Jig fishing water clarity?

[PressuredFishing]

can you fish jigs in gen clear water? like 15-30ft visibility? I haven't heard many guys talk about this and thought it could open my arsenal up to try to target a larger fish. I know guys love them in stained water but have never heard of them fishing gen clear water. Also if you can fish them in gen clear water, is green pumpkin enough to make it look realistic? or should you go with something else? I just thought maybe they could work in clear water because I was playing with one in the pool and the skirt looks amazing.  Thanks so much for your guy's time and you guys have helped me out so much in getting back into fishing!

[Catt]

Any body of water, any water clarity, any season.

[PressuredFishing]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

Any body of water, any water clarity, any season.

oh okay this is awesome to know! any colours you would reccomend for clearer water? just the green pumpkins?

[papajoe222]

For clear water, I prefer natural colors and seeing as a jig/trailer often imitates a crawdad, that can vary quite a bit. green pumpkin, to me, is more of an imitation of a bluegill, which is also on a bass' diet.  I throw what I have and I have a lot of black/blue, brown/green and black/black (often times with a few strands of yellow in the skirt).

I also work a jig faster in clear water, therefore I go with a heavier jig. I don't want the fish to get a good look at it as it falls, so I'll also go with a trailer that doesn't slow it down too much. I like to stroke a jig in the summer letting it sit between 'strokes' but in clear water it will no sooner hit bottom and I'm stroking it up again. 

[Ski213]

Yes in my opinion.  I love a jig in any water clarity.  Typically in a brown, green, and orange combination.  I’ll go to more blue/black in dirtier water and baitfish colors if it’s a swim jig.  If you’re  fishing CA that’s water I have no experience with though. 
 

Give a jig a shot, don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t pay off right away. Search on here. Tons of great info. For me personally it’s something I just didn’t fish for a lot of years for a few reasons.   Then I committed to learning it. I’m still no jig fishing pro but I’m sure glad I added it to the wheelhouse. 

[PressuredFishing]

1 minute ago, papajoe222 said:

For clear water, I prefer natural colors and seeing as a jig/trailer often imitates a crawdad, that can vary quite a bit. green pumpkin, to me, is more of an imitation of a bluegill, which is also on a bass' diet.  I throw what I have and I have a lot of black/blue, brown/green and black/black (often times with a few strands of yellow in the skirt).

I also work a jig faster in clear water, therefore I go with a heavier jig. I don't want the fish to get a good look at it as it falls, so I'll also go with a trailer that doesn't slow it down too much. I like to stroke a jig in the summer letting it sit between 'strokes' but in clear water it will no sooner hit bottom and I'm stroking it up again. 

okay this is really good information  I never knew about! thankyou so much for this! I will try this method on some crystal clear  fishing lakes!!! thank you so much!

2 minutes ago, Ski213 said:

Yes in my opinion.  I love a jig in any water clarity.  Typically in a brown, green, and orange combination.  I’ll go to more blue/black in dirtier water and baitfish colors if it’s a swim jig.  If you’re  fishing CA that’s water I have no experience with though. 
 

Give a jig a shot, don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t pay off right away. Search on here. Tons of great info. For me personally it’s something I just didn’t fish for a lot of years for a few reasons.   Then I committed to learning it. I’m still no jig fishing pro but I’m sure glad I added it to the wheelhouse. 

okay this is really good to know, thanks! yeah I am in california and we got really clear water because of zebra mussels and lots of vegetation that filter the water.  I am no pro at jig fishing either but any little bit of help is awesome, thanks!!

[Catt]

First quit trying to fit colors into a box, black-n-blue will work in any water clarity. Green Pumpkin will work in any water clarity.

 

[MGF]

8 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

For clear water, I prefer natural colors and seeing as a jig/trailer often imitates a crawdad, that can vary quite a bit. green pumpkin, to me, is more of an imitation of a bluegill, which is also on a bass' diet.  I throw what I have and I have a lot of black/blue, brown/green and black/black (often times with a few strands of yellow in the skirt).

I also work a jig faster in clear water, therefore I go with a heavier jig. I don't want the fish to get a good look at it as it falls, so I'll also go with a trailer that doesn't slow it down too much. I like to stroke a jig in the summer letting it sit between 'strokes' but in clear water it will no sooner hit bottom and I'm stroking it up again. 

Our crawdads are usually pretty close to green pumpkin. I also notice that in clear water the river bottom looks sort of green pumpkin. Last week I had a bass spit up a crawdad that was green pumpkin with orange tips on the claws and a bunch of orange blotches on the tail. It was almost the exact color of some BPS stickos that I have and some rage bugs I have. I think SK calls the color "bamacraw" or something?

 

Black has been one of my most productive jig colors in all water clarities.

[Dens228]

I can't think of the last time I fished without throwing a jig.......From muddy to crystal clear water. 

Regardless I tend to use brown skirts, brown and purple, and brown and red.

Usually a Green pumpkin or watermelon craw trailer.  If it's sunny I will use the same but with red flake in it. 

[Bankbeater]

My two best jigs in clear water are black/blue and green pumpkin.  I start out with the 1/8 size instead of 3/8 because I figure I will just be tying on the 1/8 on eventually anyway.  I like a small craw trailer that closely matches the color of the jig skirt.

[PressuredFishing]

6 hours ago, Catt said:

First quit trying to fit colors into a box, black-n-blue will work in any water clarity. Green Pumpkin will work in any water clarity.

 

okay I will pick up some black and blues to go with my green pumpkins, thankyou!!

5 hours ago, MGF said:

Our crawdads are usually pretty close to green pumpkin. I also notice that in clear water the river bottom looks sort of green pumpkin. Last week I had a bass spit up a crawdad that was green pumpkin with orange tips on the claws and a bunch of orange blotches on the tail. It was almost the exact color of some BPS stickos that I have and some rage bugs I have. I think SK calls the color "bamacraw" or something?

 

Black has been one of my most productive jig colors in all water clarities.

oh okay this is good to know, I have seen some orange colored strands in jigs and will try these, also will look into the bamacraw colour, I have heard of that before

4 hours ago, Dens228 said:

I can't think of the last time I fished without throwing a jig.......From muddy to crystal clear water. 

Regardless I tend to use brown skirts, brown and purple, and brown and red.

Usually a Green pumpkin or watermelon craw trailer.  If it's sunny I will use the same but with red flake in it. 

oh this is something good to know! will try these colours, thanks!

[PressuredFishing]

3 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

My two best jigs in clear water are black/blue and green pumpkin.  I start out with the 1/8 size instead of 3/8 because I figure I will just be tying on the 1/8 on eventually anyway.  I like a small craw trailer that closely matches the color of the jig skirt.

ah okay, I will pick up some 1/8th oz jigs, I feel those could be killer, expecially in a smaller cut profile!

[WRB]

?see my top 5 bass all caught on jigs in SoCal lakes with clear water. If you take time to read my hundreds of posts on jig fishing like “Horizontal Jigging” the answer is yes.

Tom

PS, Black/blue works at night and winter, marginal daytime color choice in SoCal.

[PressuredFishing]

4 hours ago, WRB said:

?see my top 5 bass all caught on jigs in SoCal lakes with clear water. If you take time to read my hundreds of posts on jig fishing like “Horizontal Jigging” the answer is yes.

Tom

PS, Black/blue works at night and winter, marginal daytime color choice in SoCal.

oh okay will check this out! Good to know about black and blue, and I will definitely read some of your horizontal jigging posts and some of your others ones as well! thank you so much for this information!

[Bluebasser86]

The dam end of Table Rock is pretty dang clear typically. Caught this one on a 7/16oz Jewel PB&J jig in 40-50 of water. That's how we caught all our fish that weekend when not even the guides were catching fish. 

 

[Hammer 4]

On 6/19/2021 at 8:21 PM, Socalfishier said:

can you fish jigs in gen clear water? like 15-30ft visibility? I haven't heard many guys talk about this and thought it could open my arsenal up to try to target a larger fish. I know guys love them in stained water but have never heard of them fishing gen clear water. Also if you can fish them in gen clear water, is green pumpkin enough to make it look realistic? or should you go with something else? I just thought maybe they could work in clear water because I was playing with one in the pool and the skirt looks amazing.  Thanks so much for your guy's time and you guys have helped me out so much in getting back into fishing!

If your talking about DVL..? Green Pumpkin will work, or a light craw color. I've fished there when you could easily see 30' down, in which case you want keep as far away from the fish as possible, i.e. if you can see them, they can see you even better.

I also agree with what Tom said about So. Cali colors.

[Biglittle8]

On 6/19/2021 at 11:38 PM, Catt said:

Any body of water, any water clarity, any season.

☝️This

[PressuredFishing]

10 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

The dam end of Table Rock is pretty dang clear typically. Caught this one on a 7/16oz Jewel PB&J jig in 40-50 of water. That's how we caught all our fish that weekend when not even the guides were catching fish. 

 

oh wow, that is really good to know that they work in clear water and deep! I will have to try this!

10 hours ago, Hammer 4 said:

If your talking about DVL..? Green Pumpkin will work, or a light craw color. I've fished there when you could easily see 30' down, in which case you want keep as far away from the fish as possible, i.e. if you can see them, they can see you even better.

I also agree with what Tom said about So. Cali colors.

yeah DVL, skinner, Sandiego lakes, all of them that are clear water that I tend to fish alot. I will have to work on my stealth a little bit because its hard to not make noise on the boat for me, expecially when the cooler calls for a refreshing soda or bag of cheetos ?

9 hours ago, Biglittle8 said:

☝️This

?

[WRB]

Yamamoto 4” Hula grub in 221 or 330 are go to spider jigs on his 3/8-1/2 weedless football head with 4/0 Owner or Gamakatsu hook.. Use 8# to 12# straight FC line no braid, bait casting tackle.

KISS....

Tom

[PressuredFishing]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Yamamoto 4” Hula grub in 221 or 330 are go to spider jigs on his 3/8-1/2 weedless football head with 4/0 Owner or Gamakatsu hook.. Use 8# to 12# straight FC line no braid, bait casting tackle.

KISS....

Tom

 okay will pick up some more hula grubs, will try this! thankyou so much for your help!!!!

[5/0]

Up here in the foothill lakes brown/purple work well. The #221 Tom mentioned covers this on a bare jig head. It will work on a skirted jig as trailer too, the skirt on the grub gives the jig more bulk when a larger profile is needed.

[PressuredFishing]

5 hours ago, 5/0 said:

Up here in the foothill lakes brown/purple work well. The #221 Tom mentioned covers this on a bare jig head. It will work on a skirted jig as trailer too, the skirt on the grub gives the jig more bulk when a larger profile is needed.

oh okay will try these colors, thanks!

[HaydenS]

On 6/20/2021 at 8:14 AM, MGF said:

Our crawdads are usually pretty close to green pumpkin. I also notice that in clear water the river bottom looks sort of green pumpkin.

Camo!

[Brett's_daddy]

On 6/20/2021 at 11:24 AM, Socalfishier said:

okay I will pick up some black and blues to go with my green pumpkins, thankyou!!

oh okay this is good to know, I have seen some orange colored strands in jigs and will try these, also will look into the bamacraw colour, I have heard of that before

oh this is something good to know! will try these colours, thanks!

If you go to Tacklewarehouse right now and search for Dirty Jigs Tour Level Pitchin' Jig and scroll down until you find the color called Super Matt Brown that would be perfect for this color scheme as it's mostly brown with some purple mixed in.

 

[the reel ess]

In very clear water I'd use a brown jig. I almost always use a black/blue one though as it's never really clear here.