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Jig Fishing

You flip under the walkway of the dock with your hand tied brown J-Rod Jig.  You feel a slight tap on the line and you set the hook, the chunky female makes a dash for the dock cable and you lift up over the cable and swing her in the boat.  As you set the 5 pounder in the live well your partner says, “ With that limit, you should be in the money.”

Jigs can very well be the most versatile fishing tool for a tournament angler and weekend anglers alike.  There are so many different types of jig, its hard to know where to start.  Lets take a look at what jigs are, and how to decide which ones to use in different situations.

Flipping Jigs - My number one favorite way to catch bass in tournaments is on a  flipping jig.  Jigs may not get as many bites in some cases, but jig bites are bigger than normal bites, and big fish eat them. 

Flipping Jigs usually have a full body skirt, a weed guard, and a 4/0 or 5/0 hook.  The hook on these jigs are heavier than finesse jigs.  They can be made of Lead or Tungsten weight, and range from 1/4 ounce to 1 1/4 ounce.  Some jigs are lighter or heavier, but these are the most common.  A 1/4 ounce flipping jig is used when you want a slower fall or in water 3 feet or less.  A 1/4 ounce jig can be very useful around cover where bass suspend such as docks or standing timber, or maybe on grass edges.  I go up to a 3/8 ounce and a 5/16 ounce when I am flipping wood or sparse grass in 5 feet of water or less.  I go to a 1/2 ounce when I'm in 5 feet of water or more.  If you want to get into timber, brush piles or grass that is very thick or deep, then go to a heavier weight, experiment until you can penetrate the cover effectively at the depth the fish are at.  For example at Toledo Bend or Lake Fork, a 3/4 ounce Jig works nicely through the grass at depths of 10 feet or more.  Sometimes you may want to go to 1 or 1 1/4 ounce if the hydrilla is very thick, like in the summer at Lake Amistad for example.  Also Natural Lakes with lots of vegetation may require you to use a heavier weight even in shallow water situations.  In timber and brush piles, experiment to find out if the fish are suspended or in the brush tight.  This is useful at Lakes such at Lake Travis, Lake of the Ozarks, or Kentucky Lake.  Anywhere there are man made brush piles there will be bass all year round.  They will migrate back and forth between deep brush and go up shallow to spawn, and fishing a jig through these areas are very effective.

 To fish flipping jigs I like to use a 7 foot heavy rod for most applications.  Always use a 6:3:1 reel.  I have not used the 7:1 reels yet, but these may very useful in shallow water situations.  I will be anxious to see how they do with big jigs, and big bass in grass.  Pitching for me is easiest done with the 7 foot rod, but a 7 foot 6 inch rod is best for most flipping situations and bigger jigs.  Some like to use 8 foot rods for flipping, pick up your buddies rod or try new ones until you find the best one for you.  The line for flipping and pitching can vary just like all types of fishing.  14 to 20lb test mono or fluorocarbon line is used depending on the cover type.  Braided line from 30 to 80lb test can be used, it works very well in  grass and vegetation.  I like to use mono or a line like P-Line in wood, it seems to come through the limbs better.  Line preference varies greatly with different anglers, evaluate your own situation to come up with the best line for the job.

Casting Jigs– Casting jigs can be put in the category with finesse jigs.  Usually made of a round head of a football head, but a casting jig can be what you make of it.  Round headed jigs can be worked in all types of cover, but are especially good in rocks.  Table Rock Lake for example is great place to use round headed jigs.  They work better in clear water because they create a smaller more compact profile than a bigger flipping jig does.  The skirt is cut right above the head to make it more finesse, and you can experiment with how much skirt you should cut off around the head above the collar.  Sometimes I like to cut off the entire top portion of the skirt above the head, and make the skirt look like a crawdad tail above the round head.  One of the most popular round head jig sizes is 5/16 ounce.  But you can experiment with sizes until you find what the bass want.  Remember, Jig fall can be the most important factor in all jig fishing.  When using casting jigs I use a 7 feet medium heavy rod with a high speed reel.  For skipping these jigs around docks I use a 6 1/2 feet medium heavy spinning rod.  I use 8lb test on the spinning rod if I'm in clear water, and 10 if I can get away with it.  On a bait caster I use 12 or 14lb test for most situations.

Another form of casting jig is the Football style head.  Its used in rocks as well and in deep water situations.  Football heads go through standing timber very well also.  On Table Rock Lake in Missouri, a 3/4 ounce football jig is very useful in water 15 to 40 feet deep.  You should lighten up when casting to shallower water.  When casting these big jigs in deep water, a low stretch line is a must for good hook sets.  I like to use a 7 feet heavy rod, and the best line to use is 14 lb Seagar fluorocarbon.  This may be the best line to use on all jig fishing, but it is very expensive, and must be changed out daily in most cases. 

There are a number of trailers you can use made of plastic or pork.  I like to use the Zoom Plastic Chunk Trailers, the Twin tailed Fat Albert Grub, and the Critter Craw.  Sometimes I will even use a tube or a lizard as a trailer.  A baby brush hog will also work, and sometimes the brush hog works for bigger fish, especially in dirty water, and at night.   Keep switching trailers until you find one that the bass want.  Experimenting with the rate of fall by using different trailers can make the difference in catching suspended fish.  Pork trailer that are bigger make the bait fall slower, smaller plastic craws make the bait fall faster.  90 percent of all jigs bites are on the fall, so if you find the right fall rate, and the right trailer, that’s half the battle of jig fishing.

Jig colors should be chosen by water clarity and the type of forage you are representing.  Try to keep is simple.  Black and blue is a great color in all types of water.  They work in clear water, especially in stained water, and muddy water as well.  I experiment with brown/blue as well in clear water.  Green pumpkins are very good in most lakes where the water is clear to stained.  Electric blue can be very effective and seems to work better when there is some cloud cover for some reason.  Brown, brown/purple, and peanut butter and jelly work very well in clear water, and especially at Table Rock Lake.  Sometimes the best way to find what jig color to use is walk the banks or the boat ramp, and find some crawdads.  Matching the hatch can put you very close to the right color the fish want.  Sometimes you may find that the crawdads have a little orange in them on the belly.  Green Pumpkin/Orange might be the color for that day.  In stained to muddy water, Black Neon, black with red flake works very well, this color seems to work great up most river systems in reservoirs.  In clear water lakes in Texas, Watermelon red flake is a great color.  Experiment with watermelons and green pumpkins until you find the best color scheme.  Most of the time, matching the jig trailer to the color of your jig works very well, but I have read some tournament results where they were won on brown jigs with black trailers, or brown jigs with blue trailers, so it pays to try something new once in a while.  If you keep some black and blue jigs, some greens, and some browns, you can fish all over the United States and be successful.  One of my favorites is brown/green with a green pumpkin twin tail trailer, this color seems to work everywhere from the Chesapeake Bay to Lake of the Ozarks, down to Lake Amistad in Texas.  Don’t forget about white, white/grey, to imitated shad in the fall.  Swimming this jig around cover can be very good.

When should you use a jig you might ask?  A jig can be used in a lot of situations.  I tend to use jigs when fish are on in and around cover, and especially when the sun is out, and the fish are holding tight to trees, shade of docks, or buried in the grass.  Jigs can imitate crawfish or baitfish.   A white jig with a single tail grub imitates a shad very well, and can be used anytime bass are keying on shad.  Swimming a white jig in the summer and fall can work great.  Also, in the winter when bass are eating dying shad, a slow falling white jig can be deadly on bigger bass.  Sometimes dead sticking it around cover can be very effective.  You can also use jigs to imitate bluegills in the spring and summer.  Green Gourd and Green pumpkin works well for this, and in some of my custom jigs I make a green gourd/pumpkin mix to imitate bluegills.  This color can work well year round, but works very well when the bass are on beds, or in post spawn when bass are chasing bluegills around their spawning areas.  Bluegills tend to be around docks year round for shade cover, so a green pumpkin jig tends to work well in brush piles during the summer as well.  Using a jig can put bigger fish in the boat for you.  You may not get as many bites as a plastic worm in some cases, but if you stick with the jig, you’ll be rewarded by the end of the day.

There are many different types of presentations for jigs, but most of the time you just make your cast, pitch, or flip, work it off the bottom a few times or shake it, real it in and pitch it again, most of your bites will come on the initial fall.  Watch your line very closely to stop, or take off a different direction.  Set the hook on a jig immediately.  The use of scent on your jig can help for the bass to hold on to a jig longer, but from watching bass in tanks, bass will inhale and exhale a jig before you even know it sometimes, so be on your toes.  Stroking a jig is a technique used on structure fishing where the jig is bounced off the bottom with a couple of fast snaps of the rod from the 10 o'clock position to the 12 o’clock position.  When bass are active this can get there attention and can cause strikes when the bait begins to fall again.  A slower stroking presentation can be used sometimes around structure and brush piles when working down a point or next to a dock, pick the jig off the bottom and let if fall back down, keep a feel for extra weight at anytime that could have been a bass that sucked in your jig, set the hook anytime you feel extra weight or something different.  Sometimes just dragging the jig on the bottom works very well, especially in early spring.  Drag it a foot or so, and let it sit, drag it over a limb, shake it free, and let it sit, once you start to get bites, you can refine your presentation.  Swimming a jig can very effective when bass are suspended.  Cast down a piece of cover or structure, count it down to the depth you think the bass are, and just real it in.  Experiment with faster and slower speeds until you find what they want.  This can be used with Football jigs in points and bluffs as well as flipping docks and wood with a white jig in the fall.  No matter what presentation you use, casting accuracy, quietness, and landing your jig at the right spot with no splash is a must.  Its hard to catch a spooked bass, so keep quite, and make accurate casts. This goes with any bait.

Keep your trolling motor on constant, go past the cover, and come back it you can.  Off/ON, Off/On with your trolling motor will scare more fish than you realize.  Some trolling motors are quieter than others, but keep it slow and constant and you wont spook as many fish.  When fish are shallow, fishing becomes like hunting a lot of the time.  This becomes an art during the spawn.  While flipping jigs to beds, you may want to anchor, then slowly give more anchor line to position your boat, this will let you slip into casting range with out the noise of the trolling motor.  Its worth the time for a big fish.

Jig fishing is an awesome way to catch big fish, and its my favorite when I’m in a tournament.  If I can get fish to bite a jig, I know that my weight is going to put me close to the top.  All successful anglers know how important it is to use jigs at the right time, and it has made pros a lot of money with it for a lot of years.  Some of the most famous pro fishermen are masters of jig fishing, and if you learn to use them, and stick with them, they may make you famous as well.

 

 

 

 

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Date: 05/5/06