by Bruce Middleton, June 19, 2006

Jigs are hard to use correctly but you need them on your side.

Jigs are one of the most popular lures in all of fishingdom there are used in fishing for both fresh and saltwater and are used for fish as small as perch and crappie and as large as halibut. The reason for this popularity is because of its simplicity of design and the fact that it can be fished under all types of weather and water conditions.

It must be realized that a jig can be pulled along the bottom, hopped or even swam like a swim bait in order to take fish. But this article deals with jigs fished for bass. The why to, where to and when to of bass jig fishing. So get comfortable and settle back and read and learn everything there is to know about bass jig fishing.

It’s spring now and every thing is finally turning green, the days are getting longer and the daytime temperatures are rising. Football season has come and gone and ‘Boys of Summer’ have just started playing baseball. I love that commercial on TV that talks about the ‘Post Super bowl Stress Disorder’ (pronounced pissed). Boy how the times have changed. I remember a time when Archie Bunker was considered borderline comedy. Just shows you how old I am, but I still love a good joke. We are looking at cutting the grass again and the gardeners are already coming in the house with dirty knees and gloves. You just have to love spring.
The lake waters however, are still cold. Bass metabolism is still slow and they are found schooled up in deep oxygen rich water. They expend as little energy as possible for each calorie of food they take in and it takes four times longer to metabolize that food than it does when the water is 71 degrees or warmer. Plastics (worms and tubes) along with jigs and drop shot rigs are some of the best ways to fish for these slow moving bass at this time. But as the water begins to warm up so does the bass’s metabolism. They slowly become more and more active moving up out of deep water into the relatively warmer water and shallower parts of the lake in search of food. This is called the prep-spawn.

There is no set time or water temperature that triggers this event although when the water rises to 55 to 63 degrees more and more bass are seen in more and more shallower water. Not all bass start the pre-spawn, spawn and post spawn at the same time. This is Mother Nature’s way of preserving the species should some climatic cataclysm happen.

Bass travel along predictable routes, mostly well established, from the deep water to the flats and finally to the spawning beds and then back again. Much like the rut the deer go through, bass spawn is a time when bass seem to throw caution to the wind. There is great competition for food, females and the best bedding sites. This is a fisherman’s dream. The bass are aggressive, protective of their nests and their mates, they are hungry and they are horny. A funny word to use to describe bass, but still accurate.

Pre-spawn strategies are numerous as the bass move from deep water to shallow to feed several times a day. They are looking for crawfish and minnows. This makes lure choices easy and the type of presentation even easier. Remember these bass are bulking up for the spawn and some of the biggest bass of the year can be caught now. The deadliest duos of baits at this time are plastics (worms and tubes) and jigs. Basically they are fished the same way, so I will concentrate on how to fish with a jig the rest of this article. Remember that a jig can be fished all year round and not just in the spring.

A Jig is the most productive lure of all the bass lures on the market today. It is also the hardest lure to learn how to use correctly and well. It is the most productive lure because it is fished all year round. The difficulty with using a jig is knowing when a fish has the lure verses when you are just dragging bottom, as well as how to work the jig to get the most out of it. You usually don’t feel a strike on a jig like you do on a crank bait or a top water lure. A strike on a crank bait is a slam while a strike on a jig just feels heavier than normal while retrieving it, most of the time. You have to be much more diligent about your sense of touch and watching your line for movement on the fall and at rest. 75% of all strikes with a jig happen on the fall. You have to be able to recognize if it doesn’t fall as far as it’s supposed to. Does the jig feel heavier than normal when you try to hop it? Is that bottom or a fish? It takes a lot of time on the water to be a good jig fisherman but it will pay off many fold in the end.

A jig is the highest percentage hook-up lure there is. It doesn’t cover a lot of water area but other than the worm it’s the most natural bait there is. It looks like a crawfish, especially with a trailer attached. With a pork or plastic trailer attached it’s a formidable tool for taking bass. It is also known for its ability to set records by catching the largest bass in lakes.
The jig will forever be known for its prowess in cold water but pros have proven over and over again that it is a lure for all seasons. During summer drought conditions fishing jigs in shallow water can be deadly to the bass looking for crawfish while on foraging expeditions on the flats. No serious bass fisherman would be caught dead without a jig in the boat no matter what time of year it is. It is the top lure even though it’s the hardest to learn how to use well. Most beginners don’t spend enough time with a jig learning how it works. Most will fish with everything else before touching a jig. Also most beginners don’t understand what slow means when it comes to a jig. Most get hung up on the bottom a few times or don’t catch anything right away and call it quits or they can’t tell a strike from a stick. You just have to stay with it. If you take just a jig out with you for one full day of fishing and use nothing else, by the end of the day you will be able to tell a stick from a strike, believe me. Easy, gentle hopping of the jig and resting it for 15 seconds after each hop is the best way to start. Soon you start to feel the bottom, the weeds and the sticks. You will feel tiny holes and big stumps. You will feel a bass bite the jig and run with it shaking his head the whole time. That is a sure sign you have a fish on, because sticks don’t shake their heads.

Jigs are hooks with various sized leads attached just behind the eye of the hook. Skirts are plastic dressings that add color and movement to the jig. Rattles are added too and imitate the crawfishes exoskeleton clicking as it moves, a very natural sound. It is a hopping lure used on the bottom. Weedless versions are fished in heavy cover where they resist snagging objects like sticks and weeds.

1/4 to 3/8th ounce jigs are the best weights for casting and skipping under docks and make the smallest splash per distance cast. Lighter jigs are harder to cast and heavier jigs hit the water with great force if cast very far, scaring the bass.

Many anglers use trailers on a jig. This is a plastic or pork, in many shapes, added to the jig to slow its fall in the water and to add bulk to the jig. When using a jig, adding a trailer will add more area to the body but not much weight, therefore the jig will fall slower. This makes the jig stay in the strike zone for a longer time as it slowly falls to the bottom. The only time to use a heavy jig is when you are ‘punching’ through heavy cover to penetrate a weedy surface to get to the relatively open under side. Jigs with a curly tail worm will, in many instances, out perform a jig with a pork or plastic crawfish trailer. The long wavy action of the worm has a different action than a crawfish and it has less mass. The extra action of the worm waving around as it falls draws many great strikes.

Cast the jig out and let it fall to the bottom. Keep the line semi-tight so if any strike happens on the way down you are in contact with the lure. If you don’t keep the line semi tight, you will never see or feel a strike as the jig falls towards the bottom and you will miss a great deal of bass. If you keep the line to tight, the jig will fall in an arc instead of floating down to the bottom naturally. A semi tight line is accomplished by reeling in almost all the slack but keeping just enough that lifting the rod slightly removes that slack and puts you in full contact with the jig. In this manner you can intermittently keep in touch with the jig as it falls. This is semi tight, a free falling jig that you can instantly stay in contact with.

Slowly inch the jig along the bottom so it looks like a crawfish moving about. Don’t use big movements, as this is unnatural. In warm summer water speed up the retrieve up so the jig is crawling quickly across the bottom Black jigs work best on large mouth bass and black/brown jigs work best on small mouth bass, in both clear and dingy water. Large mouth bass also like a black jig and a trailer with some chartreuse in dingy water like a black crawfish with chartreuse pinchers. Bass always strike a black jig or black jig and a blue trailer.
Also pitch and flip this jig into 12 inches of water or less. After your jig hits bottom, dead sticks it. That is, just lets it set there for a minute or longer. In spring when spawning bass are spooky, they may make several passes by the jig looking at it before they decide to move in and strike it. If you move the jig too soon and out of their bedding area they will ignore it and let it go by. During cloudy and cold weather don’t hop the jig, rather, drag it making it look like a crawfish scurrying along the bottom. Use what is known as a take it or leave it approach. Either the bass will hit the jig or not, so why change colors, weights, trailers, etc. Also use both plastic and pork trailers, whichever one serves to catch the most bass that day, not dependent on the water temperature.

Fishing the outside of vegetation in 20 feet of water around stumps, or ditches and channels is ideal jig country. Hopping a jig about 3 to 6 inches at a time along the bottom is the best presentation. Since making contact with cover with any lure is a great way to trigger a reaction strike, use your jig to bump into any cover on the bottom you can. Besides the bottom, bump into limbs, rocks, brush, etc. Banging it around drives bass crazy and they just have to eat it. Color is not as important as weight here. You may need a heavy jig to penetrate heavy top cover or to get through grass. Most jigs are weedless so that worry is minimal
You can substitute a jig for the sinker in a Carolina rig. This is a terrific way to have two lures in the water working for you at one time. A jig on the bottom, inching along and a floating worm above, both attracting and catching bass.

Jigs are one of the few lures that you can effectively use in the winter and in very cold water because it can be fished so slowly. You can literally drop it in front of a bass’s nose and leave it there for him to bite.
The best pre-spawn jig and pig colors are black/blue, green/pumpkin and watermelon seed with a small white grub trailer.

In late spring and all of summer with a really big blow down tree start at the center of the tree trunk and work out toward the ends of the limbs with a jig. Black, black/blue, black/brown, brown/purple, black/purple and chartreuse are the better colors.

Pork rinds can be made more flexible by 1- making 3 V cuts in the fat part of the body or 2- taking them out of the jar and adding scent in a zip-lock bag and then placing the pork in the bag and pounding it flat.
In cold-water temperatures of 38 to 40 degrees a bass will not tend to chase a lure. So you must fish the bottom in a very slow and deliberate manner. Winter water is very clear. Bass will hold to deep water along edges of channels or depressions. This is an excellent time to use jigs and a trailer of pork rind. Do not use crawfish colors like reds and oranges, as this is unnatural bait at this time of year and the bass know this.

On logs lying on the bottom that you can see, use a jig ¼ to ½ ounces with a rattle. Black/blue is a good color to start, with a black/blue curly tail worm as a trailer, except for gin clear water where a green pumpkin colored jig is better, and a brown pork trailer. Pick apart the logs, dropping the jigs into any pocket or holes between the logs and under any place where logs overlap each other. What you are looking for is hiding places that bass use to rest in or use as ambush points. Since jigs are basically snag proof, they can go in and out of log with great ease.

With an isolated stump, use a jig with trailer and run the jig up and down all sides of the stump to cover it thoroughly. Also because the jig is on the sides of the stump it will be out of the weeds and make an easy target for the bass to strike at it.

When fishing a downed tree with a jig or other lure, don’t let the line rub on any of the tree limbs. The line rubbing across the wood underwater makes an unnatural sound that alerts fish to danger. This is called the violin string effect and it isn’t good. Bang the lure off the log and limbs as often as possible but not the line.

When hopping a jig alone the bottom the amount of hop you impart to the jig depends on the water temperature. The warmer the water the higher the hop and therefore the longer the distance between landings. But remember you are trying to imitate a live crawfish coming out of cover and hopping to a new location. Don’t get carried away and cover 5 feet at a time. And remember to go slow.

Swimming a jig is becoming more and more popular. With a trailer attached, the legs of the trailer fluttering behind, a slow cast and retrieve presentation is catching more and more bass in tournaments and on local lakes. The question is, when would you use such a tactic? Answer, anytime you would normally throw a crank bait or a spinner bait into shallow water searching for shallow to mid range bass. The added motion of the trailer legs of a pig or other long legged trailer while swimming is an irresistible action that bass will not ignore. While this tactic has been a long held secret among touring pros for some time now, word has leaked out and its popularity has just begun to grow drastically over the last few years.

One important key to this tactic is fishing low in the water column and making contact with any weeds, trees limbs, stumps or any other structure or cover that might be found under the water. This sets up a reaction bite. While some may see this as a subtle presentation since it doesn’t make as much noise as a spinner bait or a crank bait, crashing around the bottom makes a lot of noise and it doesn’t mean it’s less effective. In fact it seems to activate bass that would normally not bite a spinner or crank bait as it has a broader appeal to both active feeders but also less aggressive bass. And because of the weed guard it can and should be fished in very heavy cover like weeds, lily pads and heavy cover as well more open areas of the lake or stream.
When using a jig and pig one of the best combinations of colors is black and brown. If the jig is brown use a black pork, if the jig is black use a brown pork. The other two basic colors that work well include brown and green. These four colors will cover 90% of all the situations a jig and pig are used for. But if you can catch a local crawfish in a trap just before you go fishing, match the hatch works best. This means match the colors of the crawfish as closely as you can with the pork trailer and the jig. The pork to use is an Uncle Josh # 11™ which is a crawfish shape, but you should check the trapped crawfish for size too while your looking at the color. Also too live crawfish, as bait is a great choice of baits alone or added to a jig.
Jig colors and pork combinations use the basic four colors of brown, black, blue and red. Brown and black are the most popular colors. A black jig with a brown pork trailer or vise versa make the best combination. Pork eels, frogs, crawfish; worms and grubs are all forms of pork trailers. When done fishing with a pork trailer, remove it from the hook and put it back in the jar or place the whole jig and pig in a good zip-lock bag with some water in it so it doesn’t dry out. Squeeze most of the air out of the zip-lock before sealing it to reduce its size. This is not a necessary step with plastics, as they don’t dry out.

Brush piles, newly sprouted lily pads, rocks, piers, points, posts, retaining walls and humps are all primary targets to fish in spring. Most people fish the deep drop offs in 50-degree water but flats in shallow water have the aggressive bass on them. A light 3/16th ounce jig and trailer (pork) worked fairly slowly works best. In summer channel ledges, humps and weed break lines are good structure points to fish.

Jig fishing is best in off colored water. In summer drop jigs farther off shore into vegetation through holes and jig it up and down vertically from the side of the boat. This manner of jigging is quite effective in the dog days of summer when the bass are not inclined to move about much.

In Spring hop a jig along the shoreline vegetation parallel to the clear area just inside the clear area as feeding bass will come out of the vegetation and move in the open water to migrate while hunting. And don’t forget docks, jigs work especially well from spring until late fall around and under docks where bass hide.
It takes a lot of time on the water to be a good jig fisherman but it will pay off many fold in the end. The jig is the hardest lure to learn how to use truly well. Once mastered it will become your go-to bait no matter the weather, time of day, time of year, or type of water. I am not trying to scare you away from jig fishing, but just the opposite. The jig is so productive that it is the first lure you should learn to master. After fishing with a jig long enough you will begin to feel everything on the bottom and you will recognize weed, sticks and rocks. You will begin to trust your sense of touch, which is a huge leap forward. Soon, you will become aggressive with it and begin to attack brush pile and the like with great confidence. When this happens, you’re a jig fisherman. It’s the hardest lure to master but the single most productive, year-round lure in your tackle box and you need it on your side.

bpmiddleton@peoplepc.com