Using jigs in lakes with no crayfish

[The Bassinator]

I know that jigs are an awesome lure and can be swum back to the boat to imitate a fleeing baitfish but will they work in lakes with no crayfish?

[Dan:]

there are lakes that don't have crayfish?

[Raul]

I know that jigs are an awesome lure and can be swum back to the boat to imitate a fleeing baitfish but will they work in lakes with no crayfish?

Yes they work, screw the "match the hatch" school of thought.

Bass will hit any lure as long as you fish it in the right location with the right presentation no matter if it doesn 't imitate something a bass might find to eat where it lives.

[The Bassinator]

Ive tried to fish a jig a few times on my local lake but havent gotten any bites I guess I just gotta fish it some more.  Thanks for the info though!

[roadwarrior]

A jig & trailer might look like a crawdad to a

bass, just like it resembles one to us. On the

other-hand, maybe it's a potential meal that

looks like "just another bug" to a fish.

p.s. Crawfish are distributed throughout

most of the world. Chances are pretty good

that they inhabit your waters whether you

have seen them or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayfish

8-)

[tyrius.]

Bass are not known for being picky eaters.  If it moves or if they've seen it move they'll eat it.

A jig really looks nothing like a crayfish in the water just like a crankbait doesn't really resemble a baitfish.  Bass eat them because they are aggressive feeders that can pretty much be coaxed into eating anything.

If you don't believe me, then ask the people who fish a c-rig a lot and have experienced fish biting the weight.  That weight looks like a rock, but fish will strike it.

[Catt]

I don't see any spinner baits swimming around in my waters but bass love em anyway

[The Bassinator]

Thanks everyone I guess I was just wondering whether the absence of an abundance of crayfish would limit the effectiveness of a jig but I guess it doesnt and I have seen bass bustin spinnerbaits schooled up on the bank before ;D

[TruiteBR]

There are no crayfish where I fish and gladly bass hit jigs anyway.   

[RoLo]

Bass sieze whatever looks edible...period. They don't have the time or the ability to think.

It wouldn't surprise me one iota if no bass ever mistook a jig & plastic craw for a crayfish.

In any case as Roadwarrior indicated, the odds are sky high that crayfish reside in your lake.

Bill Dance was once asked, "What does a spinnerbait imitate?",

Bill shrugged and said, "I dunno, maybe a Toy Airboat"

Roger

[K_Mac]

A fox may live its entire life without ever seeing a chicken. Let him find his way into a chicken house and he will have some chicken. Bass are the same. If it fits the "food" profile they are having some.

[David P]

Jigs can imitate bluegill and other fish, not just crawdads. There also may be crawdads and you just don't know.

[Hammer 4]

I don't see any spinner baits swimming around in my waters but bass love em anyway

LOL..Catt, you owe me a new keyboard..just spit 7 up all over it.. ;D  Hey, I thought it was pretty funny..

[Captain Chaos II]

Just a tip .. throw it by laydown wood and let it sink to the bottom and twitch it a few times.  Repeat.  It is a good cover bait and really good for this technique, this time o year.

[The Bassinator]

Ive been tryin to throw jigs this year but the fish werent bitin when I did and I dont have my baitcaster up here at school  :'(

[Raul]

Ive been tryin to throw jigs this year but the fish werent bitin when I did and I dont have my baitcaster up here at school :'(

Let 's point out some points, starting from the end.

1.- You don 't "need" a baitcaster to fish jigs

2.- How come you came to the conclusion the fish are "not biting" ? in my experience the fish are always biting but not what you are offering them, that brings us to the point we have always discussed here, most anglers are bait/lure oriented and not location/presentation oriented, if they were location/presentation oriented instead of being bait/lure oriented they would be more succesful. When we talk location what imediately comes to mind is where, yup but that 's only one part of the location, where and at what depth. You can be at the right place but at the wrong depth so just being at the right place doesn 't guarantee good results. Also, you say they weren 't biting, are you shure about that ? let 's assume you are at the right place, fishing your jig at the right place, let 's go further, lestá ssume also that you are fishing with the right presentation, all the elements are there for a good bite except for one ----> practice, and I don 't mean you going out there casting jigs like mad all day long, seven days a week all year long, I mean your practice in detecting the bite. Jigs can be very frustrating and it takes months of practice in learning how the bite feels while fishing them.

So it 's easy to blame the lure for not having the results we expect .... when we should be blaming ourselves for not knowing how to fish them properly, the first things we say is either the lure doesn 't work or the fish weren 't biting.

[RoLo]

Ive been tryin to throw jigs this year but the fish werent bitin when I did and I dont have my baitcaster up here at school :'(

Let 's point out some points, starting from the end.

1.- You don 't "need" a baitcaster to fish jigs

2.- How come you came to the conclusion the fish are "not biting" ? in my experience the fish are always biting but not what you are offering them, that brings us to the point we have always discussed here, most anglers are bait/lure oriented and not location/presentation oriented, if they were location/presentation oriented instead of being bait/lure oriented they would be more succesful. When we talk location what imediately comes to mind is where, yup but that 's only one part of the location, where and at what depth. You can be at the right place but at the wrong depth so just being at the right place doesn 't guarantee good results. Also, you say they weren 't biting, are you shure about that ? let 's assume you are at the right place, fishing your jig at the right place, let 's go further, lestá ssume also that you are fishing with the right presentation, all the elements are there for a good bite except for one ----> practice, and I don 't mean you going out there casting jigs like mad all day long, seven days a week all year long, I mean your practice in detecting the bite. Jigs can be very frustrating and it takes months of practice in learning how the bite feels while fishing them.

So it 's easy to blame the lure for not having the results we expect .... when we should be blaming ourselves for not knowing how to fish them properly, the first things we say is either the lure doesn 't work or the fish weren 't biting.

Very good advice.

I'd like to add just one little thing, because I believe it's important and is frequently overlooked.

It falls under the broad heading of "Presentation" and I'm talking about LURE SPEED.

You may be at the right location, fishing the right depth with the right lure with the right action.

But if you're not retrieving at the optimal speed, you may end up with very little or nothing.

For example, when the only two bites you get take place while ripping the lure back to the boat, that speaks volumes.

Roger

[Raul]

I'd like to add just one little thing, because I believe it's important and is frequently overlooked.

It falls under the broad heading of "Presentation" and I'm talking about LURE SPEED.

You may be at the right location, fishing the right depth with the right lure with the right action.

But if you're not retrieving at the optimal speed, you may end up with very little or nothing.

For example, when the only two bites you get take place while ripping the lure back to the boat, that speaks volumes.

Roger

Exactly, we can go further into the point Roger is making, speed not only means the speed at which you are retrieving the bait it also means the speed at which the bait sinks ( rate of fall ), in jig fishing not only the jig weight counts but also the type, size and form of the trailer counts, those three lements change the rate of fall of a jig, bigger, fatter, more appendages, curved appendages increase the water resistance thus reducing the rate of fall; smalle, thiner less apendages, straighter appendages have less water resistance so  they don 't slow down the bait as much as the previously mentioned trailers.

Very important point: how soon you have to be aware of what the bait is doing ? the moment it touches the water and begins to sink. why ? because bass tend to strike a jig as it falls and if you are not watching your line and paying attention to what the bait is doing you 'll miss a lot of fish, the better half of the times when you are jig fishing is you feel "nothing" ( you don 't feel the fish bite the bait ).

[oteymc]

A fox may live its entire life without ever seeing a chicken. Let him find his way into a chicken house and he will have some chicken. Bass are the same. If it fits the "food" profile they are having some.

This makes a lot of sense, because I know I have caught bass with shad imitating baits when there were no shad in the body of water.

So probably, if you know bass are keying on a certain forage, then it would probably be best to use something which imitates that forage. But if not, it just needs to look good to the bass?

[1inStripes]

Im still trying to find a lake with brush hogs and ika's in it so I can fish them.  Will the search ever end.

[Catt]

The art of feeling a worm/jig bite is a fine combination of watching your line and feeling for unnatural sensations of what your bait SHOULD NOT feel like.

Some times you will feel that classic Tap, some times you'll only see line movement, some times your line will simply go slack, but some times there will only be a feeling of heaviness that is almost like you're hung on something.

The bites where the bass moves after inhaling you bait are the easy ones to feel because there is line movement, the bites where the bass simply inhales your bait and just sits there are the hardest to feel.

Feeling a worm/jig bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on your line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in your line. To the average angler this makes no sense at all but to the worm/jig angler it makes total sense.

If your in 10 foot of water and it takes 12-14' of line to reach bottom you probably had a bass swim off with your bait. If your in 10 foot of water and it takes 6-8' of line to reach bottom you probably had a bass pick off your bait.

[Raul]

A fox may live its entire life without ever seeing a chicken. Let him find his way into a chicken house and he will have some chicken. Bass are the same. If it fits the "food" profile they are having some.

This makes a lot of sense, because I know I have caught bass with shad imitating baits when there were no shad in the body of water.

So probably, if you know bass are keying on a certain forage, then it would probably be best to use something which imitates that forage. But if not, it just needs to look good to the bass?

Again:your bait doesn 't need to imitate anything a bass has to eat at the place it lives it only has to imitate the movement pattern of something "alive" and an easy prey.

The fish doesn 't have the intelectual capacity to differentiate friend from foe, it 's programed to respond to a series of stimuli in response to a pattern of movement.

[Fishbone]

Nightcrawlers are not normally crawling around lake bottoms, but all fish jump all over them.

[.dsaavedra.]

call the fish with bluegrass

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

I don't see any spinner baits swimming around in my waters but bass love em anyway

x2 You took the words right out of my mouth.