need help with jig fishing

[dar3]

I have never fished a jig till this year. I am presently fishing a football style jig with a 4 inch craw trailer. My question is do you guys fish them similar to a rubber worm texas rigged and bounce off the bottom. I know there are many variables but I would realy like to put a time and place to the jig. Such as rock piles stumps etc. Were do you guys use them most? I know this sounds kind of crazy but you do not know if you do not ask. Thanks in advance I love this site.

D3

[STI]

Use Football Jigs on Rock piles, points, ledges. You can hop it as you said, but I find a very effective way to fish it is dragging just as you would plastic on a Carolina Rig. You can cover water effectively dragging a jig and you will find any cover with it or structure changes. Always use Flurocarbon line so you can feel everything and it has less stretch for that long distance deep hook set. Good Luck.

[King Bait Co.]

I throw a football jig early in the year now. I just drag them on the bottom like a crawdad running a way stiring up some mud. Then let it sit so your craw trailer claws go up like when their in defence mode. I throw them into the lose weeds weeds and in front on the edge of thick weeds. In spawn hit the nest with a havey jig 5/8 or 3/4 if they can't knock it away they eat it. Here's a cool trick I learned using spinnerbaits and it works well with jigs also. If you have tree sticking out of the water cast at them so it hits the tree and makes a thump. Let it drop straight down and when hits bottom if it gets their drag or hop it back with stop and go's. Spinnerbait just bring it back how ever you like. It should make them ambush it or it just them off so they whant to kill it for waking them up. I don't know what its called but we call it Tree Knock'n. The only down fall is it can spook them so if it don't work on a couple pf trees lay off till later. Good Luck STI beat me on this one.

Edited May 18, 2008 by King Bait Co.

[dar3]

I guess I have been kind of fishing it thge wrong way. Keep the advice coming I love it.

D3

[King Bait Co.]

Your not fishing it the wromg way. I do hop or swim them sometimes too. It really comes down to what gets the bite or how you feel confadent how YOU fish it. My works for me but may not work for you. You'll find what works for you the best.

[willie525]

ok you will probably laugh but if you set the hook like me and people think youre going to break your arm when you do it, thats a good way to fish a football head. people will hop and "rip" a jig but i do so violently that for the first few minutes my dad asked me if i had one every hop.

[King Bait Co.]

Ask Him if he's heard them say. Fish like one's their bitting it every cast. In his defence you know you set you hook to hard when all you keep getting is fish lips.

[dar3]

alot of good advice here about this jig fishing. Do you guys ever use just the jig with no trailer and also what other plastics do you use for trailers? The jig is driving me nuts. I know once I get the feel and the confidence it will be ok but I just do not want to give up as I know it is a very versatile bait to throw. Once again thanks for the insight.

D3

Edited May 19, 2008 by dar3
speeling errors

[6_feet_deep]

When fishing a jig the first thing to think about is a crayfish...where do they like to hang out, what do they like to eat and pick at, what time of day are they most active on the water that you're fishing. This will produce a "time of day" so to speak. As the fellows have said, jigs can be fished anywhere for the most part...it's just about finding the right time and place as with all lures. I believe there are around 500 different species of crayfish in North America...google search "your state crayfish" and you should find some links as to the native species in your state which will help with color selection of your jig skirts. The color of a crayfish depends upon their diet and their molting stages...juveniles usually molt (shed their shell) about once a week and they shift colors while doing this. I live in the southeast where most of the crayfish around here are a rusty brown sort of color. That's not to say that I can't go out with a black and blue jig and catch em, but it's a starting point. Rip rap is a great place to fish a jig...fall down, and flipping docks are great places to start as well. A good rule of thumb with a jig is to pay attention to water temp...hotter = heavy weight & usually faster, colder = lighter weight and slower. Go on youtube.com and search for crayfish, watch how they move and swim.

A really good trailer for jigs are the NetBait Paca's...the size and kind of paca depends on the size of the jig, but all of them look really good on a jig. There are Paca Chunk's, Paca Craw's, Baby Paca Craw's...some are solid plastics and some are hollow and float up really nice on the end of your jig giving you a very good "defense stance". The "claws" give a good action moving through the water too!

Jig fishing can be very distressing at first...feeling a bite in strong winds can sometimes cause you to want to throw your fishing equipment in the water and the fish will bite in different ways as well, but it can be one of the most fun ways to catch largemouth in my opinion once you get the hang of it. There is nothing like casting a jig over some rip rap or a rock bed and moving it along when all of the sudden you feel that notable thump, set the hook and the 6 or 7lber on the other end tugs back.

Fishing a jig takes practice, practice, practice, and more practice...did I mention you need to practice? If you mostly fish out of a boat, you can find something elevated to stand on in the back yard and then tie on different size weights to pitch. I used to put metal coffee cans out about 15 feet or so, stand on a cinder block and try to pitch in it. This will help when fishing piers and fall down or bushes.

Good luck!!

[dar3]

6 feet thanks for the excellent post. I actually have three crayfish in my fresh water aqurium which is why I have such and intrest in this style of fishing sense I put them in and did some research on how much crayfish can be part of big bass diets. I use teh aquarium for some float test of lures and to also have live colors under water to try to match the paint scheme. It is amazing the difference under water versus what they look like out of water. Thanks again guys I love this site.

D3

[thedude]

you can honestly fish a TYPE of jig in every type of situation and catch fish.

Football heads w/ craw trailers are great for open water, rocks and 'hard structure'. In weeds and sticks, move to conical shaped jig with a decent brush guard. For the nasty stuff, get a 1/2-3/4oz cone-shaped jig and flip it to holes in the pads or into heavy brush. Any place you would fish a moving bait, try a swim jig with a yammamoto curly tail grub or a swim senko trailer.

A black n blue jig with a pork frog trailer is always a tried and true pattern for BIG fish.

A few tips that will help your catch rate

1. trim the skirt to within a couple millimeters of the bottom of the hook.

2. Trim back the brush guard so that it is just a hair longer than the hook point, the thick factory brush guards often make it hard to keep a fish stuck.

[livelybaits]

I'm kind of different compared to most on this site. I'm all saltwater for snook, redfish and speckled trout down here.

But I use jigs almost exclusively. "Confidence" was already mentioned. Use them until you have "go to" jigs. The other thing is to pay attention to the movement you were giving the lure when you actually got a fish to take a swipe at it. If you can emulate that movement again, you'll probably get another fish to do the same thing.

There are different techniques for different situations down here which I'm sure is the same for you guys. I teach people "finesse" techniques. For the fish down here, finesse means "slow" but with variables such as "hard twitches" when you know a snook is interested in the lure.

[Gloomisman]

Joe S wrote this and its a good little article.

Jig fishing - American Anglers Fishing Network

[BobP]

Hopping, dragging, stroking, deadsticking, swimming - you name it and there's guys doing it with a jig. Basically, any retrieve you use with a worm or other plastic can be used on a jig, so there's no wrong way to fish it - except the one the bass won't bite today. I fish 3/4 oz football jigs in deep water 15-35 ft. Usually with a skirt and a Netbait Paca Chunk Jr or a Zoom Superchunk Jr. I use short hops and pauses to keep in contact with the bottom before trying other retrieves. For shallow wood cover, lighter jigs with more streamlined shapes do better and don't get hung up as much. Flip it in there, let it drop through the cover to the bottom, then hop it once or twice before retrieving it and making a new pitch. When bass are hunkered down in heavy cover, nothing gets to them and gets their attention faster than a jig.

[Kajan]

I'm kind of different compared to most on this site. I'm all saltwater for snook, redfish and speckled trout down here.

But I use jigs almost exclusively. "Confidence" was already mentioned. Use them until you have "go to" jigs. The other thing is to pay attention to the movement you were giving the lure when you actually got a fish to take a swipe at it. If you can emulate that movement again, you'll probably get another fish to do the same thing.

There are different techniques for different situations down here which I'm sure is the same for you guys. I teach people "finesse" techniques. For the fish down here, finesse means "slow" but with variables such as "hard twitches" when you know a snook is interested in the lure.

Purdy much how it is for me also, except da' snook part

And here we call dem Crawfish and ours are brown- Dark red and they are bon' to eat bou'cou'

[KyHillbilly]

There is no wrong way to fish a jig. Just let the fish tell you what they won't. I fish the football ALOT, and if you are having trouble hooking up, use a 7 / 7.5 foot rod, Floro. line, and maybe a lighter wire hook. As far as trailers, any crawfish pattern works great, but don't be afraid to think outside of the box. I've had alot of luck useing brushhogs and 10 inch worms.

[M@TT]

I use flourocarbon around 17lb test

a 3/8 ounce brush jig head for all terrain

a craw chunk not a craw trailer

usually a brown to green. Or a brown to orange tint all of the color schemes have black for contrast

if water is dingy use rattle collars for sure

[BobP]

Jig Colors: Jig skirts and trailers come in a plethora of colors and patterns. If you have seen crawfish on the lake and they have a particular "accent color" like blue, orange or yellow, by all means add it to your jig/trailer by dipping the ends of the trailer in dye. BTW, those color accents exist seasonally, not year round for most craw species. Most craws are dull colored all over, most of the year. You have to be careful that all the options don't drive you crazy and leave you scratching your head instead of keeping your line wet and catching fish. Different color choices will usually work in the same lake at the same time so don't get too wrapped around the axle about color. Where you fish it and how you fish it are the most important things. I carry 4 basic jig and trailer colors: black/blue, brown, green pumpkin (black flake), and white. 70% of the time, I'm throwing green pumpkin or brown. 25% of the time black/blue, and 5% white (for swimming a jig to look like a shad). I usually throw the same trailer color as the jig, but occasionally mix colors just to see if they work. In cold water, I'll first try a jig that sinks slowly when fishing shallow cover. Heavier jigs when the water's hot, for a faster fall rate. But you always want a jig heavy enough to get to the bottom in a reasonable amount of time and heavy enough to stay there while you move it like a crawfish. That keeps it efficient and catches more bass. For me, that means 1/4 or 3/8 oz jigs shallow and 3/4 oz jigs deep. I use Arkie style jig heads in heavy wood, football style in deep rocks, and conical in heavy grass. There are lots of fine details you can use in color, weight, head style, hook style, and retrieve that can make a difference but those things will come after you learn the basics of jig fishing and begin to get particular (some might say peculiar) about the details which matter, based on your particular experience.

[Pitbull Baits]

I flip a football jig into brush piles, next to stumps,deep trees and into willows

[bassfearme]

you have to try the spot remover jig heads. rig it up with a drop shot senko ot trick worm. i just let it go to the bottom for 20ish sec then bounce it back, stopping every 8 feet or so for 10 sec. gotta be on our toes but oh man does it work and are the fish big.

http://s1142.photobucket.com/albums/n616/wayne9291/?albumview=slideshow

all cept one caught with lurecrafts dropshot senko in solid black

[smithbell81]

fishing can be done only in the season because that's how you are going to catch big fishes when bigger one comes out to eat smaller fishes.