jig question

[newfisherman]

never fished one before so i tried it out saturday morning at a local pond.  blue and black with a stanley ribbit for trailer.  about my third cast into a fallen tree i see a small twitch on my line and put what i thought was a pretty good hookset.

i get him about 2/3 of the way in, he shakes the hook (he was in the 2-21/2 range)  i never had him hooked good at all

so the question is, is there any trick to the set up of a jig with a trailer or the hookset itself?  or do i just need to make sure i set it like a man next time?  i've caught a good many fish on soft plastics and haven't had trouble with hooksets.  

[Gatorbassman]

Decribe the rod and the line you were useing.

How did you set the hook? (Straight up or to the side)

[newfisherman]

st. croix medium heavy rod.  17 pound mono.  straight up hookset.

[Matt 825]

Your rod is good, lots of guys still use mono, but I find it has way too much stretch for me.  You get a much better hookset with Fluro or Braid.  

Fishing a jig you do need to set the hook a bit harder than you do with a T-rig or other soft plastics.    

Thats pretty good to get a bite your first time fishing a jig.  Lots of guys catch nothing thier fist time fishing a jig including myself.  

[Catt]

My question would be since you are using a Stanley Ribbit as trailer is your jig hook large enough since the ribbit is quite thick? I would suggest a minimum of a 5/0 hook with the Ribbit.

[J Francho]

Flex the weed guard fibers to relax them.  Some guys trim them, or spread them, but I haven't noticed a difference.  You to have just the right amount of slack, not so much that you have to reel it up to set the hook.  I only use an straight up hookset if the fish is right below me.  All other times, it a two hands out front, about waist high, and a fast twist of my upper body.  Once hooked, I continue the motion pulling the rod up to lift the fish from cover, all the while reeling it in.  I prefer a heavy/x-fast rod for this, even in light cover, but  MH will do.  Goog advice to use FC or braid.  I use 20# FC or 50-65# Power Pro.

[BARON49_Northern NY]

After fishing jigs for more years then I care to admit to you might want to try 50 lb Power Pro braid.  It is 12 lb diameter, super sensitive, and due to the no stretch will help you drive the hooks home.  You will need at least a MH rod with a fast tip and a reel with a good drag set to slip just a slight bit when you set the hooks.

I switched over to braided line for jigs years ago and never looked back.  I tie directly to the jig and even in all the clear water I fish have seen no reason to use a leader other then around Zebra mussels.  Their shells are like little razor blades and cut through braid and mono very easily.  For this reason only I will use a leader of fluoro.

[newfisherman]

thanks for the help guys.

catt,

as you can tell i know next to nothing about jig fishing (and not a whole lot about bass fishing in general - although i've learned a lot here) and i only put a ribbit on because i saw you mention it in another post.  i don't know the size of the jig or hook (my father in law picked up a bunch at a garage sale) but from looking at the hook i'd say it was a three or four/0 heavy wire.  i did notice not too much of the hook was exposed after i rigged it, so you are surely correct that the hook was too small for that trailer

as for the line, i'm still relatively new to fishing and i'm not sure i want an entire rod and reel with fifty pound braid that i can really only use for jig and frog fishing.  the rod i'm using, i use for nearly all my soft plastics which is why it's got 17 pound mono.  but i guess i may have to bite the bullet and get another if i'm going to invest much time in this type of fishing.

[J Francho]

You can fish your worms and soft plastics with 50# braid.  In many situations, its superior to mono.

[Catt]

The first key to when fishing plastic is proper hook size even if the hook is attached to a jig. If the hook size is to small then rod, line, & hook set technique is immaterial because there will not be enough hook to properly penetrate. Many anglers try to use the smallest hook they can get away with; I on the other hand try use the largest I can get away with.

For most of my jig fishing I use a Medium Heavy Extra Fast Action and 15# Big Game with the exception of matted vegetation or heavy brush at which time I'll switch to braid.