Swimming Jigs

[LucG]

Last year I really got into fishing largemouth. I love flipping into wood and slop, and I've done really well using texas rigged creature baits. But last year I had attempted throwing some jigs with no luck. Now I will admit I was throwing them the way I bought them, with no modifications. Now I've seen a couple shows on WFN on how to modify swimming jigs, so my question to yous is the same: What should I do to my jigs before I get them wet?

 

I've seen the skirts get trimmed;

I've seen the weed guard get trimmed;

Is the use of a trailer a must?

What about those little rattles in certain brands?

Talk to me about colour!

 

Someone give me a clinic on jig fishing, lol

 

Thanks

[Harrison]

Not a real clinic, to do that I'd have to be in the boat with ya to show ya.

 

But I'll point form a couple thing "I" do:

 

- I trim the weedguard so it is almost level with the hookpoint.

- I use 2 main colours(shades) of jigs. Dark(black and blues) and natural(greens and browns)

- rattle for heavy heavy cover

- no rattle for thin/skinny or heavy pressured water.

- Always use a trailer. usually match trailer to jig for natural colours, but will mix match using dark colours.(black jig, blue trailer)

 

I don't trim the skirts, but fish with guys that do. Whatever floats your boat and gives you confidence.

 

get good with the basics. DO NOT listen to dock talk. ie. "I like to have 21 strands of rubber on my jig exactly 3 and 1/16th inches each and I turn the eye of the hook 10.5 degrees"

 

Swimming the jig can be deadly in the right water. I like to swim the jig alot. Along docks, weedlines, trees, through pad beds, arrowheads, rice... anything really. Can cover alot of water this way.

 

It is so easy to switch to ole faithful when learning a new bait technique. So only bring jigs out with you when you fishing, you'll force yourdelf to figure it out. worked for me.

 

Become one with the jig and you'll boat more quality bass guaranteed.

Good luck,

Phil

 

This lovely lady fell for me swimming a jig.

 

And this one fell for me while dancing one.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Harrison

[LucG]

Haha, Thanks for the tips Harrison! I'll be going out this weekend, I'll try your advice and only bring my selection of jigs. Hope it works out! Thanks

[F_ast]

Best piece of advice I can give. Bass dont really "HIT", jigs. They usually just pick them up, and sit. Typical keep it in there mouth and grind it. Not usually much weight on the line. Just a sort of pop and vibration. I use a 7-6 Crucial with a Calcutta TE 200GT as my flippen stick. The more sensitive the rod the better.

[Court R]

I have been using these jigs for awhile now with great success.

 

http://tabutackle.com/products/open-water-series/

[LucG]

Now in regards to trimming the weed guard. Is it common to reduce the NUMBER of stands in order to increase hookups? I understand this may depend on what kind of stucture im fishing, and may increase the ammount of snags I run into.

[singingdog]

Swimming jigs and flipping/pitching jigs are 2 different beasts.

 

Compared to pitching/flipping jigs, swimming jigs usually have

-lighter wire hooks

-sparser weed guards

-inline eyes

-heads designed to come through grass easily (almost like a spinnerbait)

-sparser skirts

 

I usually use a swimming jig as a search bait, very similar to a spinnerbait. If I'm on water that sees lots of anglers (and lots of spinnerbaits) I will almost always throw a swimjig instead of a spinnerbait.

 

Flipping/pitching jigs I use for targetting specific spots where I believe a fish to be holding. It's not about the retrieval, it's about the initial placement. If I don't get hit in that spot, I just crank it in to pitch again, not really fishing the water between me and the spot I was pitching to.

 

You can easily swim a pitching/flipping jig, but it will often turn over at high retrieval speeds.

 

You already got the 2 best pieces of advice

1. take nothing but a jig out for several trips

2. don't listen to the voodoo: jigs are the simplest and most overthought pieces of tackle in the industry.

[OhioFisherman]

A white swimming jig with a white pork grub or 3 inch twister tail can also be deadly when baitfish can be seen in the weeds.

[spinnerbaitking]

Great Advise guys , something I need to do more off too

SBK