Ok, after Fishing tournaments last year and loosing to people who fish Jigs I know
I need to learn to slow down and fish a Jig. I am fishing in Claytor Lake in Va. and
it is basically a deep slow moving river with mostly Smallies. What do you guys suggest for colors?
What is the water clarity of the river? As a starting point, I would throw a black/blue and a brown colored jig. The brown colored jig can be accented with whatever color you like or you can just have it be all brown. If the water is fairly clear then I would throw a green pumpkin colored jig.
Watermelon w/red
PB&J
Green Pumpkin
Black and Blue
Green Pumpkin w/purple
Brown w/orange
Muddy water:
Black and Red
Black w/chart
Remember, jigs can be fished many ways, but flipping jigs into some of the nastiest and hard to reach (with other lures) cover can produce good numbers for you.
Always remember what the jig is representing. A jig is used primarily to mimic a crawdad and smallies love crawdads, so if you can match the colors of the crawdads where you are fishing that’s a great starting point as far as colors. If there are no crawdads where you are fishing then lighter colors as the water clarity increases and darker colors as the water clarity decreases. white, chartreuse and black are the 3 basic colors to start from then adjust to what the bass want.
I also am making myself fish more jigs this year. I am keeping my color selection simple. Black, green pumpkin and brown. I have trailers in different colors and sizes that I will experiment with and see what works best.
I’m in the same boat as you, need to get some jig fish this year. I was always taught to use bright colors for walleye in muddy water, and this has transferred to my bass mind as well.. hard to get rid of. I was always taught white, and chart for muddy water… but all the bass guys say black. When I tie on black I have no confidence what so ever, and when I tie on chart or white I get a false confidence since I never catch anything.
BBK in the right conditions a jig black will not let you down. If you feel the need to have a little Chartreuse dip the jig trailer in Spike-it. Once you hook a couple bass on a black jig, I’m sure you will build your confidence in it. Also, Frkzila one of my favorite jigs for Small mouths is the Strike King Bisty Bug jig. You might want to check them out.
black/blue for stained water, green pumpkin for clear water,pb&j works good in both as for swim jigs i use blue gill colors if you have shad in your area use white
I’m in the same boat as you, need to get some jig fish this year. I was always taught to use bright colors for walleye in muddy water, and this has transferred to my bass mind as well.. hard to get rid of. I was always taught white, and chart for muddy water… but all the bass guys say black. When I tie on black I have no confidence what so ever, and when I tie on chart or white I get a false confidence since I never catch anything.
bbk you should try a shaky worm for walleyes i got several eyes while bass fishing this past year i no when season open im actually gonna target the eyes with shaky worms im thinking its gonna be a great way to get um after what i saw this past summer i caugt a 8 pounder last year on one
jigs are great….last winter i made the goal to fish a jig more and thats what i did, now i have a ton of confidence in them. almost all my midday fish come on a jig, and alot of my bed fish too.
just remember to KISS. (keep it simple, stupid)....twitches colors hit it right on the money.
try a bitsy bug just like bassfish* said, they are pretty good and not expensive at all. ive done best with the green craw color
