jig question

[Mr1ply]

so yesterday we were out fishing and not catching much. i felt like giving a different presentation a try and put a willow blade (#3 i think maybe a #4) as a trailer on a 1/2 swim jig. anyway, the bass weren't biting at all sadly but the northern were.
anyway, after a few casts i got a hard violent hit on my lure and went to set the hook, it didn't set the hook but I could feel the lure drag out of the fish mouth fitting all the way....i figured I screwed up somehow and went back to it. a few casts later the same thing accept even more violent and a little more fight before he let it go. at this point it dawned on me that he was hitting the willow blade and not the jig....(really wish I had some spoons on me....sigh).

so i got to thinking on my way home, was i using to big of a willow blade? will i get that same experience with a bass (being too big are hitting the back)? or is it just the way northern are and those fish didn't care about the jig and was after the blade only?
what do you guys and gals think?
I was also thinking of picking up some spoons and putting a spoon with treble and all on there instead of just the blade.

[Siebert Outdoors]

You are probably right on them hitting the blade.  A few years ago I had a pike/musky rip a #7 willow off a big 1 oz spinnerbait.  It ripped the swivel right in half.  Its the hardest hit I've ever had on a lure.

[Dark3]

You are probably right on them hitting the blade.  A few years ago I had a pike/musky rip a #7 willow off a big 1 oz spinnerbait.  It ripped the swivel right in half.  Its the hardest hit I've ever had on a lure.

Fun fact, a pike/musky as to say a pike + musky equal a hybrid called a tiger musky. Beautiful stock fish however they are sterile and can't reproduce

[s10me]

I fished in Eagle river, Wisconsin, over the summer and had the same problem. I added a trailer hook and started hooking the Muskie under their mouths. My thinking is they were hitting the willow leaf thinking its a wonded fry?

[Mr1ply]

wouldn't a trailer hook get in the way of the blade spinning?

[s10me]

I'm sorry, I had been using a willow leaf spinnerbait.