PORK VS. PLASTIC

For years, there was really no alternative for anglers who liked to fish a jig for bass. They either fished it bare, or tipped it with a pork chunk.

That made Uncle Josh almost a household world in the bass-fishing community, because so many fishermen owned jars and jars of the fatback/porkrind. Used even more was the term "jig n' pig" to denote a rubber-skirted jig fished with an Uncle Josh pork frog.

But in the mid-1990s, companies that made plastic worms, lizards and crawfish saw a niche in the fishing market. Could they make a chunk of plastic that resembled an old, original pork-frog chunk, and would bass bite it the way they do pork?

They made the chunks, and apparently, bass like them, because a lot of companies that make plastic worms now have a plastic chunk among their line of products.

What do guides and professional fishermen think about the "Pork vs. Plastic" debate? Most admit that plastic chunks will do everything a pork chunk will under most circumstances, without the fuss and mess of dealing with slimy pork chunks, the jars and lids that never seem to want to come off.

Maynard Edwards of Lexington, who guides on the Yadkin River chain lakes (High Rock, Tuckertown and Badin) said that he hardly ever uses pork anymore, even though he uses jigs almost year-round.

"The majority of time, I go with plastic," he said. "One reason is for the sake of convenience. But the plastics they've got now, you can get almost any action out of them. You can make a jig do almost anything with plastic you can do with pork. That wasn't always true, but I think the plastics have caught up. They're equal or better than pork."

Edwards said the only time he uses pork now is when the bite is extremely slow. "Everybody says to use pork in the winter, but a couple of years ago, I was fishing and I caught three more bass out of the back of a friend's boat who was using pork when I was using plastic, so that made up my mind."

But there remains a loyal following for pork chunks, fishermen who say that at least for part of the year, there's no beating a big piece of meat on the end of your jig. David Pye of Forest City, who guides on Lake Lure, is a firm believer that pork will outperform plastic in cold water -- especially for big fish.

Pye fishes a jig a lot on Lake Lure. Much of the time, when the water is relatively warm, he tips it not with a plastic chunk, but with a plastic crawworm. When he isn't using a crawworm, however, he's got an Uncle Josh No. 1 jumbo pork frog on his jig, and he's never had it failed.

"When it's cold, use pork," Pye said. "You can count on it, at least in Lake Lure. There will be days in March when the temperature never gets above 30 degrees, and I'll be catching fish on a jig with a pork chunk."

Pye believes that a pork chunk is more buoyant than plastic, that it makes a jig fall much slower and keeps the bait in front of a lethargic bass much longer. And in cold weather, he almost always uses a 3/4- or 1-ounce jig. Combined with a big pork chunk, that makes for a huge meal, even for a lunker bass.

"Somedays they just want a bit bait, and that pork chunk gives it a lot of bulk you can't get with plastic," Pye said. "And I think the pork helps slow down the fall."

Pye fishes his big jig n' pig very slowly, and how he works it is much different. "I fish my jig n' pig with my rod held out to the side. I want that jig to stay in contact with the bottom longer, so instead of raising the rod tip and pulling it off the bottom, I sweep my rod tip to the side, and the jig just crawls along the bottom. The water's usually so cold that the fish aren't real active anyway, they're right on the bottom, and they don't have to move to get it."

One thing Pye has learned from tipping jigs with a pork chunk is that any plastic trailer needs to be salt impregnated to even perform close to pork. He won't use any plastic crawworm as a trailer unless it's salt impregnated. "They just won't bite it as good," he said.