Jigs And How To Use Them

[Nick86794]

I am responding to a request from a BR member by the user name, Preston. This is what he said in my last article about Fishin in the Fall.

"I really appreciate articles like these, being so informative for new bass fishermen. Nick86794, in reference to your jig trailer choices, myself just now having bought my first jig, would greatly appreciate any advice as to how you rig/work this type of presentation. Also, maybe the specific jig head types you use with them? Thanks again for such a great read!"

For starters, I am a firm believer in using braided line. I usually stick to 50lb Power-Pro, and if I am fishing in clear water, I will put a 20lb P-Line Fluorocarbon leader that is about 20" long. My rod selection is a 7'2" Shimano Sellus Worm/Jig; my reel is a Lew's Speed Spool Baitcaster with a 6:4.1 gear ratio. Now, a lot of guys prefer a faster ratio such as a 7:1.1 or a 7:4.1- they believe that if you hook a bass say in weeds or under a dock, you need something to rip it outta there. I agree with them but I am more comfortable using a 6:4.1 Ratio, try not to stray below that number. My Shimano rod is a Medium Heavy Power with a Fast Action tip and it gets the job done. Some prefer a Heavy Power rods for jigging, but to me it's a bit over kill unless you fish somewhere with a lot of submerged weeds, structure, or Lilly pads- but that is why I use braid, so I can rip my bait outta there and it won’t get torn up like plastic lines. Also, the reason why I use a leader in clear water is because if you just have your jig tied to braid and the water depth clarity is over 5-7ft and deeper, then it just looks like a crawfish being pulled by some rope. The fluorocarbon leader gives me that edge so the bass don’t see me line; I have experienced this first hand. A couple years back fishing in a tournament for my high school, we were fishing the prespawn in some very clear water., and I was using a jig with braided line and saw this bass just sittin right outside a weedline about 4ft down. I danced my jig as best I could but nothing worked. Finally my fishing coach suggested I tie on a flourocarbon leader, which I did, pitched my jig back out there and the bass hit instantly.

Okay, now to my jig selection. I have a lot of different kinds of jigs, however, I have about 3-4 jig companies that I always have as my Go-To jigs. The first company I use is Booyah. I use 3 different jigs by them, the: Boo Jig; Swim n Jig and Pigskin Jig. One reason why I choose Booyah is because I love the presentation that their jigs provide for me. They stand up easier and their skirts don’t fold down like some do, their skirts stay up and fan out and provide the perfect amount of bulk; I have them in black and blue, white shad, black and red and green pumpkin. Another Jig I use is the Bitsy Bug by Strike King. If the bite is really slow and light, I'll usually like to tie this on and throw it out there. I have one bitsy bug in water melon, and the other in bleeding black/blue. The third company I use strictly for bulk. The Buckeye Mop and Mini Mop Jigs. These jigs in particular have a tremendous amount of bulk to them and are perfect in stained water. I only have one color and that is black and blue because that's all I use in stained water. Another Jig I use is the Jewel Bait Eakins' Flip'n Jig. This Jig is a finesse Jig and I love throwing this out there during the spawn season. Now I only have one color for this jig as well and that's in green pumpkin green flash- some tend to throw on a trailer that is the same color as the jig but for this color I stray a little and use a Sweet Beaver by Reaction Innovation called California 420; it's important that you have the dark side of the jig facing up. I have other companies I use as well but these are the ones that provide me with the most success when it comes to getting those huge lunkers.

Trailer Selection. I only have 3 companies that I use when it comes to trailer selection. My Go-To trailer before any trailer is the Sweet Beaver by Reaction Innovation. They have a great swirl pattern when fished by themselves on a Texas or drop-shot rig, and have outstanding two-tone colors. They are tough and compact and survive multiple hits by bass. They have outward facing ribs that create pressure waves that attract bass like no other. When the water first thaws out, keep the tails together but as the prespwan starts, split the tails apart, just like you would on the appendages on a lizard or brush hog. The Second company is Uncle Josh. They make trailers out of actual pork which gives a great feel, taste and presentation for bass. I use both MAXX Pork and The Original Pork Frog as my trailers. Some say that they are hard to take off your jig since you need to take them off and put them back in their container because they will dry out, but Uncle Josh Provides a little premade hole to put you hook through so you don’t have to go through the hassle of punching it through- being that one side of the body is fleshy and the other is a beveled texture, you want to put the hook through the beveled texture and when you take it off, angle it a little bit, you may have to wiggle it around to get it off, but I've been using them for a while and the more you use it the easier they slide off. The third company I use is Netbait. I absolutely love using their Paca Craw. The paca craw features a small body that has 2 claw "appendages" that are just massive. They add a nice profile to any jig you fish them with. The claws flap when moved and create a ton of vibration and pressure waves. I especially love using them with swim jigs. I've had bass that come up from the gallows of weed lines and just hammer on my swim jigs all because of the trailer I was using.

Now, just because you have all these fancy stuff , all you got to do is cast out your jig and trailer combinations and you'll get a bass right? Not exactly; I have four techniques I use when fishing jigs. Two techniques are obvious just by their names. The swim jig I obviously swim it. Just cast it out, depending on the depth let it sink a little and swim it back. Now don’t just throw it into open water and expect it to get bit. A swim jig is basically a spinnerbait without the blades. You MUST fish it the same as a spinnerbait. This means: throw it back behind a fallen tree and swim it back. Over a weeds, next to a weed line, next to cover, on a shelf, under structure, next to structure. And if you hit say a stump, let it fall just like you would a spinner bait. (Cover- Lilly pads, cattails, matted grass, any type of forage that is right on top of the water); (Structure- any type of stump, dock, rock, pillar, fallen tree, logs etc.) The other is obvious as well, jig. Just hop the jig back to you. I usually alternate sequences by hopping it 3 times, letting it sit for 10-15 seconds then hopping it 2 times and so on. It's pretty easy. The other, I like to use to find out what is on the bottom of the water I'm fishing so I can get a feel of what I am fishing- and it'll get you fish too. It's as simple as jigging. Cast your jig out, let it sink to the bottom, and drag it. Don't reel, bounce, jig, swim, anything; just drag. All you got to do is twist at the hips, turn back, reel up the slack, and repeat. This technique I use a lot from when the water first thaws, till it thaws again; it helps me feel for transition points, if there’s grass, sand, muck, structure etc. This also imitates a crawfish scavenging the bottom for food. Now the last one is a bit trick but you can get the hang of it, I call it wackin' jig. I use this mostly during the prespawn all the way through the spawn and post spawn. Basically I do this so I can get a reaction bite out of the fish. There’s times where I'm fishing a bed and the bass is just staring at my jig but he/she won’t bite; that’s when I just wack it off the bottom. It can’t be too soft to where it won’t have any affect, or too strong to where you pull it out of the water, it has to be just the right amount. Since bass don’t have hands, they have to react with their mouths. I've gotten a lot of fish by them looking at it and then just wackin the jig and their instinct is to grab whatever it is.

Questions or comments leave below (especially on color selection since I ran outta time to type it). Please and thank you!

[Nick86794]

Username I posted this for isn't Preston its gallowaypt. Apologies for the mishap

[gallowaypt]

My name is actually Preston lol. This post is very informative and helpful Nick! It seems that I'm good on my rod,and I have a few jigs (football head 3/8 oz) as well as paca craw and twin tail grub trailers. Went out today and was unsuccessful due to the thicksubmerged vegetation I was fishing. All of my spots have thick weeds, thus my jig always comes back wrapped in weeds. They do have weed guards as well. Booyah and strike king I believe. Is it possible to jig fish successfully with so much submerged vegetation? I can't wait to try out the techniques. Thanks for the help again

[WRB]

Nick,

I read both your articles, well written for your personal experiences fishing Hiil-land and high- land deep structured reservoirs south of the Mason-Dixon line or the heartland of largemouth bass fishing. There is a lot more bass fishing regions that don't have thread fin shad populations and northern strain LMB. Believe it or not there are more weekend non-tournament anglers than tournament anglers. Sometimes we need to remember bass fishing forums target all types of bass anglers and all skill levels.

For me bass jigs come in 2 basic categories; jigs you fish vertical in heavy cover by flipping or pitching and jigs you cast and retrieve horizontally. Your article touched on horizontal jigging in or near cover break lines.

Ideally the horizontal jig has a longer hook with a head design that keeps the hoop point upright for higher percentage hooking percentage. The most common head design being the football head or a modified version with a flat bottom. The problem with almost all commercial casting jigs is the weed guard design.

So just focusing on the basic casting jig; what weight and hook size do you recommend and how do you modify the weed guards? You did an excellent write up on everything else!

Tom

[Nick86794]

Tom, I am talkin from both fishing in tournaments and just weekend fishing. I never meant for me to sound like I'm just talkin to tournament anglers, but also weekend anglers as well. As for football head jigs, I dont use as often, however, I never go below a 1/2 ounce in football heads. The reason why is because I usually fish them during the summer time when bass our deep in 15-40 feet of water. I need the weight to get down to that depth, and also, like KVD when he fishes crankbaits, it helps me find laydowns, weedlines, rocks excetra that are on the bottom. Also, football heads are great for fising rip-rap (rocky shorelines). Look up Mark Zona on youtube, and he gets more indepth on football head jigs, he is the master when it comes to them. I go to him myself when learning about football head jigs. As for regular jigs, I usually stay between 1/4 ounce and a 3/8 ounce jig. Half ounce for me is too heavy and bass arent ass attracted to them as they are in the 3/8 ounce. I usually prefer the Archy head because I can skip my jig under docks, where as if I used a round head I cannot do that. The arch head archs up and is flat on the bottom. It is primarily a finesse jig so the skirt is going to come up towards the head. I've been having a bit trouble lately getting my jigs to skip, but I came across a video by Glenn May here on BR. He suggested to pull the skirt towards the hook of the jig so it skips easier also, he says not to have any of the skirt on the bottom of the jig and to have a flat trailer. The netbait paca craw that I mentioned before works well, so I am going to try that and I encouage you to do as well. Hook size depends on the size of jig you are using. I prefer a 4/0 or 5/0 mustad or gamakatsu hook on anything thats 3/8 ounce. Anything lower than a 3/8 ounce I usually stay with a 3/0 or a 2/0. My bitsy bug jigs by strike king however I believe have a 1/0 hook on them. As for week guards, I normally just leave them alone unless I'm fishing a lot of timber or weeds, then I'll fan out the brush guard a bit so it brushes by everything, in other words, it gives it more area than just a small little stick. I never trim them though. Also, you didnt mention that if you seem to be getting hits but cant set the hook on the bass because they are just biting your trailer, trim your skirt up to the edge of the hook, do not go past the hook, just to the edge. This will prevent any misses. Any other questions please let me know! Thank you!

[Arv]

Good read. Never tried "wacking" a jig before though, might have to try it out sometime.

[Nick86794]

Arv, definitely try it. Like I said it takes some time to get used to it. The frist couple times I tried it, I either did it too soft or did it too hard and spooked the fish, it takes some time learning but after a couple times you'll get a feel for how hard to wack it. I love it when fishing beds during the spawn season in the spring for LMB

[WRB]

Nick,

I have been fishing jigs a very long time, the questions I asked were aimed to help you fill in a few missing details.

Being a west coast bass angler where football head jigs first became popular back in the late 50's, I am aware of the advantages and limitations. Back in '71 I redesigned the football head to improve it's ability ro go through all types of rocky structure and improve strike to hook set ratio's. This jig has never been on the market. I fish for giant bass in a highly competitive high pressured small deep structured lakes in SoCal and have caught hundreds of giant bass on this jig.

Weed guards are necessary only when fishing in cover that may snag the jig, otherwise I don't use a traditional weed guard because of missed strikes. When a LMB bass strikes a jig, it engulfs it into the back of it's mouth, then crunches the jig between it's tongue and roof of the mouth to kill it. This strike happens very quickly and the larger the bass, the faster the jig will be rejected. The only chance you have at setting the hook is to detect the strike. The problems a weed guard creates are hook point protection and leverage to roll the jig so it sits flat inside the basses mouth. When the bass opens it's mouth and the angler pulls the jig out without making any contact, due to the angle of line pull when casting a jig horizontally. This isn't as big a problem when fishing the jig vertically, because the line pull direction will sometimes rotate the jig slightly and the hook point finds mouth tissue.

Hook sizes are also very important; most off the shelf jigs come with hooks sized for the average application and not optimized for specific presentations. The quality of the hook is usually selected for price, few jig are made with premium hooks that can cost .40 each, a Mustad .15 hook are common hook for the cost.

The problem is most casting jigs have a hooks made from heavy wire, this makes it more imore difficult getting a good hook set with 50 to 90 feet of line in the water. Medium forged wire hook that are very strong and penetrates with less line

force are an advantage when casting a jig. I prefer 3/0 hook for 1/8 to 3/16 oz, 4/0 for 1/4 ro 3/8 ps and 5/0 of 7/16 to 3/4 oz, Gamakatsu or Owner.

The Arkie head by design is a short compact jig, good for verticle presentations and cover, not ideally suited for a casting jig.

There is a new jig coming out called *** by Bo James. This jig resolves a lot issues with weed guards and head shape issues. The *** head shape works very good in all types of cover nd rocks. The weed guard is a dual flat plastic design that doesn't cover the hook point and prevents roll over when the bass crunches it.

I would take a serious look at this jig, it should be available now. I do not sell my jig because it is very application specific for my own use. I believe the *** will become a main stay with jig anglers, because it can be used for both casting horizontally and pitching vertically.

Tom

PS; I have no ties to *** or any other jig manufacturer, just passing along the information.

[Nick86794]

Thanks!!! and Im just specifying the jigs that I flip and pitch with. Not casting. and i'll definitely chech it out!!!

[Nick86794]

And Im still getting used to football head jigs. So anything helps at this point! Thank You!

[roadwarrior]

WRB,

I hope I get to meet you sometime in person.

Your insight and experience is mind-boggling!

Great post. I know nothing about a ***, but I will!

[Nick86794]

I agree with roarwarrior, I'd definitely like to meet you someday as well. I love learning from experienced fishermen.

[WRB]

Thank you compliments, they are appreciated.

I tried to send. PM and didn't get beyond the subject bar?

If you want an address for the jig referenced send me a PM, the site my not be online yet.

Tom

[Nick86794]

PM?

[einsteins]

Hi all

Question

How do you use jigs in a Rip-Rap situation?

My favorite hole has the bass hiding in the holes between the Rip Rap. I think Jigs might be great for the fall but I am affraid that I will lose a lot of jigs because they will become wedged in the rocks. Wacky rigged senkos have been killing it through summer but now I think they will like the looks of jigs more.

These bass sit in holes at the shoreline so even swim jigs can hag up when put at the waterline.

Thanks

[WRB]

PM?

Personal message.

[WRB]

PM?

Personal message.

Hi all

Question

How do you use jigs in a Rip-Rap situation?

My favorite hole has the bass hiding in the holes between the Rip Rap. I think Jigs might be great for the fall but I am affraid that I will lose a lot of jigs because they will become wedged in the rocks. Wacky rigged senkos have been killing it through summer but now I think they will like the looks of jigs more.

These bass sit in holes at the shoreline so even swim jigs can hag up when put at the waterline.

Thanks

Rip rap is man made broken rock with a lot of crevices and sharp edges. The key to fishing a jig is use a lighter weight head and keep in moving so it doesn't settle down into the crevices. There some specialty jig heads that work well. A round head or a shaky head in 1/4 oz with a trailer like a beaver should work.

Tom

[Arv]

Rip rap is man made broken rock with a lot of crevices and sharp edges. The key to fishing a jig is use a lighter weight head and keep in moving so it doesn't settle down into the crevices. There some specialty jig heads that work well. A round head or a shaky head in 1/4 oz with a trailer like a beaver should work.

Tom

x2

[Nick86794]

I agree with you! Lighter weight is key, I usually use a football head jig for rip-rap, however, like what WRB said, any jig would work, just make sure you don let it settle down on the rocks. From experience with rip-rap, if there's current, find the chunk pieces that are flat and are on the opposite side of the current, cast behind there and fish it towards you, if you're on shore, cast infront of that flat piece and fish towards that spot because usually bass are waiting behind that flat chunk rock for any food that goes by. Also look for transition spots. Thats what I know from experience.

[Primus]

WRB,

I hope I get to meet you sometime in person.

Your insight and experience is mind-boggling!

Great post. I know nothing about a ***, but I will!

I agree, I've been fishing jigs for a while and there is a lot of good info in this thread. Never thought about fishing football jigs without a weedguard though I thin it out considerably. I might have to try it.

[Nick86794]

If you wanna fish a football head jig without a weedguard, check out the Gene Larew Biffle Hardhead. its a football head that has a free floating hook that allows the bait to move in the current and have more action without hardly or not moving the bait at all. I just started using this and have a bit of learning to do but I am getting the hang of it. Like WRB said, keep it above the rocks and don't let it fall inbetween them, keep tension on the line so you can feel for the surface of the rocks. occationally you can drop it down but dont get snagged. as you do this you'll find it easier to do each time you do it