Northstar Custom Baits Pro Finesse Jigs

[krisjack69]

I never fish with jigs and I would like to know what is the best way to fish these.I bought one from Northstar custom baits few months ago and I just like some tips on how to fish these in a pond.I mainly fish in ponds.

[Fat-G]

Cast it out, jiggle it. Flip it, pitch it, swim it, really anything. Jigs are my favorite bait to fish PERIOD.

Northstar's quality is the best IMO. I have been looking for THE jig for a while, and the Northstar jigs fit the bill.

[deep]

If you fish texas-rigged plastics a lot, you've got a good starting point. At least that's how I got started with casting jigs.

I suggest reading this thread first.

P.S. My favorite trailer for 1/4 or 3/8 oz jigs are Strike King Rage baby craws.

[BassThumb]

There's a lot of good info on here about Eakins Jigs. I match them up with a threaded Paca Chunk usually, and either fish them with a standard drag/hop retrieve or a slow, bottom bumping swim.

Try a search on Eakins Jigs. It won't let me make a link.

[krisjack69]

There's a lot of good info on here about Eakins Jigs. I match them up with a threaded Paca Chunk usually, and either fish them with a standard drag/hop retrieve or a slow, bottom bumping swim.

Try a search on Eakins Jigs. It won't let me make a link.

Since I never use jigs I dont't know how to flip or pitch to be honest.Never needed to since I fish from the bank.So I cast jig as far as I can and fish it I guess like I would a senko or something.I wish I did have a boat tho but I can't afford one right now since I lost my job april 1st.I thought they were playing a april fools joke on me at first but no.I am glad tho that I dont have to deal with walmart and the rude customers they have.

[Nibbles]

Since I never use jigs I dont't know how to flip or pitch to be honest.Never needed to since I fish from the bank.So I cast jig as far as I can and fish it I guess like I would a senko or something.I wish I did have a boat tho but I can't afford one right now since I lost my job april 1st.I thought they were playing a april fools joke on me at first but no.I am glad tho that I dont have to deal with walmart and the rude customers they have.

I applaud your choice of jigs. NorthStar is probably my favorite brand of jigs to fish with at the moment. As far as how to fish them, you have to keep in mind that jigs excel when you are fishing structure, and sometimes when you're fishing certain types of cover. That means that casting out as far as you can and waiting for a fish to hit it like you would with a Senko doesn't typically work. If you shore fish a lot, it will be difficult to pinpoint underwater structure such as ledges, dropoffs and humps since you don't have a depth finder to work with. You will have to rely on combing the contour of the lake with a jig to get a feel of what the bottom is like. When you do find a couple of ledges, humps or whatever, you will want to drag the jig parallel to that piece of structure, to keep the jig in the area where the bottom of the lake transitions in depth for as long as possible. How you cast will be determined by that - you will have to ask yourself, "Where do I put the jig so that I can drag and hop it alongside that piece of structure?"

Finesse jigs are good for fishing wood cover most of the time as well. Sunken branches, submerged stumps, etc. The round ball head isn't too great for fishing vegetation though - bullet head jigs such as grass jigs are a bit better for that. Toss the jig by some wood cover and let it sink down while keeping the line taunt enough so you can feel a strike right when it happens. Most hits come on the initial fall, and bass are quick to spit the jig back out after mouthing it so you can't have extra line loose or you won't be able to set the hook in time, or sometimes even feel the tick in the line. Once it hits the bottom, you can start retrieving. You can hop it back, drag it back, yo-yo it back, or a combination of the three. Some days the fish will only hit a jig if it is hopped. Other days only if it is yo-yo'd. You will have to figure that part out through experimenting.

Trailers aren't really that important to me. A 4 or 5 inch double tail grub is usually my all-purpose trailer. I typically use green pumpkin and junebug colors. I usually swap out trailers when I want to alter the rate of fall of a jig I'm fishing. For instance, if I'm catching fish near the lake floor that day, I might switch to a non-bulky trailer such as a 4" Larew Salt Craw, since it will help the jig sink faster than if I were using, say, a Zoom Super Chunk. When the fish seem to be biting in the middle of the water column or near the top, I might thread on a bulkier trailer like the super chunk or LFTL Pig Claw to slow down how fast the jig sinks. They are bulky and will displace more water, leading to a slower rate of fall. Or I might just switch to a weightless texas rig in those cases, since I don't need to present my bait all that deep, since I tend to get better hookup ratios with a texas rig than with jig, and because the fish also tend to hold on longer before spitting the bait out.