Using jigs in lakes with no crayfish

[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

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.

Heres a few points I would like to make:

1. the jigs I have are 3/8 oz and heavier so my light spinning outfit I have right now wouldnt work with them

2. When I was throwing the jigs back home I was throwing them in likely places and I tried many different presentations but they didnt bite it

3. I tied a spinnerbait on and I got three quickly on a wind blown bank in somewhat deeper water which leads me to believe that they were chasing baitfish because they followed the bait almost all the way to the bank

I havent fished jigs for very long like some of you and I know I have things to learn but I understand the concept of lure fall and presentation. These are things that I have learned through on the water experience as Im sure many of you have. I dont need an entire lesson on how to fish or why Im wrong I was just making a statement that I wasnt getting hits on the jig when I had my baitcaster and I needed my baitcaster to be able to fish the jigs I have with me effectively. I also feel somewhat insulted that people commented things like

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

I here pros all the time saying that a jig is hard to beat when the bass are eating crayfish. What is a brushhog supposed to immitate? I have no idea but if lure manufactures go through the trouble of making such realistic finishes for their lures would it not make sense to throw a bait that immitates the forage that the bass are after on a particular day? I now know that bass will eat whatever they want on any given day according to certain conditions and they will eat things that dont necessarily immitate anything that lives in their given body of water. Thank you for all the information, I dont need anymore.

[EastTexasBassin]

I have a really hard time believing that there is a body of water in the U.S. that doesn't contain any crayfish. It just isn't possible, unless it's covered by a giant glass dome and sealed all the way around.

Crayfish are in there. You just haven't seen them.