Okay, I am going to admit something to you guys but you have to promise you will not hold it against me. I have… uhm… never caught a bass on a jig. I’ve never learned to fish them, always fished plastics where most people fish jigs. Now I have caught them on a swim jig, swimming it, but never flipping or fishing around structure.
Well today I decided to get one on a jig. I tied on a jig, I think it was about 3/16oz. It was green pumpkin/chartreuse and I added a watermelon candy craw as a trailer. After 4 hours of flipping it around grass, wood, rocks, any structure I could find I finally got a hit. It just felt like a tap tap tap, I set the hook and out flew a bass about 11-12” long, flew over the boat where the jig came out, and continued about 20 feet over my head and into the water. DAMN! I was so close to catching one. I’m blaming the rusted hook. If I would have reached up with the dip net I probably could have caught him as he flew past.
Cant wait until Pax’s jigs get here so I can finally catch one on a jig!
Okay, I am going to admit something to you guys but you have to promise you will not hold it against me. I have… uhm… never caught a bass on a jig. I’ve never learned to fish them, always fished plastics where most people fish jigs. Now I have caught them on a swim jig, swimming it, but never flipping or fishing around structure.
Well today I decided to get one on a jig. I tied on a jig, I think it was about 3/16oz. It was green pumpkin/chartreuse and I added a watermelon candy craw as a trailer. After 4 hours of flipping it around grass, wood, rocks, any structure I could find I finally got a hit. It just felt like a tap tap tap, I set the hook and out flew a bass about 11-12” long, flew over the boat where the jig came out, and continued about 20 feet over my head and into the water. DAMN! I was so close to catching one. I’m blaming the rusted hook. If I would have reached up with the dip net I probably could have caught him as he flew past.
Cant wait until Pax’s jigs get here so I can finally catch one on a jig!
Now that’s what I call setting the hook. Flying bass, you just needed a quick net man… LOL
Yeah for the last month I have been using a 7’ M rod with 14lb mono fishing craws, when I switched to a 7’H with 50# braid I sort of forgot I wasnt using the stretchy line.
Yeah for the last month I have been using a 7’ M rod with 14lb mono fishing craws, when I switched to a 7’H with 50# braid I sort of forgot I wasnt using the stretchy line.
Up until this spring, I never caught anything on a jig other than a 10"er on a finesse jig I flipped into a whole in the weeds near a dock. Then went out there this spring & caught a 4lber on my first cast with a black & blue jig with craw trailer and ended up with a 21lb sack on that same jig. It’s definitely become a confidence bait for me & taken over for t-rigs on my “need to slow down” lure preference list.
don’t feel lonely, i have never caught a bass on a jig either. I have on swimming jigs, but not a regular jig. tough to flip from the bank to no structure or cover.
fishing jigs and t-rig worms just do not appeal to me. i just don’t have the patience.
when i was down home in Ohio in May, me and my brother went fishing. he loves to fish a t-rigged worm. he was watching me chunk and wind and catch 2 bass on spinnerbaits and he said i cast 8 times to his 1. but he wouldn’t put the worm down. i hooked and lost a fish in a bush and called him over and after 10 minutes with the t-rigged worm he finally caught it. i may never catch a bass on a jig because i can’t ever see myself fishing it. Only way is to only take 1 rod and jigs and no other baits and force myself to fish them. don’t see that happening either.
Good luck BBK, if you can see the belly of the bass flying over your head i would count that as caught.
LOL. Jigs are my number one confidence bait. I ALWAYS have a jig tied on. I can’t remember the last time I haven’t had a jig tied on. Jigs can be killer 90% of the time. The other 10% the will produce a couple of fish here and there.
I bet you will be hooked on jigs after you catch a couple with them.
where i fish i’m not real sure how to fish a jig. there are no laydowns or stickups or docks or rock piles for me to throw at, just a lake full of weeds. should i cast it as far as i can and hop it all the way back, or just slowly drag it back? could take me 10-15 minutes per cast. i’m thinking the most efficient way to manage my time fishing a jig would be with a swimming jig.
I dont know, but from the videos I’ve been watching with pro’s it seems you would want to make short accurate casts to holes in the weeds or isolated structure. When it gets full of weeds do a quick lower of the rod tip and a fast jerk, pop the jig about 2’ and it will come right out of the weeds. That is how I was fishing when I got the hit, I was flipping to structure in the weeds and he hit right on the outer weedline after I popped it free.
I have a jig tied on every time I go fishing, regardless of what time of the year it is. The proven fact is that big fish eat a jig. I dont flip a jig to much, especially not this time of the year because I fish alot deeper right now. Most of the time I pull out to 25-40 FOW and drag a 1/2-3/4oz jig across the bottom and really feel whats down there. If they dont hit it on a drag, I hop it a little. I will most of the time try it for at least an hour or so and really give it a chance before I change up to a tube, drop shot, or shakey head. Alot of times I will catch the fish on a tube where they wouldnt hit the jig….but at the same time alot of those fish arent very big. And Im not saying I dont catch dinks on a jig….but I do catch the biggest fish of the year on jigs most of the time.
on a seperate note, If im gonna fish in weed pokets Im gonna use a senko or, my newest favorite, your FRENCH FRIES! I LOVE those things dude! they are so awesome! I was out sight fishing a shallow pond yesterday and they hit your french fry over a senko every time! I had it rigged on a 7’M spinning setup with 10lb braid, it was awesome.
Awesome, I have been getting a lot of good feedback on them. It seems a lot of guys are using them in place of senkos on heavily pressured lakes that see senkos 10 times a day, they can be fished the same way and the fish likely have not seen them before.
Like most, I always have a jig tied on too. Most of the time 2 tied on. Take your jig and use only that for one or two adventures, you will get the hang of it.
I dont know, but from the videos I’ve been watching with pro’s it seems you would want to make short accurate casts to holes in the weeds or isolated structure. When it gets full of weeds do a quick lower of the rod tip and a fast jerk, pop the jig about 2’ and it will come right out of the weeds. That is how I was fishing when I got the hit, I was flipping to structure in the weeds and he hit right on the outer weedline after I popped it free.
Only problem, the holes in the weeds are 75’ off the bank, that’s a cast. seems like all the dug out ponds i fish are basically been dug out the same. a rock ledge you could walk out on for 10 or 15 feet. then it starts to drop off into 10-12’ of water. along the bank are some sticks and small tree limbs that used to be under 2-4’ off water but is now either dry or less than 6” of water. i was catching bass on a frog last year at this time but there was green scum all around the shore under 2 feet of water. the water just isn’t there. after that it’s basically weeds. some holes are hard to see from the bank. if we can get some rain, i can jig the shore and catch bass or t-rig it or frog it or all 3. so weedy i can’t throw a spinnerbait anymore. i have put the spinnerbait away till fall and got a jig tied on, along with a t-rig and of course a frog. i threw the A-rig all day wednesday until i thought my arm was going to fall off, at a pond that mysteriously had an area void of weeds. i don’t know what they are doing to maintain these ponds but i don’t like it. every year they are totally different.
Sometimes a hole in the weeds is only 8-10” and will hold a big bass. He will sit next to it in the weeds and wait for a bluegill to come into the hole and ambush it. If you toss your jig in that hole (any bait really) he will probably nail it.
Maybe not even a hole, just where the weeds are a little thinner than the rest, that spot might hold bass.
at this point i’m ready to try anything, fishing really sucks right now. i’ve let a several types of baits sink in a hole in the weeds and i have never gotten bit that way. i don’t know if it is me and i just suck as a bass fisherman or these heavily over fished ponds are just tough to fish.
I know what you mean, I have been fishing a really heavily pressured area lately. Light and slow is the key. Light weights and fish them slow. Pax’s 4” wave craw has been awesome for me rigged on a 1/16 or 1/8 bullet weight and fished slow next to the bank.
