A Beginner's Guide To Jigs
By Don Applegarth
Jigs have been around almost as long as anglers and they come
in a wide variety of colors, styles and materials. From the beginning
jigs have been a great fish-catching tool, and can be worked
in various ways under a wide variety of conditions.
Most anglers who want to learn to fish jigs get frustrated
and don't spend enough time using them. That is understandable,
as these baits often do not produce as many strikes as some other
baits, and usually require the patience of Job to fish them slowly
enough.
First let's examine exactly what it is that a jig is supposed
to represent to the fish. The most common thought among many
anglers is that a jig resembles a crawfish. True enough, but
only when it is fished like a crawfish and in crawfish colors
and patterns. What about other styles and colors…say a white
bucktail? That certainly doesn't resemble a crawfish to me.
A white bucktail jig with either a red head or a white head
with some red thread tied around the skirt resembles a baitfish
with red gills, in my opinion. Most anglers find these work best
when cast and fished back with a steady retrieve or by using
a hopping technique along the bottom. They are also excellent
baits for trolling as well.
Similar jigs are made with rubber skirts as well, and these
too can be fished in the same manner. Normally, I fish a white
or any light colored jig a bit faster than a darker crawfish
color, simply because I want to imitate baitfish.
Now let's talk about the crawfish colored jigs. These can
be found in just about every shape and size imaginable, and for
good reason. They all work.
I think that overall the most popular colors for jigs anywhere
(universal colors if you will) are black/blue, black, black/chartreuse,
brown, brown/orange, brown/chartreuse, black/brown/purple, and
many combinations of green or green and brown.
All of those colors are great crawfish colors, and will work
under all conditions. Many anglers prefer to use a pork chunk
such as the #11 or #1 Uncle Josh Frogs. Those are great trailers
and will work fine, but they will also dry out, and need to be
kept wet in warmer weather to work correctly.
Another alternative is to use some of the new plastic pork
trailers, such as the Zoom Super Salty Chunk which allows the
same advantages with the slower fall and movements of the pork
tails, but also allows you to be carefree about the risk of it
drying out. Another advantage to using these types of trailers,
is the fact that they also allow a wider range of colors, and
can be customized easily with a dye or dye marker pen.
Many companies also offer a crawfish trailer as well, and
these can be deadly at times. Another advantage to using these
baits, is that they can also be fished on a Texas rig or Carolina
rig and therefore are much more versatile than the standard chunks.
A Spider Grub or Twin Tail grub is another alternative to
fishing a jig. These can be worked in the same fashion as other
jigs and are in my opinion the easiest of all jigs to learn.
Simply rig them, and fish them as you would a worm. The swimming
tail action will draw strikes, and they can be fished a bit quicker
than the standard pork chunks. The slender body will allow them
to fall a bit more quickly and therefore you must have several
sizes of jigheads available to adjust the fall when needed. Most
times I want the bait to get down pretty quickly, and the deeper
I fish it, the heavier I want the head to be. The added weight
gives me a much better feel and allows me to stay in contact
with the jig much easier. It not only allows you a better feel
for the bottom's contour and make up, but also makes strike detection
easier.
A twin-tailed grub can be deadly fished with a soft plastic
skirt or behind either a hair or rubber skirted jig. It is a
very versatile bait.
Another thing to consider about jigs is the type of weedguard
you will be using. If you are fishing open water, then no weedguard
is needed. For most of my fishing along rocky areas with little
heavy cover, I use a leadhead with a twin wire, which I spread
to form a V making it pretty weedless but still allowing an easy
hookset.
If I am fishing thick cover and pitching or flipping, then
I use a heavier head, which is streamlined and penetrates easily
through the thick stuff. A good monofilament bristle guard is
the most commonly found for this type of jig, but some companies
such as Bass Browser Jigs use a wire guard making it easier to
set the hook, and still quite weedless.
If you are fishing a bristle guard, be certain that you spread
the strands apart so that they form a slight V and are thin enough
for the hook to penetrate, and still come through thick cover
easily. This takes some practice, but it is not difficult to
learn, just hard to remember at first. If you do not spread the
guard, then you end up missing a lot of fish when trying to set
the hook.
Sometimes fishing a jig requires it be dropped into a specific
spot, and lifted and dropped a couple if times in that same spot
to trigger strikes from fish holding tight to cover. Flipping
and pitching are good examples of this technique. There are also
times when the fish want the jig slowly crawling or hopping up
and down across the bottom. The best advice is to experiment,
and let the fish tell you what they want on any given day.
Learning to fish a jig requires determination, and time. It
is not a technique that will produce numbers most times, but
it is a technique which could produce the largest fish of your
life. It is an essential weapon to master and make you a much
more versatile angler. Once you catch a few on the bait, you
will gain the confidence it takes to throw it.
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