Why are we fishing jig and pigs or plastic, when there are great realistic crawdad imitations out there? Like Huddleston crawdad etc. been wondering this. 

The goal is to get bass to strike your lure. In the wild things that move look alive to a predator like bass that eat living critters. 

I spent about 10 years ('63-'73) using live bait like crawdads, water dogs (tiger salamders ), live Shad, mud suckers etc. When a live bait dies from fishing with it bass ignor it, rarely strike a dead bait that still looks the same. Looks are not what is important to a bass, it's more important to bass anglers.

Jig & pig is probably just a term to discribe a bass jig with a trailer no longer a jig with a pork rind trailer. Pork rind trailers don't look good to anglers, plain colors without a lot appendages for movement, simple shapes but they catch big bass consistantly. Why?

 The answer is pork rind trailers look alive to bass when moving slowly like a Senko that has subtle movements that trigger strikes.

Tom

 

I use chunk style trailers, like Zoom Big salry chunks, when I want my jig to have a big profile, fall slowly, and have subtle movement. I use them mostly in the spring and fall when the water is cooler. Craw trailers are good but there doesn't seem to be one out there that does what the chunks do.

I would add that in my experience in stained to dirty\ muddy water a jig seems to work better than anything super realistic. Only reason I can give is super realistic is usually finessey and more subtle and in off color water you need more bulk and water displacement to get there attention more easily. Another thing I think factors in is jigs come through cover better than a lot of lures so we are more confident to throw them in the places we need to. My guess is the realistic stuff would really shine in ultra clear water or high pressure situations.

5 hours ago, Climberdan said:

Why are we fishing jig and pigs or plastic, when there are great realistic crawdad imitations out there? Like Huddleston crawdad etc. been wondering this. 

 

Because they work ?

 

The #1 & #2 most productive lures; Texas Rigged plastics & Jig-n-Craw.

 

A worm fisherman's #2 lure of choice is a Jig-n-Craw.

 

A jig fisherman's #2 lure of choice is a Texas Rig.

I really like jigs in muddy water when realistic isnt a top consideration .. They displace more water so are  easier to detect  . Bass will be tight to cover . Its just the right lure to use .

Just because something looks good to a fisherman doesn’t mean it looks good to a fish. There’s countless lures that prove this, think about a cheap livetarget that to us looks identical to a Shad but a keitech which just has a fish profile and outfishes the live target by a huge amount. A jig has the profile and water displacement of a craw/fish/critter. Another thing about a jig that makes it so incredible is the skirt does things that non skirted baits can’t do. A skirt can imitate the subtle movements that bait makes like gills or fins moving on a fish or legs and little antennas on a crawfish. You can call this secondary action and it’s very hard to replicate without a skirt. Although it might not look like it out of the water, there is something magical about a jig that is impossible to beat in a lot of situations.

A jig and Huddlebug can both be fishing the same, but a jig is way more versatile. The Huddlebug is to be fished slowly along the bottom and that's about it. Jigs come in a variety of colors and sizes as well and you can adjust fall rates and profiles by what trailer you use.

 

I have some Huddlebugs. Super realistic, have not been super productive though. I imagine that has to do with me usually fishing stained to muddy water where the effect of their realism is lost and the bulk of a big jig has more drawing power.

Really comes down to they don't only fish by sight and their feeding times.  They are most active in low light conditions whether it be dusk or dawn so they are not hunting "in detail" they are using their lateral line / water displacement and hearing.  We rarely have water clarity more than 3-4 feet at the best but have seen the wake of a bass chase my frog from 6-8 feet away and him hammer it.  Coming way to fast to do a great evaluation of the bait.  Shapes and silhouettes are what they see 75%+ of the time I bet. 

 

Stuff I have read says bass do not hear in a wide frequency range (very low and limited) so something with a bigger thump/thud.  Soft paddle tail swim baits and Colorado blade spinner baits create that thump.  The whole Hydro-wave thing is based on bass hearing what they think is bait fish and coming to investigate or getting turned on my the sound of bait.

 

Now some of you guys in the super clear lakes up north or out west may need to go more real looking. I have a buddy in San Diego that fishes some of those super clear lakes and he thinks the line size being small is the most important thing with those fish.  He fishes a lot of Drop Shot and is dedicated to the Robo Worms which don't look like anything to me they just have great action and good colors.

When I was guiding I was given a bag of 100 Hud crawdads to try years ago. I was pumped! I had never seen anything so realistic. Imagine my disappointment when, for whatever reason, I couldnt get a fish to go anywhere near one. Im not knocking Huddleston, they have great products, but due to water clarity, temperature, or whatever, they didnt work for me. I had no problem at all trading them off.

  The plastics I have incredible success with are made by a company called Power Team. None of them bear any resemblence to a living creature except for the lizards. I've often wondered if the bass bite them out of fear, possibly a survival instinct triggered by a perceived alien invasion?

Forgot to add..as some have already mentioned..the versatility of a jig. Because of all the methods and trailer options a jig can resemble a wide variety of prey. Jigs are kind of a Jack of all trades..they don't look like anything but they kinda look like everything. The same jig with a different type of color trailer an resemble shad, perch, bluegill,baby bass,crawfish and on and on

When you're fishing a jig with a trailer you can change the trailer and have a completely different bait. I don't remember where I heard this, but it was probably on this website.

Because they titillate the bass' sense to feed and or strike.  I've been wanting to use that word in a post for years. 

Absolutely love dry humor. Or slapstick, lol.