[oldschool]

Jig fishing is becoming more popular each year and with the Elite series at Amistad being won by a jig fisherman the lure will become more popular.
What most bass fisherman think of when the jig is mentioned is the flipping and pitching presentation, however casting a jig can be even more effective.
What type of jigs can you cast? Here are 10 examples.
1. Spider jigs
2. Football jigs
3. Dart head jigs
4. Shaky or round head jigs
5. Swimming jigs
6. Chatter bait style jigs
7. Under spin style jigs
8. Scrounger head jigs
9. Tail spinner jigs
10. Grass jigs
If you have a question about how to present one of the above or whatever else you may want to know about jigs, post it here and the answers will follow.
Tom
Ps; re: Casting Jigs; the lost art, General Discussion, 07 Jan 07

 

[oldschool]

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

 

[oldschool]

A Xerox copy of the Horizontal Jigging article from In-Fisherman was posted here somewhere? I remember seeing it.
Jared was going to post the same original article, color pictures to read, but hasn't got to it yet, although he did manage to complete 3 of the 4 pages of the In-Fisherman Lake Isabella "A Rare Chance for a World Record Bass".
The Isabella article does have a picture of a spider jig that can be used as a swimming jig. We need to get Jared motivated to complete the magazine tasks! It would also be helpful to move all the "jig" related post to one category for easier searching.
Will answer the questions soon as I can. Anyone is welcome to join in the answering, this an open topic to all.
I have some sketches on how to make a scrounger jig and how to trim pork trailers etc.,to post.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

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

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.

 

[oldschool]

Can someone post a link to Toms article??

Fish4FunInFl posted the Horizontal Jigging article back in Jan '07 in General Discussion...it think. just can't locate it. Jared was going to copy the magazine I sent him and hasn't got to it? I did find the "Cosmic Clock and Bass calender post around the same time and that comes up in the search "cosmic clock".
Tom

 

[oldschool]

Texas Bass Pro,
Jigs can be a year round presentation depending on the style of jig you use. Did you read the prior "Jigs" and "Casting jigs" posts? Active bass will react to faster moving reaction lures like spinner baits, crank baits, jerk baits, buzzers etc., and not look at a jig or plastic worm that is sitting on the bottom. When fish are active use reaction baits, however there are times when the bass are neutral or less active and tend to suspend and at these times a swimming jig (spider with single/double tail grub), dart heads, scrounger jig, underspins and mattes (tail spins jigs) that mimic bait fish work well. The presentation is swimming these lures at the depth the bait are holding. When I find the Horizontal Jigging article, that should help to explain the casting jig presentation. Will get back to you.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

The original Scrounger heads collar is about half as tall and is thicker then knock off Wiggle head collar. Both have about the same action, a tight wiggle when the soft plastic trailer is added. The Scrounger head was made for salt water use and came with an eel like plastic tail trailer and had smaller hooks. The Wiggle head was made to meet a spike in demand back in the 90's, then faded when newer bigger trout type swim baits hit the western market. I have never stopped fishing this lure and it still works very well. Originally used the trout colored 6" sluggo's and that combo works best when trout are targeted. You can add any color sluggo, Fin-s, fluke or what ever that look like a minnow or bait fish. Because the hook rides upward and the head oscillates side to side about 45 degrees when swimming, the scrounger will go through cover very well and gives off a lot of viberations and color flashes like a bait fish. This is a reaction type lure and the bass will case it down from behind most of the time. A high percentage of strikes can happen close to the boat, so be alert for following bass and don't slow it down. I had better success speeding the retrieve up, then slowing down for some reason with this lure. You can't reel too fast if the bass really wants it and thats why a normal retrieve, then faster when you get a curious bump seems to work so well.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

Tom is this the one you are looking for ??

http://thebassholes.com/bassin-forums/index.php?topic=1226.0

That it, the "Horizontal Jiiging" article, plus the weed guard sketch attached! Thanks. Jared is going to copy the magazine article with color.
Tom
Ps; I also sent the sketch to modify the Scrounger heads and can e mail a copy if anyone wants it sooner.

 

[oldschool]

I am left wondering where I can get these scrounger heads at. They would go good with my new magic lure.

Try Clarkbait
Tom

 

[oldschool]

I searched for clark baits and found a catfish bait company by the same name... but thats all i could find so far. (I posted the link I found in the catfish board )

The picture of the Scrounger heads that Bigdaddytowe posted id from Clarkbait, the shark emblem. I tried to list the path, however don't have success on this board.
http://.www.charkbait.com/cs/csc8.htm
Tom
fixed *charkbait

 

[oldschool]

i get a dead link with the address you posted

Sorry! it's "charkbait" not clarkbait, whoops!
Tom

 

[oldschool]

Thanks, someday I may figure all this out. CA is a bizarre place in regards to regulations. We have RoHS, Restriction of Hazardous Substances regulations imposed on us, along with a high population of brain washed environmentalist.
The problem is the rest of the country will eventually have similar regulations.
Protecting the enviorment is good, as long as good science is used and that is a difficult problem to solve.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

Keep in mind that modifying these jigs removes about 1/8 oz of lead. If anyone wants the sketch, I sent it to Jared or PM me.
Also there is a list of 10 jigs to discuss!
Tom

 

[oldschool]

The round head or pea head with the hook eye on top or the newer version with the 60 degree bend flat eye are a good utility jig. The only problem is the jig rolls over on slack line at rest on the bottom. Because of that problem the football or barrel head was developed so the hook would sit upright at rest. The arkie head was simply a evolution to add the fiber weed guard behind the hook eye. The first weed guards were diamond shaped light wire used on early football head , one of the best designs and still available. If you have had the opportunity to look at my jig head design, you may notice that it incorporates the fast falling, stand up head that keeps the hook point from rolling over and goes through rocky structure that is predominate in western reservoirs. Bobby Garland spider jig head design is a knock off of my jig design, with added barb to hold soft plastic grubs. Whatever jig head design you choose select a manufacture that uses sharp good quality hooks that are theproper size for the jigs weight and trailers.
Tom
Ps; Jared could you post the trim the fat sketch sent? like to discus pork trailers.

 

[oldschool]

Interesting why you would trim away the fat on those pork trailers. What is the reason for this exactly? Is it to have less fat or bulk in the way of the hookset? Do you use this pork trailer without a skirt?

Also, I bought the 1/2 ounce and 3/8 ounce scrounger jig heads. How or why would I cut some of the lead off of the head? Do you have detailed sketches of that and reasons why?

Thanks.

If you PM your e email I will send you a copy of the scrounger jig modification sketch from work.
Pork trailers are punched from flat sheets of pork rind, like a cookie cutter. It takes time to properly trim the rinds to have good action or movement as they move through their water column. Time is money and the production pork rind needs to be trimmed to optimize the swimming Morton and flotation. A good pork rind floats, this is a very important factor. If you have a jar of pork trailers, they should all be at the top floating and not at the bottom of the jar. Pork trailers should be soft and very flexible, not stiff. Uncle Josh is the largest production pork rind supplier and makes the poorest quality. The best pork trailers available are Super Pork. I use Super Pork tadpole, frog and a custom that is my design.
By trimming the under fat side or the side opposite the tough skin side, as shown, gives the jig hook more open throat area to get a better hook set. Leaving the tails thinner and wider at the base, then tapering thicker towards the tips allows the tail ends to float high and swim better. Bass focus on and bit the jig primarily because of the trailer action. Pork offers a real live feel, texture and taste to the bass, therefor the bass rends to hold onto to a jig with a pork trailer longer. This is extremely important with big bass because they can and will reject a jig in an instant. Any advantage to allow you to recognize a bite is essential when targeting big bass. Hair jigs and pork trailers are a great combination because the materials look,feel and move naturally to the bass.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

Thought I would reactivate this thread as the fall period is nearly or is upon us depending where you live. Any question that you may want answering, now is a good time.
Tom
note here are some related posts:
http://thebassholes.com/bassin-forums/index.php?topic=1220
http://thebassholes.com/bassin-forums/index.php?topic=1607.0
http://thebassholes.com/bassin-forums/index.php?topic=1278.0

I corrected the bad links. They had "www" in front of "thebassholes" Jim

 

[oldschool]

Remember to wash your hands when you come out of the library.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

Wonder why the sites interest is way down, just look at the response to reposting this jig thread. Oldschool and Oldfart says it all. Looks like you all need some fresh new ideas, think I will take a break at this time.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

so let me get this straight. This thread is about swinbait jig heads because that is what I get out of it?

and Tom what is this 18 Bass over 10lbs in 1 day????

No, this thread is about jigs, casting jigs horizontally instead of flipping and pitching jigs vertically. I call the Scounger jig my 18-10 bait because that is how many bass over 10 pounds I caught off of one point in a few hours with a Scrounger jig. 18-11 is the bass posted on TBH site which was also caught on a casting jig. For the record I have caught several hundred bass over 10 pounds on jigs.Thats why I feel the information is priceless.
Tom

 

[oldschool]

Jim, it sounds like you had a good outing. How did you loose so many Scroungers? They go through nearly everything without hanging up as long as you keep them moving.
Tom