How To Fish A Jig

[instalme]

Hey guy i im fairly new to fishing with jigs but i live in florida , i know my basics on it but my only question is how do you know when you have a bite on it ? If someone can help me out on that i would greatly appreciate it

-Chris

[scaleface]

I watch my line where it enters the water and I'm feeling for a slight tic as the bait is falling . I dont let the bait fall on a tight line but on a semi slack line and I follow it down with the rod tip, that is , I drop the rod tip  at the same speed the lure is falling  . If I'm lucky I feel the bite or see the line move a bit , but half the time I have no clue that a bass has taken the bait . When the bait is lifted back up , I am actually weighing the line . If it feels slightly heavier then I set the hook . Thats the way I do it  with all   bottom bouncing lures . Jigs . t rigs , traps , blade baits...

[Glenn]

Here ya go!  This method also works for jig fishing, as the bite is identical.

 

[Catt]

Pretty good Boss

[monkeyman3dee]

I was trying an alternate technique the other day. It requires a really loose spool/good thumb control, cast out and keep your reel disengaged. As the bait falls, more and more line comes off your reel, counter any wind by feathering your thumb as the bait drops, if you notice a jump in the speed, you got a bite.

 

Any one else try this? Maybe a good alternative to line watching, especially for lighter line where it is hard to see. Once on the bottom, let it sit for 5-10 seconds, then give a short hop-hop and let sit for 5 seconds. then at your rod pointed ~3 oclock, raise up to 12 or 1 oclock moving the bait a short distance. reel up the slack and repeat. Experiment every few casts, with more aggressive hops, faster dragging, and even swimming. Yum money craw is a good trailer, as it falls the claw action is stupendous. I reccomend getting a football jig and a brush jig for dragging, and some arkies if you happen upon some cover. 3/8 oz is a good all around weight, for heavier in windy/deeper water.

[roadwarrior]

By Joe S.

 

Posted September 12 2007 - 11:46 AM

POPULAR

Here's a little piece I put together, The jig is my favorite lure to fish because of it's versatlity.


Representation,
First let's start with what a jig represents underwater, I believe the most 
Popular use of it is to imitate a Crayfish but they also can imitate baitfish as well.

Jigs come in many different shapes, sizes and colors etc. The most popular crayfish imitators seem to be the good old skirted jig usually tipped with some sort of plastic or pork trailer.
Speaking of sizes, shapes, colors, I'm only going to really get into the skirted jig with a plastic or pork trailer as this is the bait I primarily use, and use it as a crayfish imitator only.

Sizes,
There is a very large size range available,
I mainly use 3 sizes of Jigs in my arsenal or depending on manufacturer the closest weight to these sizes 3/8 oz , ½ oz and ¾ oz.

I will mainly use a 3/8oz when fishing really shallow. The presentation has more time to be subtle because of the lighter weight than just crashing on the bottom in the shallow water.
1/2 oz. Jig
 This is my go to, if there was only one jig weight aloud in my box, this would be it. I guess you could say the happy medium. I fish this 99 percent of the time from a regular bank down to 15 ft and anything in between.

The only time I go to a 3/4 oz. Is if I need to get through some thick weeds, the wind is really blowing or I am fishing dep but want to fish it faster than normal.

Colors,
I don't get crazy on colors when it comes to jigs. I have 3 colors that I have a ton of confidence in and those are Browns, Greens, and Black. It seems the jig has excepted rules on what colors for what conditions were faced with, green or brown, natural colors for clearer water and black or darker colors for murkier water or night time. I do follow that to a point but not because of the rule but because I have confidence in throwing those baits in those conditions. Ive caught fish in clear water with a black jig and fish in murky water and at night with a green jig so what's that tell us. Color is confidence in my book.

Trailers/Chunks
These come in many shapes and sizes, Most of them are made to represent the pincher end of the crayfish which are either threaded or simply hooked on to the jig.
I go rather simple in this area as far as selection.


I mainly use 3 colors in 2 sizes, Green, Brown and Black in 2 or 3 sizes I always match the color of the trailer with the jig, (just a confidence thing)
I will normally start off fishing with a 2 trailer in tournaments, I feel the smaller size may get me more bites in order to get my limit then I may upgrade trailer size to go after larger fish, but there is no rule here either, as I have caught fish over 6lbs. on 2 trailers and fish less than 12 on 3 trailers.
As far as the many styles and brands of trailers, my selection is simple I use my own, I feel they give me the best chances of catching fish and here is why: When a bass hits a jig they will normally engulf the whole lure, Jig and trailer. It only takes a split second for that fish to reject the bait if it notices anything artificial about it. When I make my trailers I add a lot of crayfish oil to the plastic prior to cooking then once poured they go through a 2 stage salting process. Once you get a fish to bite them they are hard pressed to let it go because there is so much taste for them. Because there is so much craw oil in the plastic it makes the baits very soft which helps release the oils and salt when the bait is bitten. (Shameless Plug I know, but the truth as well)

The Bite!
I have been fishing a jig predominantly for the last few years and have probably experienced every type of bite possible, but then again maybe not, sometimes you don't feel anything at all, then sometimes they almost rip the rod out of your hand, and then you have everything in between, you must always be ready to set the hook.

 It is a must to be a line watcher when fishing a jig because you may not always be in direct contact with the lure, and the little twitch in the line that you didn't see could have been a 10 fish or the fish of a lifetime.
One thing I really like to do is know the depth of the water I'm casting to, I feel this is very important, a ½ oz jig on 15lb mono sinks at about  1ft per second. So I know if I'm casting it into 12ft of water and the line stops sinking when I count to 6, something sucked it in, reel in any slack and set the hook.
This is where I believe salts and scents are very handy, normally when I'm fishing a jig I'm fishing some type of structure, rocks, wood, grass, etc. with the equipment on the market you can pretty much feel everything the lure bumps into, when first getting into jig fishing I might have questioned myself was that a fish or a rock, don't know for sure.           But now using my own baits and good equipment as well as a lot of time fishing the jig,  I have the confidence in them to know that when I feel that little bump, I can pause and wait a second or two to see if there is any activity or lack there of on the end of the line before ramming the hook into a nice bass, or a stump.

Equipment:
For fishing these type and size of jigs, I use a 7' Heavy action bait casting rod, I feel this is very important and will not use a Jig on anything lighter, for a few reasons, 1.) These jigs normally have stout hooks that require a decent amount of force to get good penetration. I don't want to take the chance of losing a big fish because my rod didn't have enough power to drive the hook home, 2.) You have the weed guard to deal with as well when setting the hook. 3.) A lot of times the bass will really clamp down on a jig to crush it making it harder to move the jig on the set to get a good hook set, I noticed this especially with small mouth bass.  As for the brand of rod that is personal preference but I think you should get the best you can afford in this area or the added sensitivity.

For a reel, I prefer High speed reels 6.1:1 or 6.3:1 and a decent amount of line retrieval per handle turn. I like this because I can pick up any slack really fast as well as keep up with the fish if it is charging towards me. This is another brand preference issue, I prefer smaller profile reels so I can palm the reel and rest the line going into the reel on my pointer finger for extra sensitivity. 


Line
I mainly use 15 lb test mono line for most jig fishing, I don't really go any lighter than that, I will go heavier for certain situations depending on a few factors, structure or cover that I'm fishing, or even the size of the fish I have a chance at catching will dictate the size.  In really clear water I will use fluorocarbon line for reduced visibility. And if I need to go above 20 lb mono for any reason I will switch to a braid for line diameter purposes. You can use any of the three all the time, these are just my preferences and how I utilize each for certain situations.


This is not intended to be a know all of Jig fishing document, these are the ways and equipment I personally like to use and have confidence in for the situations I face,(Notice the title) there are so many variables in fishing that could call for a different tactic from the lure type and  size, to the tackle and line, it would be impossible to list them all. 


Some techniques I use...

When I make a cast I let the bait sink, you must always watch your line, a lot of times they will hit it on the initial fall and your line will either twitch, stop before it should, or start going sideways, when this happens reel up the slack and set the hook.   If the bait makes it to the bottom I will wait about 3 or 4 seconds and then drag it about 6-8 inches (Right now he's just cruising on the bottom), then pause, after 3-4 seconds drag again, and repeat this.  Once I feel any obstruction, I pause then shake without dragging, I feel this simulates the crayfish trying to burrow under whatever obstacle it just bumped into.  Then I give it 2 quick very short snaps, this would simulate the crayfish fleeing from a predator, then let it hit bottom and repeat the whole process.  A lot of times right after the pause when you go to drag again it will feel heavy, set the hook. Hook sets are free, If you haven't fished a jig a lot , it takes time before you can get a really good handle on determining fish bites from obstructions.   Practice makes perfect and when in doubt set the hook. 

That's for mostly open water hump style fishing and beating a bank. In cover I like to throw it in the nastiest stuff possible and shake it around then repeat casting to it (pretty much pick it to pieces.)

Don't ever think there is such a thing as to shallow, I use to cast to about a foot off shore till a guy on the back of my boat beat me bad, the fish were in that spot right on the bank, now I cast to were I'm pretty much hitting the shoreline. 

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Treat Your Bass Right!!

[smalljaw67]

You got great advise, follow what the others have said and you'll be good. That said, I'll add my own 2 cents, jigs are the easiest bait to fish, and the hardest to learn because they aren't a numbers bait. If  you want to learn what the bite is like, you need to get bit so lets start with a jig that will get more bites. I would get a jig like the Strike King Bitsy Bug in a 3/16oz with a Strike King Bitsy Bug crawfish trailer, this will get strikes from smaller fish and it will generate more strikes in general. The bites you will get will range from a solid thump, to a light tap, to just feeling weight like you picked up weeds or something like that, spend an entire day with it and when you get a few fish you'll gain confidence and then you can throw any jig you want and know that it will get bit and you'll catch fish on it, good luck.

[RyneB]

I have a hard time explaining to people how I can detect a jig bite. I fish a jig A LOT. I have so many different feeling bites. My best advice is I always stay in contact with the line. If I feel anything different at all through the cast, I will reel in my slack until I feel resistence, if there is any resistence other than the jig, I will set the hook. I think the best thing is time on the water with a jig. It's just too many factors in the bite such as water temp, vegetation, rock, wood etc. Good luck and tight lines

[WRB]

While I agree with Glenn using a split shot rig or slip shot (finesse C-rig) to learn a soft plastic worm bite and that is how I teach new anglers to fish soft plastics. The reason is bass will hold onto a weightless finesse worm longer than a weighted rig like a sliding weight T-rig. Yes it helps to learn what a soft bite feels like and is a good lesson to learn with a split shot, it isn't the same as a jig bite because the soft plastic isn't attached to the weight.

With a jig you can't hesitate.

Tom

[Glenn]

You missed the point, Tom.  It's about learning how the bite feels, not when/how to set the hook.

[WRB]

You missed the point, Tom.  It's about learning how the bite feels, not when/how to set the hook.

Didn't think I missed the point, split shot is a good lesson to learn strike detection.

Tom

[WRB]

Actually....you did.  Thanks for playing! 

I would suggest new jig anglers look at your hula grub (spider jig) video, the GYCB hula grub jig is another good learning tool.

Peace.

Tom

[Catt]

Many will tell you a jig bite aint any thing like the bite ya get with a t-rig but it is so get that notion out you head right now.

Like a t-rig, split shot, those bumps, thumps, tics, & taps are the easy ones to detect it's the one where the bass inhales your jig without ant tell-tale sign or line movement, I say now is the time to bring forth all the expertise on feeling subtle bites stored away in your brain from t-rig, wacky rigs, split shots and so on.

You will also hear "bass don't hold a jig long", don't be surprised when a 2# bass inhales your 1 oz jig without any tell-tale line movement and proceeds to sit there until you apply to much pressure at which time they spit it!

[Bankbeater]

A lot of times you will just start seeing your line moving off to the side, and feel a thing.

[WRB]

Split shot rig if you hesitate too long the bass swallows the worm, jig or T-rig you hesitate the spits it out.

"The first tap the bass has it in it's mouth, the second tap is Catt tapping you on the shoulder saying you just a strike". What does a jig bite feel like? Denny Baurer " I know what it doesn't feel like". Agree with everything that has been posted on this topic.

Time on the water feeling what's going on with soft plastics/jigs is the best advice.

Good fishing.

Tom

[Catt]

Split shot rig if you hesitate too long the bass swallows the worm

Tom

Has nothing to do with how a bite feels

[Glenn]

Catt, you and I are on the same page. 

[Catt]

Catt, you and I are on the same page.

Exactly Boss

I was one who use to preach the best way to learn jigs was to spend all day throwing nothing but jigs. The I realized if ya aint getting bit ya aint learning nuttin'!

Despite its pure awesomeness one must keep in mind there will be days when the bass simply do not want a jig.

Glenn's video is a valid tool for learning because the more bites one feels the more iit's ingrained in our mind what a bite feels like.

One can not learn how to shoot by simply going to the range & never fire a round!