ok so ive trried and failed a few times..i figured now is a good time to try again and see if i cant get it to work. i was wondering if there are any tiips i could use to get better with a jig? thanks in advance

What size and color are you using now? Anyway, check out Low Budget Hookers video on jigging. I'm sure he'll post it up if he see's this.

Well, right NOW probably isn't the right time for anything in your area. Fishing a jig is generally slow and can be tedious for a lot of fishermen. I would suggest holding off jigging or any new technique for a few months. If there is something that's working for you right now, stick with that for the time being.

right now ive got two 1/2 ounce and one 3/8 ounce jigs. two are black with a little bit of blue and green and the third is like and olive green with brown

RW yea but i havent been out for a while and dont know whta will be working so i was thinkin that instead of workin with a go to lure like a worm i could try somthing new,,but honestly id be happy jus tto get out on the water while the weather is still decent

do you think it would be worth it to try this time of year, if so could it contend with a t rigged worm once you fish it properly

In super cold water I'm always fishing a 1/4 oz jig. It is just a great bait you can fish anytime and where. This time of year with the jig, it is all about location location location. I won a tournament last year with 42 degree water temps on a jig. And the guys who finished 2nd and 3rd were also fishing jigs.

If you can fish a texas rig you can fish a jig. And it will contend with the worm if not out fish the worm imo.

theres no wrong time of year to fish a jig, you aint gonna learn it if it aint in the water ,you gotta go through tough fishing to get to some good fishing, and even though you might only get 1 or 2 bites they should be a quality bite. Just remember get it in the water waiting till a different time of year is an excuse not a reason, good luck and keep us informed

The jig is probably my second mosted fished bait.  It is also known as a "Big Fish" bait.  I fish a jig in two primary ways.  If pitching to cover I simply pitch jig next to cover, let it fall, set for about 10 seconds , hop it a couple of times and bring it back to the boat.  If fishing open water structure, I fish it a lot like a plastic worm.  I will kind of drag and hop it down a ledge or point, working it bach toward the boat.  In shallow water I keep to natural colors.  If fishing deeper water or really stained water I will go to darker colors, usally the go to color of black and blue.  

fished it today and caught 1 and had another hit, helped out alot with my confidence

Of all my first fish on a new lure technique my favorite was probably my first jig fish. It just takes a while to get used to.

I once read somewhere that if you want to get good with a jig, leave all your other baits at home and fish the jig until you figure it out.  I'm not sure how enjoyable this might be, but I suppose it may be effective.  

Good luck.

fished it today and caught 1 and had another hit, helped out alot with my confidence

Well I think that is the hardest part. Next time only take jigs and trailers, force yourself to do it. WARNING: Once you get a few more it is the only bait you will want to fish.

Two rods that are always on my deck are a Texas Rig & a Jig  

i know i am far from being perfect from a jig and shouldnt go buying a whole bunch of them or anything but i was looking at them last night on the internet and was wondering what everybody thought about the evolution jigs?

Hey Aint Texan Send some 1 state east of you to me in LA! Seriously when you get some made message me and Ill give you my mailing adress Ill pay shipping if youd like.

The Jig

Fished By Joe S.

Representation,

First let's start with what a jig represents underwater, I believe the most

Popular use of it is to imitate a Crayfish but they also can imitate baitfish as well.

Jigs come in many different shapes, sizes and colors etc. The most popular crayfish imitators seem to be the good old skirted jig usually tipped with some sort of plastic or pork trailer.

Speaking of sizes, shapes, colors, I'm only going to really get into the skirted jig with a plastic or pork trailer as this is the bait I primarily use, and use it as a crayfish imitator only.

Sizes,

There is a very large size range available,

I mainly use 3 sizes of Jigs in my arsenal or depending on manufacturer the closest weight to these sizes 3/8 oz , ½ oz and ¾ oz.

I will mainly use a 3/8oz when fishing really shallow. The presentation has more time to be subtle because of the lighter weight than just crashing on the bottom in the shallow water.

1/2 oz. Jig

This is my go to, if there was only one jig weight allowed in my box, this would be it. I guess you could say the happy medium. I fish this 99 percent of the time from a regular bank down to 15 ft and anything in between.

The only time I go to a 3/4 oz. Is if I need to get through some thick weeds, the wind is really blowing or I am fishing deep but want to fish it faster than normal.

Colors,

I don't get crazy on colors when it comes to jigs. I have 3 colors that I have a ton of confidence in and those are Browns, Greens, and Black. It seems the jig has excepted rules on what colors for what conditions were faced with, green or brown, natural colors for clearer water and black or darker colors for murkier water or night time. I do follow that to a point but not because of the rule but because I have confidence in throwing those baits in those conditions. Ive caught fish in clear water with a black jig and fish in murky water and at night with a green jig so what's that tell us. Color is confidence in my book.

Trailers/Chunks

These come in many shapes and sizes, Most of them are made to represent the pincher end of the crayfish which are either threaded or simply hooked on to the jig.

I go rather simple in this area as far as selection.

I mainly use 3 colors in 2 sizes, Green, Brown and Black in 2 or 3 sizes I always match the color of the trailer with the jig, (just a confidence thing)

I will normally start off fishing with a 2 trailer in tournaments, I feel the smaller size may get me more bites in order to get my limit then I may upgrade trailer size to go after larger fish, but there is no rule here either, as I have caught fish over 6lbs. on 2 trailers and fish less than 12 on 3 trailers.

As far as the many styles and brands of trailers, my selection is simple I use my own, I feel they give me the best chances of catching fish and here is why.

When a bass hits a jig they will normally engulf the whole lure, Jig and trailer. It only takes a split second for that fish to reject the bait if it notices anything artificial about it. When I make my trailers I add a lot of crayfish oil to the plastic prior to cooking then once poured they go through a 2 stage salting process.

Once you get a fish to bite them they are hard pressed to let it go because there is so much taste for them.

Because there is so much craw oil in the plastic it makes the baits very soft which helps release the oils and salt when the bait is bitten. (Shameless Plug I know, but I didn't want to cut out a whole section so forgive the plug please)

The Bite!

I have been fishing a jig predominantly for the last few years and have probably experienced every type of bite possible, but then again maybe not, sometimes you don't feel anything at all, then sometimes they almost rip the rod out of your hand, and then you have everything in between, you must always be ready to set the hook.

It is a must to be a line watcher when fishing a jig because you may not always be in direct contact with the lure, and the little twitch in the line that you didn't see could have been a 10 fish or the fish of a lifetime.

One thing I really like to do is know the depth of the water I'm casting to, I feel this is very important, a ½ oz jig on 15lb mono sinks at about 1ft per second. So I know if I'm casting it into 12ft of water and the line stops sinking when I count to 6, something sucked it in, reel in any slack and set the hook.

This is where I believe salts and scents are very handy, normally when I'm fishing a jig I'm fishing some type of structure, rocks, wood, grass, etc. with the equipment on the market you can pretty much feel everything the lure bumps into, when first getting into jig fishing I might have questioned myself was that a fish or a rock, don't know for sure. But now using my own baits and good equipment as well as a lot of time fishing the jig, I have the confidence in them to know that when I feel that little bump, I can pause and wait a second or two to see if there is any activity or lack there of on the end of the line before ramming the hook into a nice bass, or a stump.

Equipment:

For fishing these type and size of jigs, I use a 7' Heavy action bait casting rod, I feel this is very important and will not use a Jig on anything lighter, for a few reasons, 1.) These jigs normally have stout hooks that require a decent amount of force to get good penetration. I don't want to take the chance of losing a big fish because my rod didn't have enough power to drive the hook home, 2.) You have the weed guard to deal with as well when setting the hook. 3.) A lot of times the bass will really clamp down on a jig to crush it making it harder to move the jig on the set to get a good hook set, I noticed this especially with small mouth bass. As for the brand of rod that is personal preference but I think you should get the best you can afford in this area for the added sensitivity.

For a reel, I prefer High speed reels 6.1:1 or 6.3:1 and a decent amount of line retrieval per handle turn. I like this because I can pick up any slack really fast as well as keep up with the fish if it is charging towards me. This is another brand preference issue, I prefer smaller profile reels so I can palm the reel and rest the line going into the reel on my pointer finger for extra sensitivity.

Line

I mainly use 15 lb test mono line for most jig fishing, I don't really go any lighter than that, I will go heavier for certain situations depending on a few factors, structure or cover that I'm fishing, or even the size of the fish I have a chance at catching will dictate the size.

In really clear water I will use fluorocarbon line for reduced visibility. And if I need to go above 20 lb mono for any reason I will switch to a braid for line diameter purposes. You can use any of the three all the time, these are just my preferences and how I utilize each for certain situations.

This is not intended to be a know all of Jig fishing document, these are the ways and equipment I personally like to use and have confidence in for the situations I face,(Notice the title) there are so many variables in fishing that could call for a different tactic from the lure type and size, to the tackle and line, it would be impossible to list them all.