If I had to pick one lure that I could say with confidence I could catch quality fish on 365 days out of the year it would be a jig.
Second to a swimbait, I probably fish a jig more than any other lure on my boat, and for good reason. I have caught more bass in the 5 to 10 pound range on jigs than I can even keep track of.
I like fishing jigs deep in rocky areas more that anything, so I fish a lot of football head jigs in 1/2 size up to 1 oz which I refer to as my 1 ton jigs. I keep my colors simple. For the most part if I am fishing clear water I use mostly brown and orange. In dirtier water I switch over to brown and purple. My reasoning behind this is that in the clear water I get a natural presentation, where the fish are extremely sight oriented feeders. In the dirtier water the fish are a little more conditioned to use thee other senses to feed, so when they come in contact with the brown and purple it will show up quicker to them in the murky water. I am a big fan of June bug as a trailer color on this set up.
I have a friend that dives a lot of lakes for me and catches a lot of crawdads. The colors do vary a lot, but brown with a little orange is the most common here in Northern California. Also – believe it or not – the bass really seem to prefer the smaller crawdads as a regular meal. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense because of the ease of eating and digestion. As crawdads get bigger, they get a harder shell, as well as a bigger set of pinchers. I don't know about you, but I would rather not have my lunch bite back if I could avoid it. What I am getting at is that in most situations with jigs bigger is not necessarily better.
On to fishing them:
There are a million ways to fish a jig. In fact, I don't know if there is a wrong way to do it. I have my favorite ways to work them, but the most important factor time. Some starting tips include always fishing them on fluorocarbon line. This is going to give you the best contact possible with your bait so you can detect even the lightest pick up. What I have found over the years is that the bigger the fish the harder to detect the bite. These fish are capable of sucking up so much water you don't really get much of a tick-tick type of a bite.
This is a style of fishing where you really need to be on your game and paying attention.
Rod recommendations
I like to fish jigs on a rod 7' at least. You need to be able to pull up a lot of line on a hook set. I prefer a pretty heavy jig rod but everyone is going to have their own comfort zone.
Where I start
Most of my jig fishing is done in rocky ares, drop offs, walls, bluffs, etc. I like to start on points and areas surrounding them. I'll usually bounce downhill or pull along at a certain depth parallel to a certain depth until I find where most of the fish are concentrated. This can be a real crapshoot at times and considering the forage you are imitating it makes sense. Shad travel together and stay together as they move most of the time. Crawdads roam alone and hide most of the time, this is why I think bass are so willing to hit a jig. My theory is that they are more conditioned to come across lone crawdads as they go about their daily business. Whether or not they are in the mood to eat or not is more or less up to them. Where as if you find a ball of shad busting the surface, more than likely the bass in the area are actively feeding.
Most of my retrieves are based on what I have seen of crawdad behavior in the water and what they do when they are in distress or feel like they are in trouble. If you are to go down and pull a crawdad out from under a rock, swim up a bit, and drop it in front of a bass, the crawdad will swim frantically backwards to get away. Bass can not handle this and love to eat crawdads when their they are at a disadvantage. So one of my favorite retrieves is to pop my jig off the bottom and let it fall. to imitate this distress. I do this pretty quickly, and most of my bites are going to be on the fall. I even use this method in cold water. If this does not work for me, I like to drag them on the bottom slowly, always keeping a tight line and contact with the bait. 90% of the time one of these two methods works for me.
I like to fish jigs anywhere from 5 to 60 feet of water. As a general rule, anything below 15 feet I'll fish 3/4 or 1 ton jig. But it really depends on when the fish are hitting the bait and how aggressively they are hitting.
Pictured: Bass Patrol 3/4 oz. jig with Little Creeper crawdad trailer
The jigs themselves
My favorites include Jig Monster football head jigs, Revenge Baits football head jigs with a Yamamoto Hula Grub, and the recently discovered Fin Tech Title Shot jig heads with a custom made crawdad trailer. I prefer the Hula Grubs on days where the bite proves to be slower.
Pictured above a 3/4 oz football jig head (brown) and a 3/4 oz Fin Tech Title Shot weedless head (green)
The materials jigs are made of are endless. What I am looking for are a good quality hook first and foremost. Some prefer silicone over rubber and vice-versa. I don't really care either way myself. Just fish your confidence no matter what – if you're fishing something you don't think is going to get bit, you might as well not even be fishing.
