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Although my opinions don't necessarily represent those of other (far better) jig fisherman on this site, I thought a post like this would be beneficial to many. The information I'm presenting is not the only way to get started into jig fishing, but it is a way that has been working for me since I started fishing jigs. Step One: Equipment In order to start fishing jigs, you need some jigs (duh!), trailers, and something to throw them on. Jigs and Trailers: The Jigs: I'm a big advocate of simplicity in jig fishing, and so I'm starting you off with some basic, proven jigs. I'd recommend a 3/8 oz. casting jig (you might also hear it as an arky head). You're looking for a streamlined head that will go through cover easily. 3/8s of an ounce is a great weight to start out with. Later on you may want to try heavier or lighter jigs, but the 3/8s is a great size to start with. This jig is very, very versatile and can be hopped, dragged, swum, and fished in all types of cover. The Colors: Again, I'm keeping it simple here. I'd recommend two colors of jigs: one of them being Black & Blue and the other being Green Pumpkin. While there are many, many other colors out there that work and perhaps look cooler, these ones will get the the job done for you. Many experienced jig fisherman primarily use these two colors, and they're a great way to go whether you're starting out or have been fishing jigs for a long time. Note: When I say, "Green Pumpkin," I'm' referring to jigs are primarily green pumpkin, regardless of other colors mixed in, such as purple, red, black, or blue. Fish the Green Pumpkin jig in clear to semi-stained water, and fish the Black & Blue Jig in stained, dirty, or muddy water. The Trailers: I'd recommend the same colors for trailers as I did jigs. The trailer I use 99% of the time on my jigs is a Strike King Rage Chunk. There are many other trailers out there, but the one I'd recommend is a Strike King Rage Chunk (or craw). If you're on a budget, I would recommend picking up some NetBait Paca Chunks, which work pretty well. Otherwise, do yourself a favour and buy some Rage Craw Chunks. The Combo: Rod: I'd recommend a Medium-Heavy baitcasting rod. Some people prefer a Heavy action, but I like a Medium Heavy. There are many choices of rod companies out there, so find one that you like. Just make sure you get the best one you can afford. Jigs can be fished on any rod, but they're easier to fish on a sensitive one. Reel: Again, many options are out there regarding reels. Couple things to keep in mind: Make sure you get one that has a decent gear ratio (I like a 6:4:1 or higher). And while I believe that the rod is much more important, it's also wise to get a nice reel for your jig combo. Line: I really believe in throwing my jigs on braid with a leader, but I seem to be in the minority on this, as many jig fisherman like fluorocarbon. I'd recommend 30 lb. braid or 15-17 pound fluorocarbon. The reason I like braid is that it allows me to get a good hookset on a long cast, but fluorocarbon also does a good job. Step Two: Research I cannot recommend highly enough that you do some reading on BassResource, particularly the first thread I linked to: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/12403-jig-fishing-questions/ http://www.bassresource.com/fish/jigs.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/how-to-fish-jigs.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/jig-fishing-specifics.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass_fishing_jigs.html Step Three: Go Fishing Many people will recommend that you go out and throw nothing but jigs until you start seeing some rewards, but this can also be very frustrating. While jigs are some of the most versatile baits on the market, the bass don't always want them. My recommendation is to gain confidence in fishing soft plastics and especially texas rigs first, and then to go out and throw jigs in places where you know there are bass. I hope this helps you get started in jig fishing. Other people on here will have far better advice than I do, so make sure you read the comments and see what they have to say when they chime in. Good luck! P.S. If you're looking for some jigs to start with, I highly recommend checking out Siebert Outdoors. Mike Siebert has sponsored these forums for a long time and makes some quality jigs.

What i need to do is stop looking at trucks when I get the oil changed.

What are you missing out on?? Big Bass! 1. I may lose a jig but I aint never worn one out 2. I can change my jig color by chinging the trailer 3. A larger slip does in fact effect the rate of fall; how much seperation do you believe there is between the lure & weight? 4. It's called rattles! I keep both tied on 24/7/365

PRETTY STOKED to say that I received shipping confirmation on a new Megabass Orochi F6.5-70XX First megabass rod so i'm very excited, and i got a great deal on it to soften the blow!

We would like to wish everyone on these forums a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous Holiday season. May all our New Years be prosperous and filled with memorable experiences. May we have the strength and fortitude to deal with any personal adversities. May we be mindful of those that need support. As an added wish; may we all get a new PB. " Kit " & " Stitch "

Gentlemen, thanks for all your well wishes. I made my decision to step down as a Moderator reluctantly, but I couldn't, in good conscience, continue. My wife is recovering from a near-fatal brain hemorrhage, and the road back will be a very long one. My attention is now focused on her, and not on helping out on these forums. I thank Glenn for giving me the opportunity to contribute and wish Gary all the best. I know that he will be a real asset to the members.

I'm squatting over your post now.

The collection grows. Even got a hold of a white whale bottle...

I have done a lot of reading on the internet on how light behaves underwater , its been quite surprising . Remember a lure can only reflect its color if that wave length reaches it . Visible light has different wave lengths . Red and orange the longest , yellow and green in the middle , purple and blue the shortest . In perfect conditions with "clear " water one would think that the red and oranges with the longer wave lengths would penetrate the deepest but they dont . The reason being is they are the warmest light and the water quickly robs them of their energy , so those wave lengths disappear first ., followed by yellow /green and last blue/ purple . Blue is the coolest visible light and will reach the deepest . In fresh water bass fishing we encounter stained water most of the time and light behaves differently ,depending on how much suspended particles are in the water . In stained water blue / purple might be the first to go because their short wave lengths do not penetrate through the suspended particles as well . Red/ orange might penetrate slightly deeper but their warmer colors are quickly robbed of energy and the middle wave lengths of green and yellow penetrate the deepest . So most of the stained water we encounter the middle wave lengths of yellow/green are the last to disappear . Some fish can see UV light . UV has shorter wave lengths and is cooler than blue . UV light penetrates the deepest in gin clear water but is the first to be filtered out in stained water . Fluorescent fishing lines take advantage of this . The important point here is "it is not what bass can see but what is available too see ."

Nope, it's an open invitation. We were all new here once.

I could get scientific and say it takes heat away from the infraray wave lengths but someone would just come along and crap all over it .

Catt, other than swimbaits most of today's bass rigging started in Texas or Arkansas the heartland of bass fishing! It's a tight community as you know, news travels fast even back in the dark ages. Mery Christmas all. Tom

For some anglers its how they can get a bullet weight through cover easier than a jig, a problem I don't have with jigs. For me it's changing the profile of a t-rig, the added action of a skirt, & eliminates buying a skirt bead. Like with a jig I use skirts with round strands, flat strands, fine cut strands, or wide cut strands. I can't really explain its fish attracting abilities but what I do know is I've fished behind guys throwing t-rig & jigs and caught fish they missed. Is it the bait? I don't know but it works which is all I care about! WRB, it alway amazed me how someone on the west coast gets an idea while someone on the east coast has the same idea & someone on the third coast does the same! For me it confirms, yea that'll work! And yes you can get them in tungsten in weights from 1/4-1 1/2 oz

Spinnerbait with a big colorado blade or a bladed jig fished as slowly as you can keep the blade working or drag a bulky, dark colored jig. It's probably going to be slow fishing but expect them to be tight to cover so it might take several cast to the same spot to get a bite.

Any plastic that can be fished on a T rig can be used as a trailer on a jig. Jigs give a bulkier profile and are more active when at rest. Different head styles come through different kinds of cover better, often better than a plain bullet weight will (football head through rocks). I pour and tie my own so it's actually often cheaper to lose a jig than a T rig since I don't pay for lead and buy my supplies in bulk, a jig cost less than a dollar to make. Since I tie my own, my color options are virtually limitless. They both have their time and place. Ignoring one or the other is leaving yourself seriously handicapped.

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ One of the best aspects of virtually any type of fishing is that an angler can do it any way he or she chooses. Both Jigs & Texas Rigged baits have take some very respectable bass for me as well as accounting for many a memorable days. If the fish show even the slightest interest (and sometimes even when they don't) I'll fish them EVERY CHANCE I Get And at times, I'll even fish them both at the same time You results may vary. A-Jay

Gives new perspective to the phrase "I need this like I need another hole in my head"

It is a Shimano. What is there to think about. Just buy it. EDIT: A little more information on the reel. http://forums.tackletour.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=55685&sid=0f65af00ff4aacf3d2586f4466527c40

This again...

Christmas definitely came early. I was thinking about a Metanium to pair it with but I'm not a 100% sure.

Okay, this seems like something some guys might try, but for me this is much easier: http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/

I was doing my usual routine on a local pond with hair jigs ,LC`s and the likes for about an hour with the usual results of pickerel and yellow perch. So I went shopping in the jerk box and put on a virgin Diawa prism bait. Big mistake leaving it "on the bench" since it was new. Within the the next hour& half I bagged 5 lmb that would go about 22 pounds. Two honest 5`s were landed along with two pickerel about 24" liked the looks of it too. There was a strong SW wind,heavy cloud overcast with clear water temps @ 46 deg.. Apparently it all came together between noon & one . Iv`e seen it happen there before but not with such good weight. Of course now the Bait Monkey had a choke hold on me so I went home and placed a $50. order. Wow ,what a day! C22

I've been making my own jigs for 20 years. I buy egg sinkers in the weight I like. Put in a vise and cut half way open width-wise with a hack saw. Open up with a flat head screwdriver. I insert an Owner worm hook into the sinker. (You can insert your favorite hook on every jig this way.) Add a drop of super glue and tighten the vise on the sinker/hook combo. Done. Paint if you like. No melting lead or molds. Great for football head uses.

This past Friday I fished a small New Hampshire lake. We had got an inch and a half of heavy rain as a front was moving through the area. The forecast was for a high of 55, calm, and cloudy. A cold front was predicted to move through in the afternoon clearing out the clouds. After several windy days in the mid 40s it sounded like the perfect day to fish in mid/late November. I arrived at the lake at 10:45. It had just stopped raining a couple hours before I arrived. I had one spot in mind that has been producing a number of 3-4 lb smallies with a couple largemouth mixed in. The plan was to fish in 15-35 feet fishing a blade bait around schools of smelt. I launched my boat with the surface temperature reading 46 degrees. Motoring over to the one spot I wanted to fish I retied my line on the 5 set ups I had brought with me. I knew the blade bait was going to be the best bet but I also had a drop shot, a deep diving crankbait, a jig and jerkbait tied on. The particular spot I fished is a hump tha comes from 40 ft to 3 ft that is composed of rock, gravel, ledge, hardened clay and boulders. With in the first few minutes I had caught my first fish a 3-12 smallie. With the skunk out of the boat and practically no wind I made cast after cast after cast to specific spots on the hump I had marked with my gps. The fishing was great. I was catching a fish about every 15 minutes. I couldn't have asked for a better bite. I was catching by casting out a blade bait and slowly hopping it on bottom back to the boat. I had noticed several arches under my boat using my down imager. I watched as my bait went towards bottom as the arch came up and slammed it. It turned out to be a decent largemouth at 4-2. I hadn't really had much experience using my down imager to catch fish while being directly over them. Every time for the rest of the day when I saw an arch I would immediately reel in and try on drop my lure right on the fishes head. It seemed I would catch that fish half of the time. The bite was consistent and pretty good most of the day. Around 2 pm a front moved through pushed the clouds out and the air temp dropped about 10 degrees. Not to be discouraged it was time to add another layer, dress for ice fishing. After the front moved through the fishing slowed considerably. In the last hour I did mange to catch two fish a 3-6 and a 3-12 smallie. I fished from 11 am until 3 pm catching 3 largemouth and 12 smallies all on a blade bait. Two of the largemouth were over 3 lbs, the biggest being 4-2. Of the 12 smallies I caught 9 were over 3 lbs and the 3 fish that weren't were all 2-12 or over. Lunker smallie for the day was a tie with two weighing 3-12. Biggest 5 fish for the day weighed 18 lbs 14 oz. I cant ask for much more then that for November 20th. Some great fall fishing. I am going to try and get out there atleast one more time before the end. Plenty of fish still willing to bite. Got to be out there to get them !

LOL, isn't that the truth. It seems like a one way street when it comes to bass. It's always, where are they at? what are they doing? and what do they want? It's like having a wife, they expect you to be a mind reader.

A chocolate fountain? ??

You lost me at the hack saw.....

Wouldn't one say that it "traps heat" rather than necessarily "heating up faster?"

First of many.....

Spinnerbait big colarado blade, match the water color, think of like this muddy water heats up faster that clean water. A key in winter time fishing,

If a Secchi disk were all that was used for measuring light transmission in marine environments, the "human eyes versus bass eyes" argument would be correct. However, there are other methods for measuring light penetration, water turbidity, and the scattering of light. Photometers detect photons of light, and not what any animal can see. Nephelometry is used to determine turbidity and the scattering of light. I won't create an exhaustive list of tools for light measurement as I don't have the time to research it thoroughly, but the point is, objective penetration measurements of each wavelength can be achieved. Now how that applies to what a bass sees can still be debated, but it is food for thought in my book.

Also back in the 70's Bill Habbock made a skirted bullet weight with vynl skirt on a collared bullet weight he called a Bum that was used for a T- rig with Super Float worms and split the worm about 4" into 2 tails. Tinkering around with bass lures is lots of fun and sometimes you stumble onto a " secret lure" of your own. I remember my first T-rig, the Texas rig had have a red painted bullet weight to catch bass! Tom

I'll bet if you look in one of his ears you can see daylight on the other side.

papajoe, I fish a Texas Rigged Jig which is siimilar to A-Jay rig but it consist of just a weight & skirt. I have them from 1/4-1 1/2 oz

I totally understand where your coming from. but here us why I consider myself a "jig fisherman". First off, you can make your own jigs EXACTLY how you want them way cheaper/easier than pouring your own plastics. Lure parts online has a great selection and if you do it right, a jig may come out costing you somewhere around a buck. Now, every lure has its time and place, like soft plastics, a jig can be fished 24/7/365 and can be totally altered by the simple swap of a trailer. Its something you have to have confidence in, because everything I have said stands true to a t-rig soft plastic, but my top 10 biggest fish have come from a jig. Without picking up a different rod, a jig can be dragged, dead sticked, hopped, stroked, swam, swam and killed, it goes on... watch some jig videos on youtube and try it out. I make my own jigs, and it is one of my favorite past times.. Hopefully you gain some confidence in a jig, and catch some quality fish on it. tight lines

It's just a pigmentation thing. I see those a lot during the winter months on the fish around here and rarely see it during the warmer months.

No problem. I highly suggest going to the Wolf Creek ramp and watching the launch and take off. I enjoyed that more than I did the weigh ins because you are right there and most of the pros will interact with everyone and you can watch them getting ready for the day. Some of them even gave baits and gear away to fans, it was really cool. Dean Rojas jumped out and hunted out any kids in the crowd to give some of his Spro frogs too, which I thought was really cool of him.

Probably any time he gets in a stiff breeze ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8ZnG19rV4 A-Jay

Mike, Your wife is in my prayers. My mom had an aneurism back in '84. We were most fortunate, as she made a complete recovery. If I can help in any way feel free to contact me via pm.

I'm on a mission to see how late into winter bass will hit various swimbaits that I'm throwing. Today I hit up a few ponds with a water temp of 46. After a few casts near the bank a big bass inhaled the 4'' swimbait. She was over 5lbs and very chunky. Action slowed so I stopped at another pond throwing the same swimbait and caught over a dozen within a half hour. I'm glad we have a warmer than usual December here.

There has been a lot of testing done to determine what fish are capable of seeing. To do this as you suggested they studied the anatomy of the fishes eye. They are able to look at the rods and cones and how they react to light. They also were able to isolate the chemicals in eyes that allow them to determine what a fish can see. " Several key types of light-reactive chemicals have been isolated in the eyes of different animals and fish. Some chemicals react to small amounts of light and recharge slowly. These types of chemicals are important for night vision. Other chemicals are sensitive to certain types of light, requiring larger amounts of light, and recharges quickly. These chemicals are important for color vision. Some chemicals allow the animal to see red objects, while others react to blues, greens, or yellows. Without getting overly technical, the types of chemicals found in an animal's eyes give scientist a good idea of what the animal can see. If the majority of chemicals in an animal's eye are of a type that reacts to blue light, then it can be assumed that the animal is able to see objects that are blue. If the majority of chemicals in a n animal's eyes are reactive to red light, then that animal probably is best able to see objects that are red." If anyone would like the reference for the quoted material please PM me and I will be happy to share the information. There has been a lot of testing done, most scientist agree that Bass have a very acute sense of color vision. Many scientist believe that bass may be able to even see into the UV spectrum of color, this would explain some of the newer baits. Just wanted to share a piece of information that I found while studying this very interesting subject.

Hey not so fast I'll even pay shipping if you send them to me instead of the cliff. And you better get packing because you know you'll see another one

As you can tell by replies " swimbaits" means something different to various bass anglers. anything that swims when retrieved has become a swimbait from 3" A-rig soft plastic swimmers to 16" line through jointed soft plastic swimbaits. To me a swimbait should be a replica of a fish and swim like a fish. Bluegill, crappie, swimbaits 4" to 6", HuddGil and Mattlures Ultimate. Trout swimbaits 6" to 10", Huddleston Delux 6", 68, 8" in ROF 5, 12, 16 Weedless swimbaits, Basstrix 5" to 7" hollow body paddle tails, Little Crippers Trash fish 4" to 6" and 316, 7" & 10" Mission Fish, in Shad, baby bass and trout. That covers the majority of my soft swimbaits. Tom

If I see another Lew's vs Shimano thread I will quit fishing and throw all of my gear off a cliff. IBTL

Check out these new shallow cranks from 6th Sense. From what I can tell, they aren't available in stores yet.

I couldn't help it, so I opened my gift from Snakehead Whisperer Lots of goodies here, Rage Craws, Rage Menace, Don Iovino Cow Tounge, War Eagle Spinner Baits, Neko Weights, and some Mend It! Thanks a ton!

Vertical (sideways), is how I rig a Pitboss or Menace on my bladed jigs 100% of the time. It's very effective.

lews better than shimano

Dobyns 735-any series

$7 and you won't need to replace the hooks or hardware makes them very affordable in my book.