What Is A Jig?

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Youll catch the jig bite bug and be adicted. Dont give up on them

[z7master167]

Jigs are the number one bait i use, they are a blast to fish, i primarily use 2 colors green pumpkin and black/blue fish them like a shakey head or texas rig. I use crawdad trailers in a similar color or ill tear 2.5-3" off of a senko in the same color as the jig and use that as a trailer

[WRB]

How could anyone be confused about the definition of a bass jig? Ask 10 bass anglers and get 12 different answers!

Tom

Do-It bass jig molds offers over a 100 different jig head styles just to keep you confused further.

[Catt]

Simple lure that angles overcomplicate!

[Jolly Green]

  Maybe the lakes and ponds I fish it don't have jig friendly fish.  

 

Maybe your presentation isn't the best match for the depth and bottom composition of the lakes and ponds you fish.

 

I've only been fishing for a couple years and when I wanted to learn to fish jigs, I tried some of the most prevalent advice I found here and elsewhere, which was to let it fall --pay attention! Most strikes come on the fall!-- and then pop/twitch/hop/etc. a couple times, repeat.  Well, I did that... in two feet of water that was packed with jungle-density weeds that choked at least a foot and a half of said water, and I was frustrated and went back my beloved spinnerbaits. Later that year the water dropped significantly and I was able to actually see what I was tossing a jig into, and I could immediately see that the presentation I was using in that water was a completely ridiculous mismatch; there was no fall to speak of, and once it did get down, that jig was buried, and all the pop/twitch/hop/etc. in the world wouldn't overcome the fact that it was essentially invisible to anything that swims. D'oh!

 

I fish from shore, so a lot of the water to which I have access is fairly shallow and it gets weedy all over its muck bottom fast... not ideal water for that style of jig fishing.  But a swim jig (with one of those weed guards you hate) is often the perfect bait; I can let it dive down into the top of the weeds and swim it through without snagging a bunch of salad, ditto with letting it fall a little deeper and ripping it up and out, things you can't really do with a bare ball-head jig. A 1/4 oz. Strike King Bitsy Bug with a basic 2" or 3" curly- or paddle-tail trailer will catch fish like this almost any time of day in my experience, provided the fish are in the mood to track down something moving moderately fast with shorter pauses.

 

There are a few areas along my local river that are as deep as ten feet, and in the eddies of those areas I can fish the good old let-it-fall-then-hop-it technique because there is room for the jig to fall without the current sweeping it thirty feet downstream, and it works.  I'm far from a jig expert, but I have had a couple of moments of sudden clarity that have enabled me to use them with confidence within the limits of the available water. Give fresh consideration to the parameters of the water you're fishing, and think about adjusting your presentation accordingly.  

[TorqueConverter]

I think the biggest mistake a lot of guys new to jigs make, is that they take the advice of seasoned jig fishermen targeting big bass with few bites in a highly specific presentations too seriously.

 

Better to cast a 1/4 Bitsy Bug and get bit like crazy to cut your teeth on jigs than to jump right into pitching/flipping a 3/4 jig into the shoreline IMO.

[Ron G]

I thought the same thing as you when I first tried a weed gaurded jig and did not catch any bass on it the first few outings. I had stoped using it for a couple of seasons, but one day I told myself I would keep it on my rod untill I cought a bass on it. That forced me to fish it long enough that I did catch a good 3.5 lbs largemouth on it. caught quite a few more bass the next few weeks on it, all smaller fish. The next spring (April) I cought the bigest bass I have cought to date on an 1/4 oz all black jig and pork frog trailer. It weighed 8.25 lbs was 23.5 in L X 18.25 Girth. This was a PA. lake, a very good size fish for up here. I always have one tied on in the spring and continue to catch fish on them. Don't give up on it.