swim jig

[fishincop640]

Hello all.  I fished an evening tournament at Glendale Lake in Central PA last night.  It was extremely windy to say the least!  I was throwing a 1/2oz peanut butter and jelly jig with a rage chunk trailer. I caught some nice bass but also lost a 4+ pounder and a few others.  These were my 1st jig fish EVER!!  My question is:  When I feel the strike while swimming the jig, should I set the hook right away or drop the rod tip real low and give a big hookset like with a carolina rig or what?  Any preferences or suggestions?  The ones I did catch and got the boat were hooked great but the other seemed to just spit the jig out.....am I possibly setting the hook too early?

[river-rat]

With the swim jig, set the hook like you would with a spinnerbait. There's no need to drop the rod tip and then set the hooklike when using a floipping/pitching jig or carolina rig.

[lsufan334]

I set the hook as soon as i feel a bite regardless whether swimming or working slow. 

[swimbait]

Let the rod load up a bit and sweep. Good luck!

[fishincop640]

Thanks guys for all the help!  Do you guys prefer to yo-yo or straight retrieve?  Or let the bass tell you what they want?

[ChiCityBasser]

I pretty much let the fish tell me how they want it and so far I have caught most of mine on a straight retrieve. I've had the most success with 1/4 oz green pumpkin strike king jigs with either a rage tail chunk or the yum swim chunk trailers.

[Big-O]

The hookset should definitely be on a relatively tight line and as quick and firm as possible like other jigs with brush guards or weedless rigged soft plastics

Then next priority is keeping alot of pressure and a tight line on'em during the fight. Many times the hook actually penetrates the fish's mouth during the fight back to the boat....this is especially true when using Mono or Fluoro.

Big O

www.ragetail.com

[Big Tom]

What kind of rods are you guys using for this?

I have caught a few bass that hit while reeling my jig in.  I have lost even more though because they caught me off guard.  I haven't actually stuck with swimming a jig all day.  It is something that I intend to do this fall.

[ChiCityBasser]

What kind of rods are you guys using for this?

I have caught a few bass that hit while reeling my jig in. I have lost even more though because they caught me off guard. I haven't actually stuck with swimming a jig all day. It is something that I intend to do this fall.

I fish them either on a Medium/Fast spinning setup that now has 20# braid when I'm being lazy.

My other setup is a MH/Fast baitcast setup with either 12# Mono