ok ill admit that ive never fished a jig except forabout 5 minutes ....i was wonderin if any of u guys could help me out an give me sum tips

thanx in advance

Tip 1.- fish it for more than 5 minutes

lol yea well i was short on time and only got out a couple casts b 4 we had to leave

I had never fished jigs before last Sunday either.  So I fished one over some rockpiles.  They weren't real rough, but they scratched all the paint off the bottom.  And, I only fished it for about 10 minutes.  Is this common, or did I get cheap jigs?

My first piece of advice is to go out and search the articles on this site about jigs and read them.

Second when you go out to fish, if you truly want to learn jigs, take only one rod and only take jigs with you.  They can get very frustrating very quickly so if you only have them to fish, you will be forced to slow down and give them a good, honest try.  

Third, you are going to miss fish because it's not a hard, slamming bite like a crankbait or a spinnerbait.  If something feels different, or if you feel a thump, or you line gets heavy, or something feels mushy on your line...set the hook.  

Last, don't get frustrated.  It will take you most of the summer to build confidence in a jig, but once you do you will most likely prefer fishing it to anything else.  

Hawgin, you couldn't have said it any better. I was in the same boat you guys were in 2 years ago. I finally made myself fish a jig and nothing but a jig. After about 6 hours of really hard fishing, I finally got a hit. It wasn't the biggest fish (15"), but it was enough to gain some confidence. Later that day I had boated 5 more fish in the sub 20" range but all were respectable fish. ;D The jig for me has went from a no confidence bait to my highest confidence bait. I always...always catch bigger bass as a whole on a jig. Just give it a try and you will see. BTW, your gonna get em scratched, hooked, caught in trees, wrapped around brush, lost, snagged, and flying back at your 100 MPH if you are fishing them right. ;D ;D ;D Just buy more than you think you need!!!

Blaine,

 BTW,  your gonna get em scratched, hooked, caught in trees, wrapped around brush, lost, snagged, and flying back at your 100 MPH if you are fishing them right.  ;D ;D ;D Just buy more than you think you need!!!

Blaine,

;D ;D ;D   How true!

I might ad - if you're just starting jigs....you might try using an Eakins or Eakins-style jig, as they will typically get more bites and help you gain confidence more quickly.     However, they have no problem catching big fish as well.  

Tip 1.- fish it for more than 5 minutes

Now that's perfect advice, if it aint wet it can't catch  

color choice.....

clear water: brown, brown/pumpkin,brown/watermelon, etc.

stained water: black, black/blue, black/purple, etc.

be sure you put a good trailer on your jig like a craw or pork chunk. i like KGM shot craws.

and i agree about sticking with it. i had to fish it for about 5 hours before i got a fish, then i caught 3 more in about an hour  

dont move the jig with your reel ... rather use the rod tip to move the jig ,,, this will help you feel the bites .... also when the jig is falling try to keep the line tight from rod tip to jig ,, dont let it fall on a slack line ..... i recomened using a flourcarbon line ... this will help in keeping your line tight to the jig ,,, also alows better feel ....  

untill i learned to use my rod instead of my reel i olny caught a few bass .... now using my rod i catch a ton ... these northern bass absolutely love jigs ....  i should also recomened you look for a jig that wont cost an arm and a leg .... for that i use a arkee jig ,, not the swindel one eighter just a plane arkee ... they run around 1.50 a pop ,,, this helps when fishing the wood and rock .... also not breaking the bank when i buy 10-20 at a time .... imo most jig colors produce browns ,,, craw colors ,,, and that black and bku  always seem to work well here .... ;D

My first piece of advice is to go out and search the articles on this site about jigs and read them.

Second when you go out to fish, if you truly want to learn jigs, take only one rod and only take jigs with you.  They can get very frustrating very quickly so if you only have them to fish, you will be forced to slow down and give them a good, honest try.  

Third, you are going to miss fish because it's not a hard, slamming bite like a crankbait or a spinnerbait.  If something feels different, or if you feel a thump, or you line gets heavy, or something feels mushy on your line...set the hook.  

Last, don't get frustrated.  It will take you most of the summer to build confidence in a jig, but once you do you will most likely prefer fishing it to anything else.  

Well said...

I too way back when didnt know how to properly fish a jig. It took 45 mins on a bridge with a soon to be good fishing friend for me to pick it up and know and understand what exactly your trying to feel for. The all to inconspicuous "Tick" you will hear that more than you will want too when it comes to explaining a jig bite.

Basically what you are feeling is the bass sucking the Jig into its mouth and you are feeling the Jig head hit the hard part of the bass's back part of its mouth. What it feels like is imagine someone flicking your line with their finger, in a snapping motion.

If you are a line watcher which I highly recommend when Jig fishing your line will hop or start swimming off to one side or the other. The way I do my jig fishing is on a "Semi-Slack" line. just enough slack so the fish cant feel you on the other end but not so much slack that you cant tell whats going on down in the water.

Trailers are very important I mostly use Uncle Josh #11 pork frogs and GYCB twin tail grub. Remember most importantly to "know" what your jig is doing at all times. Is it going over a rock, wood, through some grass, very important also to know how deep your fishing if your fishing in 4ft of water and your jig only falls 2ft you could have a fish on. Like Hawgin said if you ever feel your line get mushy, heavy, or it just seems really light pick up some slack and set the hook.

Some good advice here - thanks to everyone for sharing.  I'm new to jig fishing this year myself.  I've been picking up jigs at Assalt for a few months and now I've got 200 jigs so I'm not afraid to lose a few.  Although I don't like Gary Yamamoto's prices I've got to admit that his double tail grubs are really great trailers.  I have a five week vacation on a central Fl lake coming up and you can bet I'll be spending a lot of time learning jig techniques.  

I had never fished jigs before last Sunday either. So I fished one over some rockpiles. They weren't real rough, but they scratched all the paint off the bottom. And, I only fished it for about 10 minutes. Is this common, or did I get cheap jigs?

Cheap or expensive the finish will eventually chip off, rocks don 't bother how good the finish is; but one thing is for shure, the cheaper the jig the lousier the hook and what 's important about a jig are in the very first place, the hook and secondly the skirt.

More expensive jigs have a good quality hook, a good quality skirt and coated jighead which increases the durability of the finish but it will eventually chip off.

Now back to the subject of jigs, jigs, like every lure are designed to perform specific tasks and some HEAD DESIGNS are better for one aplication than others, that 's the reason why we have arkie head jigs, stand-up head jigs, football head jigs, round head jigs, casting jigs, flipping/pitching jigs, swimming jigs.

Arkie heads jigs depending upon the location of the line tie are either for casting or for flipping/pitching, how to differentiate them ? flipping/pitching jigs have a much stronger hook, casting jigs have lighter hook, flipping/pitching jigs always come with a weedguard while casting jigs may or may not have a weedguard, flipping jigs have the line tie located on the nose of the jig head and normally the line tie is paralel to the belly of the jighead

Stand up head jigs are designed to rotate and stand up when resting, the skirt flares out creating a much larger silouthe.

Football head jigs are for fishing on rocky bottoms, the head is wide which deters the jig from getting trapped between the cracks and crevices.

Round head jigs are the classic "old school" design, but now with the new head designs their role in the T-box has changed, they are better for vertical jigging and for swimming.

My personal preference for skirt material is living rubber, I like the liveliness of living rubber and if it 's round strand living rubber with lots of strands  we are in business; personally I prefer tied jigs, the string used to tie the strands lasts more than the rubber band used in other types of skirts. Personally I prefer coated paint finish even though I know it won 't last. Which color ? any color is fine ..... as long as it is BLACK.

I dont know about the paint chipping thing, Ive never had one to chip but I fish with Strike King and also ISG jigs both have been very good for me. ISG I have just started using their jigs this year and have been very hot lure for me. Fish it slow takes a little while to learn......a whole lot more than 5 minutes.

http://www.isgfishing.com/acatalog/Online_Catalog_Elite_Jig_Series_5.html

Tip 1.- fish it for more than 5 minutes

Raul,  You are killing me.  LOL!

What type of rod/reel set-up is ideal for fishing jigs?

 Nothing to laugh about. It's why most of us joined,to learn. Info is too good to add much except, when (not if) you gain confidence in them they are a hard habit to break...

                                               As Ever,

                                                Skillet

What type of rod/reel set-up is ideal for fishing jigs?

That depends greatly on where you are going to fish the jig, so there 's no "ideal" rod/reel set-up.

I learned how to fish jigs over the last couple years and grew confidence with them, but was worried about going broke from loosing them and having to buy more. This year i got into making my own and it definitly changes your mental picture. If you break off you arent worried about it cause you know you got a whole box of them that you made. You pay the money for the molds melting pots but usually hte molds are just a one time cost. Something to look into once you really get into the jigs.

What type of rod/reel set-up is ideal for fishing jigs?

I agree with Raul that there is no one "perfect" set up, I think you would be fine to fish these using a 6'6" to 7' Medium Heavy, fast action rod.  I own a heavy action flipping stick for jigs, but unless I am fishing around really heavy cover I will still use a medium heavy stick for jigs(mostly because it's lighter than my flipping stick).  The biggest thing to look for in a rod is sensitivity.  As far as the reel, IMO most any reel will work.  I would recommend a 6.3:1 reel to pick up line quickly.  The last part is line, and this is the most subjective.  Personally I would not fish jigs on anything less than braided line, or 15lb flouro to improve your feel of what the jig is doing.  You can use mono, but I think you would just be frustrating yourself.