Fishing with Jigs????????

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Mark Hofman

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I asked about fishing with spinnerbaits awhile back. I've only caught one bass on a spinnerbait and it was purely by accident.



But this is a question for those of you for whom the big confidence bait is a jig (football head, round head, bullet head, etc.). I'm talking about those 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 oz. monsters with big hooks and a skirt. You put a pork rind trailer or something else on the hook and toss that anchor overboard.



I picked up a bunch of jigs on sale one time, and I've tried using them, but without success.



TEACH ME!!



What types and sizes of rod/reel/line would you recommend? (not necessarily brands, but just the basics)



Presentation techniques?



Structure or environments where jigs tend to work better than other baits?



Trailer options?



Selecting colors based on temp, clarity and surface conditions?



I finally get to go fishing next month and I if I can't learn to use a jig, then I'm gonna get rid of them and use the box for some other types of baits.

 
MoFish, I fish jigs quite often especially when looking for bigger fish. Try starting out with a 1/4 or 3/8 oz. jig and throw it on heavy line (14-20 lb. test). The bite on a jig is much different than a worm. The fish will hit a jig 95% of the time on the fall, so haopping a jig may increase your odds. As far as a trailer I prefer plastic trailers vs. pork. Normally I use Zoom products and try to match the color of the skirt. Often times dying the end of the trailer will generate more strikes in the right situations. Start with the basic jig colors -- black, black and blue and your basic brown colors. Once you get bit by the jig bite you will always have a jig rod in the boat. Good luck.
 
Allright, now you're singin my song. Al was right on the money MO. Remember that with a jig, you have pinpointed a specific type of structure or pattern you wish to fish. Jigs are NOT locator baits like spinnerbaits. Spinnerbaits can cover a lot of water very quickly and tune you into the aggressive fish. Generally speaking (again bass don't read the rule book) the aggressive fish will be the smaller fish. The jig is a BIG fish bait. Whether it be around boat docks, sunken brush, blowdowns, stumpfields, pockets in thick weed beds. The presentation with a jig is precise and deliberate. You are EXPECTING there to be a fish there and EXPECTING a bite. Now for gear, use nothing less than 20 lb. mono vs super line is a personal call. I prefer Berkley fireline in 20lb smoke. It's very sensitive and strong. But when you hang up deep, you can't bust off the line, you need to cut it. For a rod, you want a stought, MH to H action rod that can turn even the biggest bucket mouth's head out of thick cover fast. Keep in mind, when you're fishing a jig, you're fishing in THICK cover and so when you have big fish and thick cover, if you don't have the right gear, they will break you off or wrap you up constantly. You need to horse them out fast. Big line, big, heavy rod. Not literally heavy, but in action. The best rods are sensitive, strong, but also light and well balanced. For a reel, any quality reel with a good drag and serious gears for getting the fish to the boat fast. Now when you pitch, the most important thing to remember is drop the jig in softly! Don't PLOP it. If you do, the fish who's head you just dropped the jig on is history. Subtle first, accurate second. After you perfect a soft presentation, work on your accuracy. You can ask Jamey, he used to get so mad that I would out fish him. I wasn't back boating, he was right next to me. I was just twice as accurate for a while, and the fish would NOT move off the cover for the bait. You needed to drop it within a n inch of the strike zone or don't bother and recast. Once that's perfected, the hardes thing to learn and therefore teach about jig fishing is recognizing the bites. Some are savage and nearly rip the rod out of your hands. Others you won't feel but will see a HUGE flash as the fish rails your bait flaring on it just under the surface and you set by sight. But when you fish deep or muddy water, sometimes the bite will be nothing. You pitch into 8 feet of water, but for some odd reason the jig only falls 4 feet!!!! Lead doesn't float or swim! Set the hook. Other times your line starts to "swim" away, SET THE HOOK, lead doesn't swim. Early on, whenever in doubt, set the hook. Half the time you will hang up....big deal it's a $1.29 jig. The other half, you will pleasantly surprise yourself on a 4+ lb lunker. After a while you will be able to throw into the nastiest cover and work it without getting hung up because you know the difference between fish and bottom or structure. Bob was watching and learning that fast last weekend as I worked an underwater maze of rubber (tires) and wood (pilings). I lost only 1 jig and it was to a pike. Just don't give up. Like Al said, once you add the all mighty jig to your repitoire, you will always have one pole specifically for it, rigged and ready. I always have 3!!!!! LOL Good luck.
 
I have been throwing jigs alot more lately... here are the rules that I follow: (I still have a lot to learn!)



Size:

I allways throw the 3/8 oz "Stan Sloan" models with the wire gaurd. It is what I have gotten used to. However, if you can get a look at what the bass are eating (turn over a rock, look in its mouth) use the right size to match. There are times that a smaller tube (Or Yamamoto IKA), on a grub head, in a similar color will catch more fish.



Rod/Reel:

6'6 MH Gloomis, baitcaster w/ 12# line.



Color:

Match the surrounding colors. Crawfish (which a jig/pig represeents) will try to blend into the surroundings. So, if fishing green vegetation, go with greens, Rocks -> browns, etc... I also allways use a "craw" scent. I have "never" caught anything on the black/blue combo that everyone else talks about.



Trailers:

I use Yamamoto 5" hula grubs or twin tail grub for the trailer. Again, I try to have complimentary colors.



Working it:

If you keep a reasonably tight line, and use your rod tip to move the bait before you reel it, you shuld be able to prevent most hangups, and detect more "pressure". As the other posters indicated, it is a different bite. One of my favorite techniques is to throw it at shallow rocky ledges and drag it into the deeper shadows. Try not to overwork it.

another good technique is to drop it vertically around logs/laydowns.



Takes time to learn, but can be well worth it! The fish pictured below came off of a jig.
21incher.jpg
 
Now when you guys give the jig some movement, are movint your rod tip up and down, or to the side? I use a 7'6" MH and drag it along the bottom, ie movement to the side. So far, I've only caught a few w/ my dragging, do I need to raise the tip to allow a rise and fall?..............sa
 
I go up and down with the rod tip, or drag it torward me to pull it off a ledge into deeper water.



most of the time the bass hit this bait on the fall, so I keep making it fall.



Or, as Miyagi would say "no side-side,up-down, up-down".



And, just as a side note, I have seen bass chase these on the retreive, all the way to the boat. So, don't forget to swim them from time to time if they are not hitting them on the way down. (A white jig with a white trailer can look an awful lot like a big ol shad!)

 
Yes, and remember when you lift it, once you even begin to feel the bait on the line, it has already jumped an inch or two. That's all crawfish move. Not 1-2 foot jumps. Subtle little hops. Usually the strike does occur on the fall, but sometimes you need to hop it a few times. Other times you need to "swim" the jig near the cover. With weight, in the spring I use 3/8 for a slower fall, but in summer and fall, I use a 1/2 oz strike king with a rattle for faster fall and more bulk. Fish are aggressive and looking for bigger baits. I also always use soft plastic trailers now, for no other reason than you don't have to worry about them drying up. You DO however have to worry about short strikes and replacing them every 20 minutes, so it's a trade off. Mo, get a coffee can in your drive way and practice getting in that. You'll be golden in no time!
 
Mofish keep working those spinnerbaits but listen to the advice given. I have forced myself to learn about jig fishing. In murky water I use 1/4 ounce brown and orange to imitate local crawfish. I throw to areas known to have bass and if not hit on the fall I finess it in slow,slow retrieve. Second same jig with a twin taied grub shortened to fit jig. It will still catch bass on the fall and as mentioned above as a swimbait on the retrieve. Good luck...
 
Wow. So much advice in so little time. My head is swimming.



Rob, a coffee can? I use a fly rod quite a bit, and I can place a size 22 dry midge pretty accurately, but casting a 1/2 jig to a target the size of a coffee can? My thumb doesn't work that fast, and if it did I would probably burn it up on that spool as it spins. How in the world do you learn to cast to a target like that?



Does the color/clarity of the water have anything to do with the color of the jig selected? I know color/clarity makes a difference with crankbaits, but what about jigs?



Here's what I've got for a rod/reel that I think would work:



6'-6" ML St. Croix (PC66ML) with a Daiwa Procaster reel. I think the rod is too light at the tip, but would it work until I can get ahold of a stiffer rod?
 
Mo...



Swim the jig! your head in the water is probably spooking the fish!



:)



I think that rod would be too lite, the coffee can is for "flipping", where you are working short distances and need very accurate placement. You usually want to prevent the spool from spinning much, if at all, with this presentation. I am no good with flipping, yet.



if you are pitching the jig, just try to hit the can.



I choose my colors based on the background color of the cover I am fishing, not as much on water clarity. Jigs are "close up" baits, you usually drop them right where a fish "should be", so you usually need more bulk than color, and sometimes rattles help. If you are fishing really stained/muddy water, go darker to contrast. (this may be where black/blue really shine).



 
Hey MO, what exactly DO you catch fish on? If you can't catch'em on spinner baits and jigs, what does work?



Oh, I know....fish are attracted to the pur of that 150 so you just open the livewell and they jump right in...LOL
 
Shoot they don't care for my 150. But all I need to bring is an air conditioner and they'll follow me around. The water temp was pushing 100 last weekend!!
 
i would assume that you would position the boat pretty close to the area you would want to fish and as rob said, SOFTLY let the bait enter the water by flippin or pitchin. that's how i learned to fish soft plastics in the timber this year from 2' to 20' deep. it seems like a quiet entry into the water is a big plus. it takes a little while to learn and you want a good baitcasting reel like a curado that easily lets the line off the reel. it's all in the thumbs. i learned flippin super flukes weightless in the oklahoma wind. i've found for me a 7' or 7' 6" is a good length of rod to use as it seems easier to me. i'm looking forward to this fall using jigs also as they are new to me. i've heard that you can toss em in - let em sit a bit - move em an inch or too - and if that doesn't work, shake the rod tip to move the rattles. i'm hopin to test this out some more.
 
MO, probably not much here that has not been covered, but I will add my two cents anyway. I have rods I fish jigs with on a regular basis, and the first is my "flippin stick". It is a 7 foot heavy action Abu Garcia made of IM6 graphite and is equipped with a Diawa Black Widow 2 casting reel. I spool it with Berkeley Big Game 15 lbs test mono. I tip almost exclusively with soft plastic such as Berkely Powerbaits. The color of the jig/trailer depends on water clarity, water temp, water depth, time of day, time of year, and the natural forage of the water I'm fishing. When the fish are moving slow, I try to use smaller jigs in more natural colors. This combo is pretty old, and you can easily find longer rods and better reels for flippin. However, I have had this rod for around ten years, and it is like an old freind to me. If I ever break it or lose it, I'll cry like baby!. The other rod is a Berkely Torque medium heavy, 6'6" with an identical Diawa Black Widow 2 on it. I spool it with Berkely Big Game 12 lbs test. Both of these rods see action every time I go out. I do alot of flippin because many of the lakes I fish have no structure to speak of, so I must rely on cover to find fish. Both of these combos will occasionally serve double duty as worm rods (worms or soft plastic craws texas rigged with bullet sinkers). Jigs are definately good producers, but as pointed out above they are a targeted bait. I commonyl will keep a worm rod and a jig rod ready to roll while throwing a spinner bait. The spinner bait will locate aggressive fish (hopefully more than one!) Once the spinner stops producing, I switch to a worm or jig and thoroughly work an area and all nearby cover. While other lures do produce fish, there are three things a bass fisherman can't go with out. Jigs, worms and spinner baits (and for the guys that can work them, Zara spooks)
 
Marke:



To answer your question, I fish (and catch) using basically four types of baits: Texas rigged soft plastics (Slider worm hooks, 4" to 7" worms, lizards and crawfish), Chomper split tail skirted grubs on 1/8 or 1/4 oz. Chomper hooks, unweighted stick baits (Sluggos) on worm hooks, and crankbaits of various types. My confidence bait is the Chompers in good weather, or the stick bait when there is a steady light rain.



To the rest, its pretty obvious I need a heavier rod to use with jigs. Oh well, there's always my birthday or Christmas!



Thanks!



 
You can anticipate that the next questions will be about:



1. Carolina-rigging



2. Drop-shotting



 
Hey!!!!!!



I cracked 1200 posts!



I'm gainin' on ya Rob!
 
Mo,



The best way to learn jig/pig fishing is going with someone like Rob and Jamey. Rob will give you more BS for your buck!!! I've fished with both concentrating on jig/pigs and caught fish. As far as learning how to pitch, I stood on a picnic table this summer after I bought my 7 1/2 foot BPS Extreme heavy action rod w/Curado and pitched until I could get pretty close to a tupperware container for a target. Jamey helped me out earlier this year getting my reel set up for my baitcasting experience and it made a big difference in my confidence level. Oh yea, Rob still caught the bigger fish!!



Bob G.
 
Yeah, all that they said.

Favorite colors:

#1 Black & Blue

#2 Blue & Black

#3 Maybe if all else fails try crawdad with a salt craw trailer.

Taught myself to flip by standing on the deck and flippin' into the pool. You can get the no-splashy thing down pat and then try hitting the clorine floater to practice your accuracy.
 
http://www.chuckjustice.com/march2002.html

Check out this site. There are some good tips for tricking out a jig.
 
Sorry, I thought that would link right to the site. How do you do that when you move the arrow over the URL and it changes color. I copy & pasted the one above.
 
MO-

This year was my first for using Jigs...

I always had some "cheap-o" jigs in my box and never caught anything on them...

This last spring I bought an assortment of Terminator jigs.

I'm convinced that the "dangling" weights make more noise that the "internal" weights that most jigs have.

Also, keep those Chompers handy! I use a Chomper skirted grub as my "pig" 95% of the time...

This combination got myself and my son 3 "big bass" honors and won 4 tournaments...

As Rob said, the actual 'bites' can be bizarre to say the least...sometimes they really nail it, and sometimes it just feels 'different'...keeping in contact with your jig is the most important thing you need to do when fishing a jig IMO...and yes, I've ALWAYS got a jig rigged up now!



az
 
Mo, once you get good hitting the coffee can, I'll show you how to lay that puppy right into a dip can. I don't dip, but Jamey does. And we can put the jig into an empty dip can probably 3 out of 5 times from 25+ feet. The other 2 times, it lands right outside it! I think the BS, Bob is referring to is friendly razzing! Don't let his mild demeanor fool you. You get him in a boat and he doesn't hold back either.
 
So flippin' a jig is where you pull line off the spool with your free hand and sort of dangle the jig from extra line at the end of the rod. I picture the guy swinging the bait back and forth to get momentum and then dropping the rod tip to place the bait. Then, as the jig hits the water, he releases the line held in his free hand.



And pitchin' a jig is like a side-arm, nearly underhand cast? I generally use a two handed, over-my-head, fling-it-as-hard-as-I-can cast with a casting rod.



I very much get the idea of swimming or hopping or dropping the bait on a free-fall. Andy, thanks for the idea about using the Chomper as a trailer.



I guess my problem in the past has been a.) too light a rod to really feel what's happening with the jig, and b.) casting, bait-placement technique. I'll see what I can do.



Rob, if I ever get my sorry behind up to your area, I'll book a day's worth of guided fishing with you. That way you'll HAVE to take me out and put up with me as I learn.
 
No worry MO. Just let me know when. But you'll be riding in glass with sparkles!!!!
 
MO,

Get up here to Michigan and I'll teach you the fine art of pitching...like Rob, accuracy is my specialty. I can hit a coffe-cup at 25 feet 90% of the time, and a coffee can from 50ft the same. My record is 19 in a row in the coffee can from that distance.
 
MO -



I assume you're thinking "jigs" for Mark Twain.....



Although Greg and I didn't use any when we were there a few weeks ago, I do plan on trying them next time I go. (I didn't make it last weekend - stuck to Carlyle and Rend.)



I also bought some of the Ledgebuster spinnerbaits to use. There are severe drop-offs at MT and I figured that the extra weight of the Ledgebusters might allow me to more easily swim a spinnerbait up or down the contours.



You will DEFINATELY need a heavier rod for jigs up there..... If you'd like, I've got a 7'7" MH Quantum Lite I can get to you if you want to try a heavier rod. It ain't the newest or purtiest - but it'll git the job done! Cell is 314-540-2909.



me!
 
Ken:



More than likely, I'm going to have to be in Birmingham, Michigan on the first weekend in December. If that's the case, I'll build in some time to come by the store. You can take me out in the parking lot and show me your technique.



Scott: I may just take you up on the offer, but my father-in-law and brother-in-law would shoot me if I didn't ask them to borrow one of their rods first. I think Ross has a medium-heavy rod he's been using with big Carolina rigs. If that isn't available, I'll give you a call.



To the rest of you, Scott is talking about my plan to go fishing the last weekend in October. Air temps can range from the 70's to the 50's, with water dropping down to the 50-60 degree range. Is it too late in the year to be thinking jigs?
 
Nope, perfect! Fish will be on a fall feeding binge!
 

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