Fishing With Jigs

[13Cmac]

Hey guys I need a little help, I'm a little new to Bass fishing and just trying to learn more about the sport. I've been reading articles and stuff about the types of jigs and the size of jigs. When is the best time to use them? Also what do you guys think about the weight, whats the best weight to use? Thanks for you help ahead of time!

[13Cmac]

Thanks alot for your feedback guys. What about a rod to go with it, a heavy one of soft? Do you use braided line or the fluorocarbon? And about what size? Sorry for all the questions, this is the last one, promise! Does the shape of the jig head matter?

[00 mod]

You want a jig rod with good backbone to set the large hooks of a jig. I recommend a 7'+ h/f rod for jigs 3/8oz and up. Many people use braid, I prefer flouro, specifically Invisx 15lb.

my personal jig set ups are as follows:

Loomis BCR854glx/Shimano CH200e7

St Croix AVC70hf/Shimano CU200e7

St Croix AVC70mhf/Shimano Core50

[aclark609]

Weight depends on where you are fishing; however, 3/8 - 1/2 oz are pretty good all around weights.

One thing about jigs is . . . you're gonna lose them so I recommend buying your skirts and jig heads seperate from tackle warehouse or fishing skirts. You'll end up spending about half as much as you would buying them already put together.

As for the rod, I like at least a 7 foot heavy action rod. It's important to be able to drive the hook on long casts or any time you would have a lot of line out, and the long heavy action rod helps a lot. Also you don't want your rod to be a broomstick. You want a good bend to keep fish hooked up. As far as rods, Dobyn's is my choice. The Savvy series is a lot cheaper and still has great sensitivity and a perfect bend for fighting fish.

As previously stated. you might go a while without a bite but jig bites are generally bigger bites. Good Luck.

[scrutch]

Although I do use fluoro, my preference is braid for the sensitivity and no-stretch hooksets. In clear water I use a short fluoro leader. I use a Dobyn's DX795 FLIP, Revo STX, 50 # braid for heavier jigs over 1/2 oz.. 1/2 oz. and under I use a Dobyn's DX 743c, Shimano ch50mg, and 15# fluoro.

[WRB]

Hey guys I need a little help, I'm a little new to Bass fishing and just trying to learn more about the sport. I've been reading articles and stuff about the types of jigs and the size of jigs. When is the best time to use them? Also what do you guys think about the weight, whats the best weight to use? Thanks for you help ahead of time!

Select the type, style and weight of jig for the cover or structure you plan to fish.

Lets break this down into 3 basic types of jigs;

1. flipping & pitching jig; heavy cover.

2. casting jig; light cover and structure.

3. swimming jig; mid water column.

Within each of those categories there are several jig styles to choose from, depending on your tackle preference, depth you plan fish and type of cover.

90% of the jig articles and bass anglers think of a jig for #1; fishing heavy cover. The type of jig for flipping & pitching should be a compact Arkie style jig with a weed guard. Your tackle needs to be able to control a hooked bass in heavy cover; heavy action 7 1/2' rod, 65 lb braided line or 25 lb mono/FC line. The weight of the jig needs to be heavy enough to penetrate the cover; 3/8, 1/2 or 3/4 oz with living rubber or silicone skirt, premium 3/0 to 5/0 heavy wire jig hook. Trailers for heavy cover are anything from beaver type creatures, single or double tail grubs and pork or plastic frogs.

Casting jigs; most bass anglers go to a plastic worm when they plan to cast and retrieve a bottom bumping lure around light cover, trees, brush and rocky structure. However a jig is very effective year around for this type of presentation; casting anywhere from 30 to 90 feet or fishing a few feet deep to over 40 feet down. You can fish a casting jig using standard bass tackle used for soft plastic worm fishing. The shaky head is used often with a plastic worm and works OK when casting. The football head jig is a good choice for casting; 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4 oz all work depending on the depth, size of trailer, wind or current conditions where you fish. Agian the hook should be a premium sharp medium wire hook; 3/0 for the 1/4 & 3/8 oz, 4/0 for the 1/2 oz and 5/0 for the 5/8 & 3/4 oz jigs. You may need a weed guard depending on the type of cover you fish. Yamamoto makes a good football jig with a wire weed guard and both Owner & Gamakatsu hooks. I recommend these along with Yamamoto's Hula grub skirts in both single and double tails for casting jigs. Tackle for casting jigs range from med/hvy to heavy fast action 6 1/2 to 7'3" rod, 10 to 20 lb FC line, depending on depth and cover.

Swimming jigs; these are lighter weight jigs like dart heads in 3/32, 1/8 and 3/16 oz used with finesse worm as trailers. Spinning tackle works good and bait casters with 6 to 10 lb FC line. The heaver bullet head style swimming jig is similar to the casting jig, except retreived at variuos depth from just under the surface to several feet down with a single tail grub or a hyper paddletail worm.

Books can be written on each category, the above is a short primer. Please ask questions about the type of jig fishing you are interested in, it's easier to answer more specific questions.

Tom

[msolorio]

ive become a jig fishin fool over the past year. all i wanna do is chunk n drag a football jig if i can, flip or pitch a jig, swim a jig, i love jigs!! check this out, football jigs: drag em with a slow steady pull to the side, drag about a foot so but your retrieve can vary. my favorite and best place to drag a fb jig is rocky points, not huge chunk rock but smaller chunk and pea gravel. keep it simple man, brown jigs and various natural colored trailers kill! 99% of the time im throwin a brown jig with another natural colored trailer and have no problem catchin fish, big fish. yamamoto double tail grubs are just about all i use when draggin a fb jig. if the water is really stained ill go to a black and blue or black and red with matching trailer. ive been throwin a cali 420 colored jig and trailer for a bit now but thats still a pretty natural color. sizes: 1/2, 3/4, and 1 oz with 1/2 bein my most used. flippin/pitchin jigs are an arky or bullet style head with a stout hook in the same sizes with various trailers. as for a jig rod, go with a powell 753. it was specifically desiged by jared lintner and powell to fish football jigs but is also great for every other style of jig and flippin/pitchin. this rod is by far the best jig rod ive ever used, ever. ive used dobyns, loomis, irod, ect and wasnt impressed. this rod is remarkably light for a big rod and the balance is amazing! its suuuper sensitive and powerful. hooked a 7.5 pounder and had no trouble bringin her in. just keep it simple, dont over analyze cus it just makes you go crazy and confuses you. fishing a jig isnt all that complicated so dont complicate it. throwin em and put your spin on fishin em and youll be just fine.

[Mumpy]

@msolorio - Awesome post man, You got me all hyped up about it now! hehe

[msolorio]

thanks mumpy. im tellin you man, i loooove jigs! lol this past weekend i fished a tournament, bass were bustin shad so i was throwin a fluke and killin em! the whole time i kept lookin down at that jig wanting to throw it out there and drag it for some of those bigger bites. i didnt end up throwin it until later in the day and it caught my big fish which helped me to get a 2nd place finish. jigs are amazing all year around. oh yea and as for hooksets with an fb jig. just reel down slack and give it semi fast sweep to the side, hooks em everytime. chances are that fish is goin to pick up that jig, turn around, and start swimmin away with it so you dont need to blast him and risk blowin that jig out of his mouth.

[00 mod]

oh yea and as for hooksets with an fb jig. just reel down slack and give it semi fast sweep to the side, hooks em everytime. chances are that fish is goin to pick up that jig, turn around, and start swimmin away with it so you dont need to blast him and risk blowin that jig out of his mouth.

My hooksets are generaly viscious. Fast and as hard as I can! Don't seem to blow jigs out of their mouth. Feel anything different, reel down and stick em as fast and hard as I can. Just me though.

Jeff

[zip pow]

My hooksets are generaly viscious. Fast and as hard as I can! Don't seem to blow jigs out of their mouth. Feel anything different, reel down and stick em as fast and hard as I can. Just me though.

Jeff

x2 hit'em hard and fast

[roadwarrior]

The hookset is what makes jig fishing so much fun!

I can't recall jerking a jig out of a bass' mouth, either.

[msolorio]

lol i dont always do a sweep set, i do blast the fish sometimes. if im draggin in deep water i usually use the sweep set but still hit em pretty hard. shallow water and those fish are losin their eyes lol

[WRB]

Any bass agressive enough to eat the jig and move off with it should be easy to hook, they will have the jig way back in the back of the mouth. I have been jig fishing for over 5 decades and the vast majority of jig strikes are very light and hard to detect, most bass anglers miss those strikes. I would say over 90% of the time if you wait to feel the bass, you already missed any chance at hook setting. Swings are free; if the jig goes light and you can't feel anything...swing, if the line moves at all....swing.

How you hook set depends on the angle the bass is away from you and the size/diameter/sharpness of the hook, plus the line strength & rod strength. Flipping/pitching with heavy tackle and heavy wire jig with a weed guard, you can make a quick hard rod set. Casting a jig with light wire hook, med/hvy rod and 10 to 20 line; reel quckly to take up more line faster than rod movement , then make a hard firm rod sweep. There no reason to make additional insurance hook sets, all you do is increase the chance of loosing the bass. Keep the rod loaded and the fish under control and you will land over 90% of the bass you hook with a jig.

Tom