Ok this is a mouthful so im going to try my best. There are a few types of jigs. Casting,flipping,football,vibrating jigs and swimming. Since you are new to it, Im going to just talk about casting/flipping vs swimming jigs.
I am an avid jig fisherman but do not take my word for the gospel feel free to experiment on your own. Here goes...
The biggest physical difference in all jigs is head style. The size and shape of the head will allow the jig to navigate through different enviroments. Casting and flipping jigs normally have round heads, rocker style heads or arkie style heads. These jigs excell at pitching or flipping to cover. Arky style heads are ok in heavy but not as good as rocker style heads. Arkie style heads have a flat bottom and are good for skipping the lure under low limbs and under docks. Rocker style heads tend not to get hung as much in brush and wood cover.
The next big difference in jigs is their hooks. Some flipping hooks have much stouter hooks so that you can use a heavier line when fishing around heavy cover or heavy vegetation. Alot of the new swim jigs now are being made with narrow rocker style heads or bullet shaped heads. This is so that the jig may swim more easily through grass,sumerged vegatation, and other obstacles.
As for colors wheather it is a casting,flipping, or swim jig. You want to choose a color or color combination that will mimic the forage on the body of water that you are fish. The basic colors for flipping jigs are normally your greens, browns, and black/blues. I like to select combinations of colors that mimic both crawfish and bream since in my local waters they are very abundant. On my flipping or castic jigs i normally choose a craw trailer or twin grub trailer. On swims jigs you still want to choose a skirt color that will match forage. The color palate opens up for me a little bit on swin jigs. It could be a greenpumkin and orange skirt to mimic bream or fleeing crawfish. Or might choose a white and chartruese shirt to mimic our shad. It just depends on what im trying to imatate. I tend to get a bit more creative on the trailers for swim jigs. You have a variety of choices but just keep in mind that the fish you are tageting will ultimatley decide what they what. You can use a paddle tail swimbait, frog, a craw, or a grub trailer. Remember it doesnt always have to match but it does need to compliment you skirt to accomplish the goal of matching the forage. Alot of guys on here use craw trailers like rage craw for a trailer on swim jigs.
When and where to use either- i like the casting and flipping jigs when i am casting or flipping to specific target or target area. Once you cast to or slightly behind your target you working the flipping jig by hopping, or dragging. Sometimes the fish like a fast presentation, sometimes, ill flip it the target and let it sit there and then shake it for a few seconds before I even move it.
Swim jigs are just what the name implies. Its a jig that you are going to swim back to you. I like to swim it slowly and give it twitches as i go. I alsothe like to yoyo it andand bounce it quickly EXPERIEMNT RETRIEVES ON YOU OWN.
I like to use swim jigs to cover water a little faster than spot casting. Much like you would use a spinner bait in close quaters. They are versitle in that you can make a short pitch to a target area and working it either quickly around the cover and try elicit a strike. And last but not least. Theres nothing wrong with using a casting or flippig jig and swimming it or bouncing it back to you. Theres been a number of times when ive had a 1/2 oz green and orange jig and a craw trailer on for flipping and ended up catch numbers of fish by swimming and bouncing it back.
Good luck. I hoped i helped.
Go to the video section and see the video series on jigs. They did a great job on them.
