Jika Rig Presentation

[OkobojiEagle]

Is the Jika rig presentation a novelty destined to be totally replaced in history by the next boutique lure written about in "Internet Fishing Blog Daily", or does it have enough merit to become a mainstay in a generation of bass fishermen's techniques?  Beyond Stacey King, has the Jika rig become a "go to" presentation for anyone here?

 

 

oe

[B-Dozer]

I like it. Have you seen this video?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd9LcxAHMPY

[OkobojiEagle]

Yep, I've watched that vid a couple times.  There isn't a lot of internet buzz about this presentation.  I put together one of these rigs a week ago and have been staring at it on my tackle table going through the presentation mentally in my head.  (Yes it's frozen around here!)  I'm picturing it dressed with a 4" tube/4" craw dragged with a few low hops through rock and weed flats.  By mid-summer much of my lake bottom is covered with snot-slime algae.  I'm thinking about adding a snap-swivel between the split-ring and weight to gain a little more room over bottom, but I visualize a cup of snot-slime dragging along with the swivel/weight.  If I'm going to swim it above the slime then I don't see much advantage over the point tucked Brewer jig head I've been using.

 

I'm looking for presentation experience with this rig... where, how, with what baits?

 

 

oe

[roadwarrior]

My best new bait/ presentation in 2014 is the Rage Structure Bug on a Jika Rig.

I am in Texas for the holiday and CRUSHED them this morning using this rig

exclusively.

[Will Wetline]

My understanding is that the Jika rig was designed for and excels at mat punching.

 

I was intrigued by the concept of this rig because it would give any bait more movement so I made a few for the 2012 season. I did catch fish on it but ran into the problem you foresaw - the rig getting fouled by algae as the season progressed.

 

When the bottom of the clear water lake I fish for smallies gets covered with slime I go to a presentation that keeps the bait clean: top water of course when conditions are right, a crank or spinnerbait, a dropshot rig cast and retrieved with 14" - 18" of line between the bait and the weight, a wacky rigged soft stickbait twitched over the bottom and, last year, did very well with a Duo Realis Spin Bait 80.

 

I've gotten way off topic with this lengthy response . . . Try the Jika but once the bottom gets algae covered consider the many other presentations in your box to offer the fishes.

[Fishes in trees]

For me, in the waters that I fish (mostly smaller conservation lakes) it has replaced a texas rig.  When I am fishing main lake points, I am more likely to pick up the jika rig than I am the jig rod.    I make my own.  I make them pretty heavy, between 1/2 and 3/4 oz.   Full size brush hogs or the Netbait Mad Paca have been my better presentations.  There have been a few occasions where lizards have totally out fished the creature baits.   Berkley Powerbait & Yum Zellemanders have been the best lizard style baits.

 

Mainly I target root wads & other bottom structure in 8 to 15 or so feet of water with this bait.  If I am seeing through electronics that fish are more suspended up in the bushes & trees moreso than on the bottom, a wacky rigged senko or a 5" paddle tail worm  on a slider head worked better for me this past year.

 

I would point out that this fall, one day on Truman Lake, a buddy totally out fished me, out of the back of my boat, throwing a home made Biffle bug imitation with a skirt & plastic trailer in the same places I was throwing the jika rig.  For the most part I chalk that up to the fact that he is just a better fisherman than me, and he was just showing off the new bait that he had poured.

[Darren.]

It is not the go-to for me, but it is part of my arsenal.

 

Go-to is wacky rigged. I probably jika-rig a little more

than Texas rigging these days. But I'd put the split-shot

rig higher.

[5fishlimit]

I started playing around with it this year, and it's worked well enough.

I find myself using it the most with crawfish baits. Owner makes a good one with a tungsten weight, but I've also made my own with bell sinkers I use for deeper water.

[papajoe222]

I use it when they're ignoring a shakey head. Something about the free movement of a worm or craw that floats turns lookers into biters more often than not. Not my go-to by any stretch, but i will go to it in certain situations.

[MidwestFishing]

If you like this rig you should also try a swing jig (biffle hard head). The football head gets through rocks better.

[roadwarrior]

The swing jig is effective, too.

 

 

 

[Lip 'em!]

Like papajoe said, I tend to break out the jika rig when the shakey head isn't getting it done. Or when fishing the water willows that surround the edge of several lakes in my region. The vertical fall of the jika makes it much more weedless and efficient around cover for me than a shakey head, which I have found is much more prone to snag on wood and catch on grass than the jika rig.