The late Charlie Nuckols owned a tackle shop and lure company in east Tennessee, near South Holston Lake. Winter crappie anglers who fished small marabou jigs deep under bobbers complained to him about big smallmouth breaking off their rigs all of the time.

This got Nuckols thinking. He, along with his brother Eddie, began experimenting with suspending small jigs, eventually settling on those tied with craft hair or duck feathers. They fished these jigs 8-to12-feet deep, suspended under bobbers cast on long, soft spinning rods along bluffs and deep points on South Holston Lake. They began to regularly catch smallmouth bass over four pounds on this new system. Word began to spread to other smallmouth lakes in the region, notably Dale Hollow Lake.