A storm front followed by lower temperatures and clear blue skies had local anglers grumbling, but my partner had boated the better part of a limit in about the same time as usual.

The others gave in to fits of "switch-itis", dunking everything from trolling plugs to live bait rigs while he stuck with the same unimpressive lure and kept casting. He also kept catching.

That was three decades ago, and the same thing that he used then is still taking walleye today. It was nothing more than a simple marabou jig, a leadhead with a tuft of highly-mobile feather fronds tied on. When the bite is a tough one, a jig with a "natural" tail remains hard to beat.

The word "natural" refers to lure body materials that come from real critters, birds and animals. At one time it was even possible to buy polar bear hair for jig and fly making and it worked wonderfully, being almost as soft and mobile as marabou and much tougher. Forget about finding any of it legally these days.

There is an excellent substitute if you know a varmint hunter or have access to a commercial fur buyer: coyote fur. Pick the lightest pelts since they allow you to produce jigs that are almost white, plus the stuff dyes easily using nothing more than the commercial stuff found in fabric shops.

To get an idea of why natural fibers are so good for use on non-aggressive 'eyes, try this. In an aquarium, large jar or bowl, or even the bath tub (unoccupied), submerge a jig tied with marabou , bucktail or coyote fur. Try your best to hold the thing still and see what happens. Do the same with a jig and grub combo. Some of the natural fibers will seem to move with a life all their own, and the slightest twitch makes the thing undulate beautifully. For fish that are sluggish and not in the market for an active meal, such subtle movements are often too much to resist.

Admittedly there are some manmade fibers around that will produce a jig that looks, to you and me, as good as one made with hair or marabou, but they still fall short in one area. Manmade fibers are generally not porous; natural ones are. That means that scent additives, important when fishing is tough, cling to the real thing far better than the synthetic stuff.

Like any bait or lure, the real secret of the natural jig's success is in its use. On days when the bite is slow, translate that into the way that you fish. Work the jig as slowly as possible. Use a 1/32-ounce jig, or snip away part of a larger leadhead with a pair of side-cutter pliers for a slower sink rate and barely creep the thing along. By all means use a rod with adequate sensitivity because the fish are not going to slam the jig and hook themselves.

When the fish are holding on contours such as points and other sloping areas, work the jig down the contour with a patient stair-stepping retrieve. Probe even the small breaks with something that resembles a sluggish, possibly dying baitfish will trigger a response even on days when you're fighting the infamous Lockjaw Syndrome.

Excellent quality bucktail jigs are available, but if you want tie your own, tailor your lures to the shape of baitfish found in the water that you are working. Alewives, shiners, river herring and some other fish a long and slim. To mimic threadfin and gizzard shad with a tall profile, give the jig a bulkier body. Hair makes this easy to do.

Although there is no such thing as a genuine do-it-all lure for all seasons, the natural jig arguably comes as close as anything you can find. They've been catching walleye probably longer than any other artificial bait in the world and the fish don't seem in any hurry to pass them up in favor of some fancy, new-fangled offering.

— Your complete source for more Cabela's News, and updated hunting and fishing articles.