structure fishing jigs ?

I spend a lot of time fishing custom hair jigs in deep clear western reservoirs for big bass. If you have a chance read the In-Fisherman article Horizontal Jigging, Feb 1995 issue.
Fluorocarbon line sinks, has exceptional tensile properties that allow you great feed back as to what the jig is doing in deep water. The fact that fluoro has the same light refraction as water helps the line dissipear in water, allowing you to up size the lb test by 10 to 15%. The draw backs are you need to tie knots carefully and lubricate the line with a dressing like TangleFree. Superbraids float and are a poor choice for deep water jigs, you are better off with a premium mono or hybrid fluoro.

During the cold water period when the water temperature within the water column is below 55 degrees, hair jigs with a good floating pork trailer, like Superpork,  may be your best choice.
Water between 25 to 35 feet you may need to go to a 5/8 to 3/4 oz jig if you use line heavier than 14 lb. I use a 7/16 oz jig that I make and use 12 lb fluoro down to 35 feet. However I have 35 years of experience. Detecting bass picking up a jig in deep water takes a tremendous amount of concentration and the majority of fisherman miss them or never know they were bite.
Water temperatures above 55 degrees you can use plastic spider jigs like Yamamotos' Hula grubs successfully and target a wider range of bass sizes.
Tom

I use braid anytime I'm around submerged trees. A fluorocarbon mainline won't hold up when a bass puts a 90 degree bend on it around a snag. Due to practically no stretch the knot will give or the slightest kink in it will break. In that case a fluorocarbon, co-polymer, hybrid, or superline leader attached to a braid mainline works fine, retaining the excellent sensitivity of braid. When braid or other sensitive line is kept tight those slight bites way down deep are much easier to detect. With most mono lines I've tried once a bait gets past 30 feet there is practically no transmission of a bite, the whole thing feeling very dead. Those of us that have put a wildly vibrating crankbait on know the feeling when a point is reached when no vibration is felt due to water resistance. Stretchy line simply can't possibly match the sensitivity of no-stretch line. So jigging deep really requires a sensitive line, little or no stretch, and one that sinks quickly like fluorocarbon, eliminating line bow as soon as possible. If the line is arched, the middle half trying to catch up to the weighted end, sensitivity is lost. That's why heavy mono is a poor choice for jigging deep structure. It floats, has high resistance to water due to line diameter, and absorbs water.

Jim

Ouachita said:

The best non-slip knot I've found for braid is...the Braid Knot. Scroll down to it at http://www.sportsmanschoice.com/terminal_tackle_knots.htm

Jim

Click to expand...

I agree with the braid knot for fluoro or fluoro-hybrids when tying to 3/0 to 5/0 jig hooks. The Palomar seems to work OK for hooks 2/0 and under due to the smaller wire diameter. I personally do not like super braids for jigs in deep water presentations due to flotation characteristics causing convexed line bow and loss of feel. I realize you can watch the line parting the water for an indicator, however the water can be windy and can't see all that well anymore. As for treed bass, just need to take it easy and let them find their way out with light line pressure and cross your fingers. In cold deep water I use 12 to 14 lb Fluoro and rarely loose big bass from line failure. Keep in mind that I use 5/0 Gamakatsu jig hook, very sharp and my own 7/16 oz hair jig with custom SuperPork trailer. Not a lot of variables to contend with and have been fishing this jig forever, so know how it feels from experience. You guys fish vertically down into trees a lot more than we do out west during the cold water period and that makes a big difference.

Yes, we do have a lot of wood and that's exactly where bass love to hold in winter. I wonder whether those standing trees give off some heat. You'd think they would pick some sunlit water or rock bluffs first, but maybe it's because the shad and panfish tend to bury up in the woods in winter. Anyway, I fish jigs, spoons, spinner jigs, etc straight down under the bow transducer, watching for fish activity around the lure. If I don't see lines forming from fish movement I move along. When a nice bass, or really any fish species is hooked down there, they somehow know to wind around as many trees and branches as they can find. I end up tearing fish off, but don't break line. I pull up branches, breaking them off the trees. The bass don't mind the braid, but hardly a crappie will fall for it. Those rascals are the top pros at line winding around trees.

I have come to believe that even with bowed braid it's still the most sensitive for detecting bites. It might take an extra minute to straighten out compared to fluoro, but then with fluoro sinking faster it gets into trouble faster. I suppose it boils down to personal preference. I do use a fluoro leader quite often if the water is really clear. Some folks question the logic there. If using a lighter leader wouldn't you just break off there? I think the war of bringing a bass up out of the woods is one of multiple staged battles. The nearest line bend around a tree is where most of the line pressure is happening. Then a little deeper there's turn #2 , etc., but really just one sharp bend in the line. Each turn of line around wood adds a lot of stress on any line. Eventually some of those twists undo and you have a clear shot at the fish. Until the pressure of wood bends is removed, the main pressure on the leader is between the turn and the hook, so that mainline needs to be able to take a beating. But in those western waters, definitely I'd be using fluoro.

Way back I noticed there at BM we'd cover a subject very thoroughly and a month or two later the same stuff got written up for the magazine, but by then the information came well into a bass season or even after it had passed. If we had the archives we could prove that. We had a similar problem in the group us original members first met online. The owner had a real problem with issuing his weekly tips using a lot of word for word phrasing we wrote first, never giving credit. Hmmm. Maybe that's why they wiped out the.....evidence?

Jim