Jig fishing tips

Tom, I would like to know quit a bit about proper jig fishing as I am pretty limited with my knowledge on them. Basically I have fished them only sporadically and lately all I do with them is to flip them into heavy grass mats. That seems to work well out here. We don't have deep water nor do we have rocky bluffs or many points either We have grass and more grass.

But in general, I would like you to share what you know fishing with them. Some do's and don't's if you will. Common mistakes, and tricks you have learned on how to detect the bite, set the hook, etc.

For instance do you set the hook with a straight up hook set or to the side? If I where to guess I would say a straight up hookset only. That is what I do and it seems to work. I had a friend who was pitching alongside me a week ago in a small tourney and he lost several fish as I noticed he was setting the hook to the side and the jig was probably pulling right out of the mouth? Is that what you have found?

In deep water like in that Amistad tourney do you hop the lure up a foot at a time or just slowly drag it along the bottom and pause it every few feet? Which technique is best? Or is it a try both and see which one works best at that time? Also, what weight jig do you use and why? What dictates using a 1/4 ounce, 1/2 ounce, 3/4 ounce or 1 ounce and higher jig in deep water? I could say in grass use whatever is lightest that will still allow the bait to punch through the grass. Most of the time a 1/2 ounce works but sometimes I have to use a 1 ounce jig head. What colors do you suggest and why? What rod set up do you suggest when fishing jigs? Med Heavy? Do you like fast tip rods or soft tip rods?

Some of this might just be preference but you seem to do quite well with this type of fishing so it is why I ask.

Thanks.

For flipping & pitching jigs I would suggest that you get Denny Bauer's Jig Secrets book. Denny had made a career pitching jigs into heavy cover.
I do not get the opportunity to fish heavy cover very often and use the heaviest jig with a bullet style head, Gamakatsu cross eye hook. Tru-Tungsten makes a good jig for this. The head needs to penetrate the weeds without grass hanging up on the line. Reaction Innovations Beavers work well for a trailer because they are streamline enough to follow the jig through the cover. Vertical jigging like this requires a 7 1/2 foot heavy, fast action rod so you can both pitch and hook set by snapping the rod upwards. The trick for me is to drop the tip slightly as you feel the tic and snap set against the lose line. This is the opposite hook set you do with the casting presentation, it's more like a Texas rig worm hook set. The 3/4 ounce tungsten head with 5/0 hook is a good all around jig for pitching and I prefer 65 lb superbraid for heavy cover.
The Amistad deep water presentation used a 3/4 oz football head, 25 to 35 feet deep on secondary ledges. The presentation was very similar to Horizontal Jigging article, except Remitz was using his rod to slide the jig a foot, then keeping the line over his index finger to feel strikes. When Remitz felt a bite he reel set and followed by a rod set. It's been my experience that you miss over 50% of the strikes by taking time to lower the rod to reel and rod set. If Remitz had kept his rod pointed at the jig instead of holding up ward and moved this jig with his reel, line over his finger, he would have felt more strikes sooner and caught more bass, As it was Remitz was the only angler targeting these fish and could afford to miss several strikes. He was lucky that so many big bass were staged on those ledges.
My jig is a 7/16 oz with 5/0 Gamakatsu hook and works well for me everywhere.
If the wind is blowing hard and I'm fishing over 25 feet deep, then I will go to a 5/8 or 3/4 oz football head. I use a 6 1/2' med/hvy fast action Lamiglas jig rod, 14 lb fluorocarbon Sunline for my horizontal casting jig presentation. To effectively use lighter weight jigs, 1/4 oz, you need 8 to 10 lb line or more patients then I have to get the jig down into water over 15' feet or more. If fishing spotted bass, then I use the 1/4 and spinning tackle with 8 lb fluorocarbon line, unless it's windy, then I use my 7/16 oz jig.
My favorite color is blk/purple/brown/red crystal flash strands or in the spring or for spots I like to add dark green. Trailer should be one of those colors predominately and I let the bass decide what color trailer they want. Everyone back east like blk/blue, out west you can only get bit on that combination at night, so it is a good poor light or off color water color.
Tom

are these the styles that were talking about,The ones that resemble fish heads.

bigdaddytowe said:

are these the styles that were talking about,The ones that resemble fish heads.

Click to expand...

The Wiggle head is a knock off of the original Scrounger and was made by Lead Masters, Hesperia CA. Bill hasn't molded any since 1995, so the ClarkBait inventory may be the only available while they last. There was a lot of interest in this lure after the word got out about how I was catching bass and several tournaments were won by them before the original Castaic swimbaits came along. I sent Jared a sketch on how to modify this lure for big bass, however the Wiggle head has a larger hook than the Scrounger so you may not need to cut the hook off, just trim the tapered lead back to 3/16 behind the polyu collar. Also do not use a clip, tie directly onto the hook eye. It's seems to be important to bass that this bait has a tight wiggle like a Rapala and not wide wobble like a crank bait when retrieved, for unknown reasons. I use Lunker City Sluggo or Fin-S 6" soft plastics and Reaction innovation makes a 6" minnow that works well. This jig head is good at going through brush, trees ect, not to good for heavy weeds. Deep water, you cast this out and let it sink down to the depth or to the bottom, then crank it back at a steady pace up hill or parallel through the bass. When you feel a tap or bump start cranking faster, the bass will then case it down and eat it. Some strikes are just like a crank bait, either way reel set and then swing your rod. The collar should be upright.
http;www.clarkbait.com/csc8.htm
Tom
Ps; this is the lure I caught the 18 bass over 10 lbs on in one day, the 1810 lure. I've only use the 1/2 & 3/4 oz sizes because of targeting big bass and the reason for modifying the hook so it sets back further to increase hook to strike ratio.