We’ll cover jig size, color selection, trailers, depth, retrieve styles, stroking techniques, and how post-spawn bass position on points, ledges, bluffs, and rocky structure. If you’re looking to catch larger post-spawn bass, this jig approach is hard to beat.
Alright, I want to talk about one of my favorite baits to use during the post spawn and that's the jig.
The reason for that is crawdads exist virtually every lake that's got bass in it, so you can fish it anywhere in that country and have success with it.
The thing about it is I'm usually targeting larger fish with a jig, so I'm fishing larger size jigs like 1/2 ounce or larger, even up to a 1 oz jig. And I'll tell you that in a second. Why? But those bigger, bulkier baits? Lots of strands on the skirt.
Color wise. I'm usually fishing the Browns and the green crawdad colors. And sometimes a black and blue if the water's really muddy. But the natural colors is I wanted to resemble a crawdad. I've got the crawdad trailer on it.
Now this is some guys you know want a contrasting color, like if they got a light color jig, use a dark color trailer or vice versa. I like to match it. So if I'm using a green pumpkin, for example, a jig, I'll use a green pumpkin trailer on it.
The difference though is that I will often dip the ends of it. In like a chartreuse worm die because I want that bluegill look because the bluegill are spawning. Right now and during the post spawn and so that little bit of a flash of chartreuse in there kind of gives that bluegill feeling to it, feeling a look to it. And a lot of times that that's what triggers a bite. So I will dip the ends in in chartreuse die.
Now why am I using a larger jig? Couple of reasons.
One is sometimes I'm fishing in deeper water, you know, 10 to 20 foot deep. I know it's postspawn. The fish were just up shallow. But those bigger females, they, they spawn earlier, they get out of there earlier and they're a bit deeper than the males right now. So you got to get out there and get that. You know that 10 to 20 foot zone is what you're fishing.
And a lot of times there's, you know, there's rocky bottoms. That's what I want to target and I want to drag that along the bottom. Typically I’m dragging or a little bit of hop that works. Really well, particularly if you've got some current in the water, if you're fishing a reservoir and they're drawn, you know, power draw or they're using it for irrigation, there's some current going.
The bass are going to be down hugged on the bottom. And so going across those points, those humps, those ridges, anything with a rocky bottom on it works really well.
If you in a lake that's got a lot of shad in it, the shatter spawning, they like hard bottom. That's that's shad spawn happens really, really, really early in the morning, like break of dawn. The first hour or two of daylight can be dynamite. The shad are spawning and the bass are up there feeding and taking that jig and just dragging and hopping along the bottom can be really good.
But. The main reason I use a heavier jig is to get a reaction bite. A lot of times just dropping it straight down, that fast fall is what gets a reaction bite.
And this works even in shallow water if you're even fishing, you know, I mean there's some females that are still shallow, but you know, you still have bass up shallow too. You know, males throwing it up in that 5 foot of water, 10 foot of water like along a dock and it drops really fast.
It's that reaction by something moving by and really quick and they just annihilate it. So you. A lot of that reaction by the bass are feeding heavily right now and so they're very aggressive.
Another way to fish it and again with a heavier jig is say for example, you're fishing post front or if the. They're not pulling any water. For whatever reason, but there's slack current and the bass come up and suspend a little bit.
You stroke the jig. Now what's stroking is, is you drop the jig down along a ledge or a bluff straight down. You make a short cast and just let it fall straight down on the bottom.
And then what you do is you take your rod and you pop it up from about the 9 to you know, 10-11 o'clock position. Just a quick pop up and then you let it fall back down on semi slack line.
And a lot of times that bass will pop it, pop it up, drop back down, the bass will hit it.
A quick trick here though is if they're suspended, if you guys see them on your graph and they're suspended up above. Pop it, give it a pause or two, and then pop it again a second one.
Oftentimes that second pop, they'll hit it as you're pulling up on it or when you first start to drop it back down, and that heavier jig allows you to do those quick movements and especially when you're dropping it back down, you drop it fairly quick back down to the bottom.
So it's aggressive, it's fast moving. Even though the bite may be a bit off, it's suspended, but you're fishing fast. You can cover a lot of water doing that and you can catch a lot of fish.
It's a bulkier bait. It's a different style of fishing. A lot of guys are out there fishing crankbaits. Other types of baits, but the jig allows you to fish a variety of depths at different speeds. And a variety of different colors.
If you have to, you can go down to a smaller size jig. If it bites really, really off and you're having a hard time catching fish, go down to a finesse jig, like 1/4 out size jig and do the same thing I just told you, only slower.
Again, those Bluffs, those sharp drops, those deeper ledges and long tapering points, that's where those bigger females are going to be hanging out. And that's what I target with that jig.
Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit bassresource.com.
