Jigs in Winter - Yay or Nay?

[LrgmouthShad]

This one's a bit early. I never can make up my mind if jigs are a good winter bait. Sometimes seems like there are better options. Do you like jigs in the winter? We know that Northerners do, because they will skip real good across the ice. Good practice 😁

[Skunkmaster-k]

A jig and a blade bait in the middle of winter are a definite yay from me. The jig for dragging and the blade bait for when I get bored. 

[WRB]

I can name at least 10 different styles of bass jigs, what you are calling a jig?

I catch LMB and Smallmouth year around on my custom 7/16 oz buck tail hair jigs with pork ring trailers.

Tom

[Pogues2300]

In Minnesota I like finding the last bit of green vegetation out deeper and stroking a jig…. Until the ice forms and I’m practicing skipping as you mentioned. 

[LrgmouthShad]

@WRB by jig I am referring to a skirted bass jig with either a rubber or silicone skirt with a fiber weedguard. Picture a Hack Attack Flipping Jig. That is close to what I am using. I primarily fish a grass lake. Whatever jig I use must come through grass. 

[WRB]

Are aquatic plants (grass) primary cover during the winter cold water period? 

You can fish a Hack Attack FC jig year around, not a fan of short compact flipping jigs in light cover.

Yes, bass will eat a jig year around but=not everyday.

Tom

[you]

48 minutes ago, WRB said:

I can name at least 10 different styles of bass jigs, what are calling a jig?

 

My thoughts exactly. We need better jig ontology.

 

First time I heard about a "ned rig", I thought: "that's a jig, not a rig".

[LrgmouthShad]

32 minutes ago, WRB said:

Are aquatic plants (grass) primary cover during the winter cold water period? 

You can fish a Hack Attack FC jig year around, not a fan of short compact flipping jigs in light cover.

Yes, bass will eat a jig year around but=not everyday.

Tom

Well, that's tough for me to say for sure. I just moved to TX this March and didn't start fishing the Lake until Juneish. I have not seen the lake during winter. The grass is hydrilla and a lot of it. It is pretty dominant, but the lake also has cover in the form of rocks and standing timber

 

And thank you!

[Bankbeater]

I fish with a 1/8 or 1/4 jig dragged along the bottom with the smallest craw trailer I can find.  Usually on warmer days around where the rip rap meets the mud bottom.

[Drew03cmc]

Absolutely yay. I love a jig in winter.

[Pat Brown]

Caught a 9 lbr on February 9th this year during a warm rainy front at the end of the winter and I caught most of my cold water bass on a jig last winter.  It's quite good in cold water IMHO.

[GreenPig]

Yep. They work here in Georgia and I prefer a bigger jig in the winter.

[GRiver]

I’ve caught smallies in the winter in Nc on jigs, but it was tough going. It was the only thing I could get them to bite on though. A green pumpkin jig with a green pumpkin netbait baby craw. Had to work the deep holes in the river real slow.  

[LrgmouthShad]

45 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Caught a 9 lbr on February 9th this year during a warm rainy front at the end of the winter and I caught most of my cold water bass on a jig last winter.  It's quite good in cold water IMHO.

Ahhhh but that’s pretty much prespawn
 

Jig is the best prespawn bait

[Tennessee Boy]

I fish a jig and craw year round but winter is prime season.

[ElGuapo928]

I virtually never fish a “normal” skirted jig, but always keep a spider jig on the deck through fall and winter. My PB (9.5lb) came on a spider jig in January. 

[Pat Brown]

34 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Ahhhh but that’s pretty much prespawn
 

Jig is the best prespawn bait

 

 

The pre-spawn starts right now.  👍👍👍😉😉😉

[LrgmouthShad]

13 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

The pre-spawn starts right now.  👍👍👍😉😉😉

😂. crap, you're right. As soon as October hits, it's prespawn. I forgot 

[Catt]

24/7/365 😉

[Hammer 4]

39 minutes ago, Catt said:

24/7/365 😉

Same here.

[the reel ess]

In winter I prefer the swinghead jig with a craw or black lizard. It and the jig will get some bites. But I catch more pitching a T rigged craw to wood.

[flyfisher]

absolutely.  I use heavy bulky jigs with big trailers fished painstakingly slow and then slow down some more.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Other than the prespawn jig bite the winter is my most productive time to throw a jig.  I get better numbers on a little swimbait or grub and ned rig, but I can stay competitive with a small football head, like a keitech/little spotty/ BCs sniper.  The key for me steep banks with isolated cover, near relatively deeper water on sunny days.  

[WRB]

4 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

😂. crap, you're right. As soon as October hits, it's prespawn. I forgot 

Pre Spawn is a specific seasonal period that follows the winter/cold water period. Pre Spawn isn’t the female egg growing period that starts in the Summer Period a different seasonal period followed by seasonal period between Summer warm water period and winter cold water period.

Don’t confuse a basses calendar with a human calendar.

Cold water under 50 degrees slows the bass metabolism because bass are cold blooded, body temp is the same as the water temps they live in.

Bass still eat in cold water just not as frequently.

I use the same size/weight jigs year around and change the trailer size to suit what the bass want to eat and generally at a slower pace.

Tom 

 

[papajoe222]

My problems with jigs in  cold water is what type of skirt material is best.  I settled on a combination hair/feather tied on a stand up, or ball headed jig.  I've used living rubber skirted jigs with some success before the water temp drops below 40. From then until ice over, that hair/feather with a minnow is the best combo I've found.