There’s really 2 jig patterns I use in the late Fall, and Mop Jigs are one.
Everything revolves around one thing - finding the remaining green weeds (coontail) in or adjacent to deeper water. Maybe 8-15 fow.
If there is taller, thicker weeds I fish more vertically and pitch a relatively light 3/8 oz Mop Jig with the big floppy Megadaddy trailer. It’s a slower descent down onto the weeds, bouncing off cover and eventually working it’s way towards the bottom. The big skirt really flares doing this. As it starts to slow, I pop it a few times and make sure it’s not hung up, and lift and drop it back towards the boat.
As the weeds die out or are more sparse, I switch to a different jig pattern and fish more horizontally. I cast a 3/4 oz All-Terrain Grassmaster jig with a Pit Boss trailer. A jig is pretty much a jig, but I find this one to maneuver thru the grass as well or better than any jig I’ve used (reviews on TW are solid too). Cast out medium/long distance, let it settle down just long enough to hit the tops of the weeds and retrieve horizontally, slow as possible without getting hung up, with a few lift/drops or pops along the way. Pit Boss still flaps very well when retrieved really slowly.
I prefer a jig when the water temps get below 50 degrees. You can work it slower than squarebills and spinnerbaits and get down in the remaining junk in front of slower moving fish that save their energy for something larger they can easily reach without too much effort.
No matter what... it’s worth driving around to find the remaining green weeds in/adjacent to deep water. That’s probably 10% or less of the water now.
I think the old saying is if you want to catch ‘em big, you gotta use a jig...
Might be true, but with a large Mop Jig or similar I rarely catch anything smaller than 15-16 inches. Probably catch less fish overall, but fine with me if I eliminate the dinks and get a few extra 18-21+ inch fish mixed in.
