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Posts: 111
Location: Big Lake, MN | When you fish with a jig and reaper tail or a bass style jig do you want to have a lot of bottom contact (hopping) or do you prefer to swim the bait back to the boat? I have a bunch of different jigs and this is the most under used tactic in my tackle box. How do you fish them?
Thanks
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Posts: 2089
| Shane,
Good question. I fish my jig/reaper jig/lizard(fliptail) more like a bass jig with more bottom contact. Actually throw jigs a bunch early in the season, but bass jigsd like chompers and small 3-5" reapers on a 1/16 or a 1/8 oz head.It's a blast. Discovered a new combo last year that is super versatile. Doug Stange had an article awhile back showcasing the J-Mac jig tipped w/ various plastics.I can cover a lot of water swimming this combo. Slow/fast, doesn't matter.Great in weeds too.Can be worked deep if need be, but a great presentation all around.I'll be fishing it a lot more this year in different situations.Hope the reapers and lizards can wait til Fall!! Steve |
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Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | I drag my jig a lot both in Spring and Fall in the colder water, especially on the rocks. I also hop my jig as the water gets warmer etc. I know that Steve Worrall "sweeps" his jig and swims it more than I do. Both styles seem to work well depending upon conditions. I have just started to make longer hops and sweeps with my jig via a new spinning rod that I purchased. The spinning rod lets me give the jig a longer sweep for when I feel that the fish are a little more aggresive and chasing a bit more. Only 1 fish boated so far but doing these longer sweeps but I believe I will catch many more this coming season. I like the way that jigging lets you learn the weed edge and the stucture you are fishing. You can feel the rock and gravel edges that are so important to finding active fish. I have caught many, many fish on jigs over the years and consider it to my strongest asset. There are a lot of days that I start on a given piece of structure with a jig I have so much confidence in this system. If the jig bite is going a multiple fish day is not uncommon even in tournament conditions. I hope this helps a little. |
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| It depends if you find the muskies are suspending just under the surface, or hanging deeper. I experiment with both approaches, first swimming higher in the water column, and then working it more traditionally bouncing off the bottom. Bull Dawgs you almost always have to swim, so Cobra Jigs give you a nice option to work more cover.
Edited by muskyboy 2/29/2004 1:31 PM
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Posts: 111
Location: Big Lake, MN | Thanks, thats the detail I'm looking for. Now all I have to do is gain some confidence in using them. |
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| Shayne,
Good luck, I am still experimenting with them as well.
Steve |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I have put more big Muskies in the net using a Creature and Jig than any other way. Muskyone has it right, except he fishes them SLOWWWWWWWWER than I do, which is OK. Just make me nutz to fish that slow. It works, believe me. |
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Posts: 111
Location: Big Lake, MN | I was under the impression that I should be fishing jigs slower. It all comes down to figuring out how to give them what they want.
Thanks for the help. I will be adding this to my arsenal this year for sure!
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | The definition of 'slow' when fishing a jig is somewhat blurred. By jig fishing standards,I BURN a jig. I point the rod at the jig and turn the handle as many as 4 to 6 times as quickly as I can depending on how fast want to fish. Let the jig hit bottom, repeat. |
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Fishing with jigs