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Jig fishing 101 - jigging deep with current

42K views 27 replies 16 participants last post by  zimno1 
#1 ·
Doing The Jig in deep current

Jigs are most effective fishing the bottom.. stripers are no different than trout in this situation, (brook trout or browns, when they are stationed on the bottom in a lie) ... so a presentation that matches the current speed is most important along with making bottom contact thru as much of the swing as possible. Technique will vary depending upon location and situation. I've found jigs work the best from a stationary position (anchored boat or from the bank) with a cross current... also matching the required weight with current speed and water depth is critical.. your trying to present the jig in a manner that represents dead or very wounded bait tumbling along the bottom (deadly) so if it's too light you may reach the bottom but uncontrolled and unable to really feel what is happening. Too heavy- and it's going to look unnatural to the fish, limiting your success. What really makes it a challenge is changing current speed in a tidal situation.. I'd rather have a jig a little light than heavy, and I fine-tune the weight using strips of lead wrapped just behind the head to do this..and or adding buoyancy with a rubber trailer to match the bait size that is the most prevalent to the area. Now once I have my bottom presentation the way I want it, it's time to fish!.. cast up stream enough to get to the bottom before the jig gets to where the fish will be; the deeper or faster the current the further upstream you'll need to cast.. I use a spinning rod for jigging, mainly because I can leave the bail open as the jig is falling, allowing it to get to the bottom much quicker. The jig taps the bottom, close the bail and snatch the rod and wind a few turns on the reel to catch up with the jig and FEEL what is going on as soon as possible.(real important) throughout the swing, small snatches of the rod while reeling to stay in contact and keep the bow out of your line so you can record the hits when they come. if your not losing a few jigs you aren't doing it right, so learn a new spot with the cheap ones. there's a learning curve for every spot.

Recording the hit: this is where it can get a bit tricky, it's a three dimensional world so the hit can come from any direction, and feel like anything from ripping the rod from your hand to the feel of someone snipping your line with scissors. the former being a hit from a fish heading away and the latter being a fish taking as he comes towards you. the coming at you take or better known as the "sneak attack" is the one most guys miss or don't even feel... and it's half of the hits your going to get, so one can double their days hits by just being able to record those and QUICKLY set the hook. So the fish is coming at you while taking the jig, it has knocked three to four feet of slack in your line in doing so. Your hook set needs to be long and swept back to take up the slack, there is no time to reel, you must set and sweep it way back over your head or to the side. If you try to reel in that slack prior to setting the hook, your gonna miss cuz it's gonna be spit... then your a victim of a swim-by hit&spit!.. resulting in embarrassment and cursing! .. deep water jigging is best done with a no-stretch line like a braid or fused line. it can be real difficult to record subtle hits with mono-- in some cases impossible.

Trailers
I use the trailers quite a bit, especially if it will help to match the bait size. bucktails alone work great too, sink fast and give a good positive feel for the bottom. when you add trailers your slowing the decent quite a bit and sometimes have to compensate with a heavier jig, BUT they can make a bucktail look and act more presentable tumbling and ticking along the bottom. Fish seem to hang on to 'em a bit longer as well.

Colors?
White during the day and black at night is a great rule of thumb.. if you're fishing a spot that is lit (either artificially or good moon light) and you can find trailer material with silver sparkles in a dark color? the difference is astounding. Don't forget if your gonna get serious about jigging (and I highly recommend you do) get some braid and get used to using it. It is fair to say that they have revolutionized jigging. You really need to be able to feel what is going on on bottom and those lines will do it for you. You can tell if the rock you just tapped has moss on it or not, or whether the bottom is sand or clay-- really puts you in tune.

Important facts to consider are: You can't cast where you think the fish are, you need to cast far enough upstream to allow your jig to sink to the bottom before it gets to where the fish are. Otherwise, you're fishing over the fish's head, instead of in front of their nose where you should be.
In this situation spinning reels really shine, basically, because they allow the jig to sink with an open bail. This makes it much easier to place the jig where you want it along the bottom. If the bail is shut when the jig hits the water, a pendulum effect swings the jig towards you as it sinks. It will still reach bottom, just not anywhere near your intended target.


This reduces your ability to fish an area effectively and thoroughly. You may think you are fishing an area thoroughly, but without being highly skilled with a baitcasting reel and having the ability to "payout" line at a rapid rate when the jig hits the water, the pendulum effect is going to get the best of you. Baitcasters have their place, without question, it's just not deep-water jigging from an anchored position.

Making bottom contact is also extremely important. The clicking of a jighead along the bottom, be it rocky or soft, really attracts fish and may be the only way they feel/see (through the lateral line) the jig down there. Quite often you won't even get a bite until you've made bottom contact. Plus, how do you know you?re even at or near the bottom until you can feel it at the rod-tip. If you can't feel the bottom you could easily be 10 feet off from it and miss the strike-zone by a mile. Your going to lose some jigs while learning the bottom in areas where there is bottom structure, that's just part of the learning curve for any particular area. So be prepared, don't start out using $2 jigs.

Here's something that I use quite often in areas with a real nasty bottom.. like rebar infested areas that look like the old kid?s game "pick up sticks", or ledge grain that runs parallel to your jig's swing. or when your just plain sick of losing them and your down to your last few.

You can use tricks like "over bending the hook",


leaving the hook-point pointed at the eye of the hook, instead of running parallel with the shank. This makes the jig less susceptible to hang-ups. Wire hook-guards also work well. Both methods will hook less fish, but make an area with a nasty bottom more of a pleasure to jig fish.

What makes a jig hang up? In most cases it's because the jig is too light and your trying hard to get to the bottom with it, the current pulls a big down-current swoop in your line, in turn, puts the jig in the best position TO hang-up- jig's head and hook point face in the direction of travel.
the best way to combat this situation, is to go a bit heavier, and to use small quick snatches of the rod tip throughout the swing; not enough to impart action to the jig because your trying to imitate dead or dying bait. The small snatches are only to keep the line as straight as possible and to keep the jig angled from sideways to backwards facing in it's direction of travel. If done properly the jig only twitches, stays on bottom, and faces sideways when beside you and backwards through the tail end of the swing.

I hope that you can picture this in your mind the way I described the technique. Once mastered, (took me years) you'll be in the strike-zone much longer, and the hook will be in a much better position to tumble freely, hook the bottom less, and hook fish better.

Damn! Your jig is hung and it's solid! Don't keep sending it deeper by pulling harder with the rod. Once you recognize that it's hung, grab the line between the reel and the first eye, pull out an arms length of line and hold it, draw the line tight with the rod waaaay over your head (you may have to pull slack from the reel to do this). Now with everything tight, rod bent way back, an arms length of line pulled away with your free hand, let the line go, like a slingshot and release the rod tension at the same time. About 80% of the time the jig pops free as long as you haven't sunk the hook into something. If it doesn't pop free, don't keep yanking with the rod, it's not good for your equipment and it digs the line into your spool (making your next cast a snap-off or sending an eagles nest in to your rod guides). Just set the rod down and grab the line (with glove) and it will either pull free, straighten the hook, or break off at the jig and you won't be leaving long strands of line attached to the jig that's hung.

If you're just learning to jig fish, just be prepared to lose jigs. Hopefully each time you lose one you learn something, and don't repeat it over and over.... You have to fish the nasty stuff cuz that's where the fish are.... Be prepared. It can be frustrating but really rewarding as well. :D
 
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#4 ·
what I use all depends on a few factors:
*current speed
*depth I'm fishing
*local forage/bait

try to match the hatch with rubbah, like a sluggo, paddletail, fin-s fish.. try to choose a jighead weight and body rubbah that will get to the bottom, stay there, and tumble freely... too heavy, will look unnatural, too light won't get to the bottom efficiently..

most times I'm using a shadhead jighead and rubbah that matches the bait.. I trim the rubbah back to fit flush to the back of the jighead, slip it on 'straight' .. no wrinkles, no bulges, 'straight' and try to leave it as sleek as possible so it gets to the bottom asap and nothing is sticking out to catch on things... smooth, sleek.. test it on a quick retrieve to be sure it doesn't spin, then pull the rubbah back to expose the jighead's 'shoulder' and hit it with a drop or two of CA/superglue and slide it back up to where it was.. this particular one is 1oz.. I pour them from 1/4oz to 5oz.
 
#9 ·
I see that you have painted your jig head. Do you think it makes a difference?

Also, are you using the Do-It mold?

Awesome write up btw.
sometimes the painted head makes a difference, but most times I really don't think it matters.

yes, i use the do-it molds .. shadhead, bullethead and spearhead jig molds mostly... I pour a few smiling bill jigs as well for bucktails..

you can punch them out pretty quickly with one guy loading hooks and another pouring lead..:cheers:
 
#8 ·
Great read. thumbsup.gif
Couple of points there that I'd not ever considered or thought about.
The "tumbling" is nice.
For the surf I've had "decent luck" dressing them eel / worm fashion and working them in a searchin' for feed mode.
Nice thing about leads and tins is that the versatility is (nearly) endless. :cheers:
 
#10 ·
Great read. thumbsup.gif
Couple of points there that I'd not ever considered or thought about.
The "tumbling" is nice.
For the surf I've had "decent luck" dressing them eel / worm fashion and working them in a searchin' for feed mode.
Nice thing about leads and tins is that the versatility is (nearly) endless. :cheers:
ageed, one can adjust both rubber size and jig weight to do about any job required.. thumbsup.gif one of the most efficient ways to fish in my book..:love4:
 
#18 ·
anon said:
Has anyone ever had luck jigging with bucktails in the hudson?.
I tried using bucktails in the Hudson this spring but i lost every one of them to the rocks. So i gave up and went with subsurface swimmers in mackeral and herring patterns. Tried everything including pencils and storms and had a tough go of it. I fished the Mid Hudson area below the bridge from east side.
 
#20 ·
WHAT?:dizzy:

BUCKTAILS EITHER WARRANT A PORK RIND OR A PLASTIC WORM.
JIGGING FROM A BOAT? WE HAD A GREAT GUY HERE WHO GAVE GREAT INFO ON JIGGING AND EVERY SO OFTEN I HEAR FROM HIM. THE JIGMAN HAD THIS THING DOWN TO A SCIENCE AND IF YOU SEARCH THE SITE FOR JIGGING YOU WILL GET SO MUCH INFO AND SAVE ME THE HASSLE OF REPEATING MYSELF.



 
#22 ·
you can put anything you want on a bucktail and be successful. successful at what is the question. the bucktail is a profile bait and the trailer/tail if you will, is what gives it a little life. sometimes it is color. sometimes it is action. sometimes it does not matter. but to put something large and cumbersome on a bucktail is not the way to go. that's not to say something won't eat that? but chances are it will not look natural and not have much action. omg? am i really having this conversation?



 
#23 ·
I just got done pouring about 100 1/2, 3/4 shad heads, and 100, 1, 2 3, and 4oz ball jigs. I powder coated them all the same color. If it ain't chartreuse, it aint no use as they say. :a_goodjob:

I fish most of them spec rig fashion with plastic bodies. Fin-S, Salt Water Assasins, Zooms, etc as well as shad bodies up to 9".

It's rare that my biggest fish of the trip, whether if flounder or striper does not fall to the jig.

I like to put a small chunk of protien on the hook for scent, but let the action of working the jig do the work attract the fish.

There's nothing like it.thumbsup.gif
 
#26 ·
I'm posting a link here for some more great info on jigging bucktails for line siders. This is worth the read and from North American Fisherman
Bucking the Trend
Making buck-tail jigs a part of your freshwater striper arsenal

Bucking the Trend
Making buck-tail jigs a part of your freshwater striper arsenal
By: Don Wirth

It had rained hard the night before my striper trip-too hard, I worried as I drove to the river at 4 a.m. Stripers have this thing about muddy water; they avoid it like I avoided the greasy ribs in that funky restaurant in town the night before. If the river looked like a chocolate shake once I got there, my odds of tangling with a huge landlocked striper were worse than my chances of winning the lottery.
Daylight broke just as I hit the water and I could see muddy runoff spilling out of the ditches and creeks. I knew I had to fish ahead of the advancing mudline, so I pulled up to a shallow gravel bar, shut off my outboard and picked up one of my 71⁄2-foot saltwater rods. It had a white 1-ounce bucktail jig on the business end, tipped with a matching curlytail grub.
I made a long cast toward the shallow end of the point and began a slow swimming retrieve. Then I heard it: the distinctive dull, percussive thud of a monster striper busting gizzard shad on the surface; a sound a grizzled striper guide I know likened to a hand grenade going off in a bucket of tar. I instinctively turned and shot the bucktail toward the rolling wake that the big fish had left behind. This time I sped up my retrieve, alternately ripping the bait and letting it fall. On the third rip, the striper connected and nearly jerked the rod from my grasp when it took off for deeper water.
I've caught plenty of big stripers, but this one was bigger than any I'd ever tangled with. Sixty pounds? Easy. Seventy? Maybe. I slammed back the rod, repeatedly setting the hook, and each time the striper reacted with furious head-shakes and surges. Its tail broke the surface, sending gallons of water skyward. This was a big, bad dude.
After another few minutes of give and take, the striper rose to just below the surface, finning frantically and obviously tiring. Good Lord, what a fish! It was as big around as a pickle barrel, all silvery-purple in the morning sun. I kept pressure on the beast as I approached it with the trolling motor, but just as I got within two rod lengths of the fish, it rolled to one side and the jig fell out of its mouth.
The striper hung there for a moment, regaining its strength, then bolted for deep water. I just sat there for a moment, dazed, unable to process what had just happened. Finally I chugged back to the launch ramp and headed back home. That was all the action I could stand for one day.
Bucktail jigs like the one that brute hit have been responsible for some of the biggest stripers ever taken in freshwater, yet they're often overlooked in favor of other artificials. But day in and day out, bucktails are arguably the deadliest of all lures for big stripers. And if you don't believe me, I've lined up two legendary striper guides to convince you. I'll wager what you're about to read will have you chunking a bucktail on your next striper outing.


Simple, Yet Deadly
Bucktail jigs are among the oldest of all fishing lures-American Indians even fashioned flint jig heads to which they attached bone hooks and deer hair skirts. Today, anglers can buy bucktail jigs at just about any tackle outlet.
Popular brands include Bass Pro, Cumberland Pro, Spro and Wazp, and high-quality generic jigs are often sold in local bait shops by entrepreneurs who make them at home using a jig mold, heavy-duty hooks and deer or synthetic hair-something you can do, too, if you're so inclined.
Tennessee striper guides Ralph Dallas, (615) 824-5792, and Fred McClintock, (931) 243-2412, have caught many monster stripers on bucktails. "I like to fish them mainly in clear, open water, when the fish are suspended around baitfish schools or feeding on the surface," McClintock says. "But they'll also work in stained water better than most other striper lures."
"Bucktails have the potential to not only hook, but land a record-class striper," Dallas says.
He credits their single-hook design for making them harder for a big fish to throw than a hard plastic or wooden plug with treble hooks. Also, since the hook and line tie are basically one unit, a big striper can't pull a bucktail apart the way it can many hard plastic plugs. Plus, the extra-strong saltwater hooks used in high-quality jigs are nearly impossible for even a huge striper to straighten.
Perhaps more importantly, bucktails create a profile that big stripers find irresistible. "A bucktail doesn't look like much when it's hanging on a tackle shop rack, but when retrieved, it looks like a live baitfish," McClintock says. "And, because it has little built-in action of its own, you can control the look of the lure with your reel or rodtip. You can make it hop, dart or swim-whatever turns the stripers on."

Best Bucks
Both fisherman prefer bucktails made with real hair. "Deer hair is the best," Dallas says. "It's light, so it doesn't impede the action of your trailer, and it has a realistic 'breathing' action when wet. Jigs with synthetic hair are okay, but go with deer hair jigs if you can find 'em."
Dallas has had excellent success with bucktails made by Brian Wilson of Cum-berland Pro Lures, (606) 561-5478; Mc-Clintock keeps his box stashed with Bass Pro Shops saltwater jigs, (800) BASS-PRO.
"Generally a bucktail with a curved or banana head is better for swimming and ripping, while round- or toe-shaped heads are better for vertical jigging and bottom crawling," he says.
The proper head weight is critical.
"A good rule of thumb is to fish the lightest jig you can make a long cast with," Dallas explains. "Of course, this will vary with the weight of the line and the tackle you're fishing. My all-around favorite weight is 1⁄2 ounce, although I'll fish 'em up to 2 ounces when stripers are as deep as 30 feet."
McClintock goes to the opposite extreme. "I always fish a heavy bucktail-1 to 11⁄2 ounces," he says. "I'm usually chasing stripers in rivers, so I want a lure that'll get down around submerged wood in heavy current, even when rigged with a big, bulky trailer. A heavy jig is also easy to cast long distances in windy conditions, a common scenario in big, open slackwater reservoirs."
Most freshwater striper hunters go with white and chartreuse. I've also had great luck with trout-colored jigs. Saltwater surf casters prefer black jigs at night.

Trailer Topics
Most striper anglers, our experts included, fish bucktails with some sort of trailer. Options are endless, as trailers range from soft plastic curlytails to live shad, herring or eels. Both McClintock and Dallas lean on curlytails to produce their realistic writhing actions.
"A twister on a bucktail looks lifelike whether you're swimming, hopping, ripping or dropping the lure," Dallas says. "It triggers an aggressive feeding response in both clear and murky water."
Other popular bucktail trailers include soft plastic shad tails, all sizes of swimbaits, flat-tail eels, split-tail eels and grubs, and Slug-Go-style soft plastic jerkbaits.
"I like to vary the color and size of my trailer with the water temperature and clarity," Dallas says. "In winter, when the water temps are around 48 degrees, stripers in slackwater reservoirs will be targeting baitfish as small as crappie minnows, so you don't want to overpower them with a jig/trailer combination that's too big."
Dallas says he catches cold-water fish in the 20- to 30-pound class on white 1⁄4-ounce jigs tipped with a 3-inch white or chartreuse grub. In the spring, when river temps get into the 55- to 60-degree range, he fishes 1⁄2 to 1 ouncers with 5- or 6-inch grubs.
"The good thing about soft plastic trailers is you can trim 'em to the size of the baitfish," McClintock says. "Start with a big grub like a Kalins Mogambo and trim it back to the size you need."
Likewise, the hair on your bucktail can be coifed for a custom presentation. "If the hair is sticking out from the trailer in an unnatural way, I trim it just behind the hook," Dallas says. "This lets the trailer swim or flap without having excess hair impede its action."

Slackwater Tactics
Dallas has fished bucktails for decades in the deep, clear striper impoundments of the mid-South, including Norris, Priest and Tims Ford in Tenn-essee; Norfork in Ark-ansas and Cumberland in Kentucky. "They work especially well on long, sandy points intersected by a creek or river channel," he says.
"Here, stripers gang up in massive numbers to intercept passing baitfish schools."
After locating suspended stripers on his sonar, Dallas vertical-jigs a bucktail just above the school. During cold fronts, when stripers often orient tight to the bottom, 20 to 30 feet down, he'll jig or slow-crawl a bucktail along channel drop-offs, ledges and humps.
Trolling is another option in big reservoirs. "I'll troll three bucktails of varying weights and trailer sizes on long lines around 2 mph," Dallas says. "The heavier jigs will run deeper. This is a good way to cover a lot of water when stripers are suspending around scattered schools of shad."

Moving Water
Bucktails in current-now there's a recipe for a giant striper-and its one McClintock exploits.
"Stripers tend to be much shallower in current than in slack water, and are highly oriented to cover including submerged trees," he says. "Early and late in the day, they'll move onto shallow points, gravel bars and shoals to gorge on baitfish. All of these are perfect scenarios for target-casting with a bucktail jig."
He warns that you have to use heavy tackle in rivers, due to the amount of obstructions and the sheer size of the fish. To cope, he gears up with a medium-power 71⁄2-foot G. Loomis saltwater rod and a wide-spool reel like the Garcia Ambassadeur 7000 spooled with 130-pound Bass Pro Shops Magi-Braid line.
The setup lets you make accurate casts and is powerful enough to handle 50-plus stripers-beasts you need to be prepared to catch when you fine-tune your bucktail jigging tactics!

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I have for years actually used many of the techniques mentioned. A true bucktail has always worked best and get yourself some Kalins Mogambo grubs. If fishing fresh water the musky love the 6" Mogambo grubs, took a smaller 42" one a couple of weeks ago. I have got mine from Cabela's
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...t20417&parentType=index&indexId=cat20417&rid=
I love the Kalins as they are tough and last plus have awesome movement. Kalins may cost you abit more for there rubber but are worth it, many time you can even find at Walmart. If you goto Cabela's and use their search make sure you use the ' before the s in Kalin's if not you just get 2 items
 
#27 ·
Hi. I'm new to the forum and gotta to ask if anybody fishes off of the Jersey coast. I'm also new to striper fishing as well and your post's already look priceless:a_goodjob:I usually fish the reefs from a boat for flounder but now that that's out of season it's time for somthing new! We were out last Sun. and fished the Garden State South, the inlet and some back bays and found only small seabass and a couple nice flounder.Going out tomorrow for another try at em!! I'll post up a report! Last week I did find schools of Bunker and snagged up 7 of em but nada!!! I fish out of Little Egg Inlet, and up to 20 mi. out at most. I'm really looking forward to chatting on the site! Great post!!! Thanks.
 
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