deep

Finesse jig to me means the finesse cut; you snip off the outer layer of skirt real short so that it flares out. You can do the finesse cut on ANY jig- any jighead, any hookstyle. Jighead style depends on type of cover you're fishing; hook style (angle, shank length, gap, gauge) depends on if you're fishing them on long casts or short-line situations. Choose your weedguard depending on the cover type too. P.S. for pitching/ flipping around wood, the usual "brush jig" might work well.

Good stuff! WTG.

Bottom contact baits low and slow on long casts. Jerkbaits are cool too.

Jeweler's scale. You can buy one for like $5 from Ebay.

Just my 2 cents, but I think they don't really want your frog. (Try another bait.) Good luck!

Hoping to get a little discussion going on the direction (uphill/ downhill/ vertical/ horizontal) our lures need to travel during different seasons of the bass calender. I understand the idea that the food chain tends to travel shallower during spring etc. But, would the daily rhythm affect this in any way? Also, what about winter? I never really quite figured it out why vertical is better during winter. The "why" probably isn't as important as "what", but still. Thanks,

Helium3 ripping some lips here on bottom contact baits. The only Kistler I've ever fished; but seems to be a nice rod for the price.

Man, I can't stop laughing. You're trying to catch fall bass in 50 degree water? (If you think I'm a heartless moron, yes, you're right.) Did you see any surface activity from bass feeding on baitfish? When that stopped, the water turned cold, and the bass went deep. I do have a question though. How exactly are you measuring the water temperature? If you're measuring just the surface temp, acquire a thermometer with a probe, and stuff the probe down the gullet of the next bass you catch to know the temp at the depth the bass are. I also have a suggestion. If the water is really below 55F (where the bass are), then it's winter, and maybe you should concentrate more on the main lake structures (not cover) in the lower third (the third closer to the dam) of the reservoir. Good luck.

Brandon Palaniuk.

Lots of great inputs. Thanks everyone. A little bit about me. I have been fishing jigs for close to 4 years, caught lots and lots of fish on them, pitching and casting. More than I caught on plastics and hardbaits combined I think. So yes, I know how to detect the tell-tale signs of the jig bite. Most everyone is good with detecting the obvious bites. Those are the easy ones and are smaller fish. There's one slight problem though. I target bigger fish, and inspite of fishing jigs a lot, only 2 of my top 10 (these are all 7#+ NLMBs, not giants, but biiig fish) are on jigs. (One came off a bed, the other 7 are on 8" hudds.) Now, Tom tells me jigs and worms are more appealing than swimbaits for neutral bass. So I should be catching more big fish on jigs than swimbaits. (Worms are well, another can of worms. Never caught anything really big on them, maybe I'm missing worm bites too.) But I'm not.

I don't buy into the theory of enabling a bass to "find" your bait. LMB is the apex predator in most lakes, you really think it needs crutches like bright colors or loud rattles to find your bait? The species would have been extinct if they did. Nature tries to blend in, not stand out. What really matters is if the bait selection, presentation, and color makes the bass "want" your bait. Let's face it, none of our artificial baits are a 100% realistic. Swimbaits, jigs, worms might come close though. Think about a jig. Does it really look like a crawfish? No it doesn't. Never seen a crawfish with a skirt. What matters is that a jig- through its profile and action- gives off enough illusions to fool a bass into thinking it's a crawfish. If you're fishing for small bass, then some/most of the time color might not matter. They are aggressive enough anyway. No shame in admitting you fish for small bass. I do that maybe 25% of the time out on the water. Heck, people fish for bluegills, crappies, even stocked trout. For larger bass, color DOES matter. Not sure how it works for plastics (still trying to figure that one out), but one thing I know- learnt it the hard way- if you fish jigs in my two reservoirs in the most popular color nationwide, your chances of catching a 3#+ fish goes way down.

Paddletails, craws, grubs, whatever else you have, they all work. If I'm primarily fishing on the bottom with a standup jig + a craw type trailer, and I want to quickly check for a few casts if they want a faster bait mid-column, I'm not going to tie on a swim jig and thread on a paddletail.

Why do you want a cheap fluoro (why not a good copoly) and what techniques are you looking to fish with it?

Spinning or casting?

Yes Sir. Not doing much catching though. Fishing for snakeheads and catfish got a little boring, so I decided to come back and try for some bass!

Good job.

Actually I'm on Tom's side on this one. Can the 893 cast a senko? Absolutely! Would be far from my first choice though. I guess my casting skills suck (truth), but I couldn't get the distance I wanted; and when I tried I little too hard, I got overruns (200 size reel). Spinning gear rocks for 5" and under senkos. Didn't matter a whole lot though, since the 893 was my jig rod (back then). It's phenomenal with 1/4 to 3/8 oz jigs (+trailer) for casting or pitching. I haven't fished a senko in ages; but they (GYCB ones) did tend to tear after 2 or 3 fish on the same bait.

I'm curious though, why would strike detection be better with no weedguard? The bass holds on to the bait longer?

Thanks everyone. Night fishing is not something I like to do a whole lot, not sure why; just don't like it. But I can suck it up. My custom jigs don't have one to begin with!

12# CXX is NOT 12 pound line! It's a 20# line. It has the same diameter as 20# Tatsu, and 20# line is pretty thick for bass-sized baitcasters. KVD L&L works well.

I'm hoping Tom (WRB) will post an answer to this, but anyone else qualified to do so, please help me out. I recall Tom posting that (I'm paraphrasing): A. Over 90% of jig strikes go undetected by the average angler, and that, B. He (Tom) can detect at least some of the missed strikes and can try to catch those particular missed bass. By jigs, I strictly mean casting jigs fished horizontally on a long cast. My problem is that I'm feeling only two or three half-bites or might-have-been-bites for every jig fish I catch (I'm not even sure these are bites to begin with). I almost always fish the same weight jig, and fish jigs a fair percentage of time on the water. I'm pretty familiar with the bottom I'm fishing. I'm watching and feeling the line, which is a premium fluorocarbon. So, obviously I'm missing bites. How can I improve my strike detection ratio? Also, how can I try to catch the fish I miss? Tom wasn't clear on this. Throw back a worm maybe? Thanks,

12# FC on one, 55# braid with 10# mono leader on another. Of course, since almost every company understates the braking strength, the 10# mono is thicker than the 12# FC lol.

VMC, Gamakatsu or Owner depending on the bait.

Wouldn't the scent kill the action (of the hair)? Never tried that, and curious.

Do you leave trailers on jigs? Salted plastics cause rust pretty easy. I wash the jig and get the salt off before I dry it.