When Should You NOT Fish a Jig?

[KSanford33]

Now that I'm starting to improve my ability to fish a jig, I'm wondering if there are any places where you wouldn't fish a jig? The only thing I can think of is a topwater bite, but usually when they're hitting topwater you can also catch them in other ways.

[A-Jay]

I try to remember when fishing a jig/trailer that I am presenting on the bottom, (not swimming)

that most all of the strikes are going to come either on the fall or while the bait is sitting stationary on the bottom.

So if 'the bottom' is not suited for that, I'm fishing something else.

What does suited mean ? 

Glad you asked. 

The harder the better in most cases for me.

Big wood, sand, rocks for sure, and hard bottom areas that have stem like weeds such as lily pads can be good.  However, Super soft, mucky or algae cover deals often see the jig sink down into it and often completely out of sight.  So besides having to continuously wipe & clean all that spooge off my bait every cast, it's most likely not fishing very effectively.  If I feel like I MUST put a jig in there, I'll go super light, fat bulky trailer (rigged flat) and big mono to help counter act some of the above.  Doesn't always work and I'm usually better off fishing something 'weightless'. 

Come at me bro

A-Jay

[LrgmouthShad]

When they aint biting it

 

I think it can work anywhere anytime

6 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Come at me bro

Who is coming at you, bro? ?

 

You must be excited for another workout ?

[A-Jay]

7 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

When they aint biting it

 

I think it can work anywhere anytime

Who is coming at you, bro? ?

 

You must be excited for another workout ?

LOL ~ 

I'm a little wacked out.

Took an extra day off today.

?

A-Jay

[LrgmouthShad]

1 minute ago, A-Jay said:

LOL ~ 

I'm a little wacked out.

Took an extra day off today.

?

A-Jay

Holy cow BassWhole! could smell when you had taken a day off on another post a while back and seems I just figured it out too.

#decodingA-Jay

[WRB]

Snot grass.

[Bird]

I'm more of a swim jig kinda guy so work various depth but have a fondness for wood, horizontal or standing....... always have one tied on.

Only time I wouldn't throw a jig is when I'm tired of throwing a jig and want to explore other inventory. 

[casts_by_fly]

What they said.  If you're including all forms of jig in the discussion then the only time its not worth throwing one is when they aren't eating one or when its too painful to fish it (like the bad snot).  I had that on Wednesday.  tiny natural lake I fished back in the spring for the first time and caught some decent fish.  I figured give it a try in the summer and see how its fared.  Well, the lake is very clear (8+ visibilty) so grass grows down to 25FOW.  The grass strands are 12-14' long, so anything with a bottom depth of 14' had surface grass.  Anything deeper had grass on the bottom.  The grass ended at the 25' mark, so if you wanted to fish the weedlines you had to be at 25' which I wasn't up for.  Normally fishing a swim jig in the shallower cuts and holes would be good, but the milfoil, pondweed, and coontail were so thick underneath the lily pads that you needed 3/4 oz and a punching rig to get through them.  On top of that, there was green glob HABs (cyanobacteria) that slimed everything up.  So really a jig was pretty ineffective and difficult to fish.  I'm sure if I had gone to a heavy jig and kept punching down through the mat methodically I'd have found some fish eventually, but that would have been a painful day so I stuck to a frog and caught a few bass.

[Darth-Baiter]

I always quit the jig when I start snagging and losing them.  I'm not a great jig user.  I just sorta pitch them into heavy cover and go for it.

 

those Keitech Tungsten jigs get painful to lose after awhile.   I'll switch to a more economical presentation.  a weighted texrig, Hula grub by Yamamoto.  which honestly, I can't seem to jive perfectly with yet.  way more weedless tho.  by a mile. 

[Cdn Angler]

I rarely fish a jig TBH. It can't be worked all that well on the bottom given the amount of milfoil/hydrilla where I fish and I think there are better options for dead sticking/punching in that stuff. 

 

If you are trying to cover water because you don't know where the fish are I'd also say a jig isn't a great option. I'd rather fish something that can be worked more quickly like a deep diving crankbait/jerkbait, spybait, carolina rig, even a ned or texas rig in that scenario. 

[Bankbeater]

I won't cast a jig into rip rap until I've fished the rocks with a t-rig for a while to see what the snags are like.

[PressuredFishing]

I do not fish jigs in heavy topped out grass, punching, and cheese matts. Texas rigs come through much better, I do not fish jigs when trying to locate fish, because I want more bites and less quality, or I will opt for a skirtless jig/ball head...

 

Jigs seem to shine for me around rock, wood, and swimming over and through submerged grass, Texas rig bullets get wedged easily in rock, and the hook will occasionally catch wood sliding out of plastics, weed gaurds usually prevent that for me.

[BigAngus752]

When the lake is frozen.  Unless you cut a hole it in.  

[Team9nine]

58 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said:

When the lake is frozen.  Unless you cut a hole it in.  

 

Yeah, pretty much this ^^^