try on the Gunflint trail in june.

To clarify -- a lot of guys will jig these aggressively, but you're saying you were just pulling it with the rod in a rod holder while paddling? Is this similar to trolling a crankbait where they basically hook themselves, or is there a technique involved in the hookset, etc?

Many thanks!

I was trolling it like you would a spinner or crank bait. The rod was just laying across the gunnels . The fish were aggressive, so they pretty much hooked themselves, but I would immediately drop the paddle and give a couple pretty hard hooksets. Be sure to have a extra paddle, many times when I dropped my paddle it ended up in the lake. Many times if I missed the initial bite I would continue at the same speed and the fish would hit a second or third time. I’m sure the lure would work by just drifting and doing some aggressive jigging also. My trolling speed was fast, almost as fast as I could paddle my solo Bell Wildfire.

Also, I did use a heavy duty swivel...