Spring Bass Fishing Jigs Tips from Jeremy Lawyer | How To

Hi, I'm Jeremy Lawyer. And I'm here with BassResource. I wanna talk to you a little bit about jig fishing in the springtime. You know, I'm from the Ozarks and that's where it's a really big player. We've about got a jig tied on year-round. You know, when I think of springtime, I think of February, March pre-spawn, you know, the water's in the low 50s, you know, it's coming up, the fish are kind of thinking about spawning, but it's still just not right, but they get up on the bank and they really get to forging around on crawdads or beefing up for the spawn. And they're just really keying on these areas outside of spawning bays, little channel swings, where you can look back in there and see that there's a spawning type area, you know, maybe a flatter area, sandy area place that doesn't have current.

And so, you know, when I'm gonna go key on those, I'm gonna throw a little ball head here, you know, this is a staple for in the Ozarks area. It really mimics a crawdad and you can see there, that's a really small profile jig. Now, your trailer, just kind of whatever you wanna use, some days you want one with a little bit of action this has some tail kick like I've got on there today. Other times, especially if you get a cold front coming in or something you want that crawl to lay completely still, you really don't wanna have a lot of action. So that's something you just kind of got to dictate the type of country that you're in and the setting that you're in, but you can throw this in clean water, dirty water, you know, it really doesn't make any difference and it catches all three species. You know, you're not limited to just largemouth, or smallmouth, or spotted bass, but, you know, my setup for this is pretty simple. This is a Denali 7'2 Jig out in the Kovert series. It's a bait that I can really wheel around boat docks, flip easy, but if I get one and I wanna throw it up on a laydown and drag him out of there, it's still got enough meat to do that. You know, and the line size is gonna dictate what you're gonna fish that day.

You know, as a staple, I like to throw it on 16-pound Sunline, but I will go down to 10-pound Sunline and that's all FC Sniper. You know, the sniper is a line, it's kinda got a little bit of limpness to it and finesse, but still a lot of abrasion resistance and a lot of power when you need it. And so that right there is really something that I kind of wanna make sure that I've got on both sides of it. So I stay with the Sniper. If you went to a different brand, it would have to just choose that wisely of how that you would break that down for your situation.

But I like a high-speed reel as well because a lot of times that fish takes off really quick with it, you know, and you just got to catch up to him or he'll run at the boat because you're not really making really long casts. This is something that you're gonna go down the bank, making short casts with, little pitches, right around boat docks, under walkways, and this Kovert Series rod's just about the perfect length to where you can still flip it, but you can backhand it if you want to and skip it in between boat floats or maybe a lay-down tree or whatever it might be.

But as the spawn kind of progresses and it starts to warm up a little bit, the ball head jigs still plays, but it seems like the fish get on their mind more about an area they're actually gonna sit down and spawn. And when they do that, I like to go to just a little bit bigger jig. And what that's gonna do is give them a little bit more of an idea of there may be an intruder in the area where they wanna spawn at. And so when I, that I'm gonna go to more of your flipping and pitching style jig like this right here. You know, and it's just gonna give you a larger profile, a little more..."Hey, that guy is not supposed to be in here type deal because I'm planning on spawning here in the next couple of weeks." Plus those fish are really starting to set up to where they're bulking up for the spawn. And so a larger bait seems to get a little larger bite, and always remember as that water creeps up there and a moon phase comes around, that sets up for the spawn pretty nice, the biggest one seems like in the Midwest is gonna spawn first. And so I wanna have a larger bait on when I know they're getting close to where they're getting ready to spawn. It's getting ready to go down because it's not gonna last very long. You're gonna see a lot of fish swimming around, and you're gonna see a lot of fish up cruising. As far as that big female being able to feed, and you catch her in that moment. I think a larger bait entices her at that time.

And with that larger bait, I'm gonna go to a larger rod. Now, this is a Denali Lithium Series, and this is a 7'6" model. It's an actual swimbait rod, but it's got a lot, a lot of tip to it. And it's got a lot of backbone. So it's got about a 70, 30, whenever you wanna have an idea about if you can still flip it and pitch it or cast it. And it's kind of a great medium. It's not just a flipping stick. It's not just a casting rod. And so same setup with a high speed, 8.3:1 reel.

And then what I've done on this is I went to Shooter line. This is FC Shooter from Sunline and this is gonna be no less than 18 to 20-pound test. I prefer 22 to 25 if I can get away from it. I don't feel like that fish is eyeballing that bait thinking about the line. I think that it comes in there, they either see it and they make that a distinct moment that they're gonna eat it, or they're not going to. I just don't feel like the line really changes that.

The one thing I will tell you about your line is if it takes away from the action of your bait, it's too heavy of a line. If it drags your bait, it's too heavy of a line. So as long as your bait is heavy enough that it's not gonna get impaired by the line size, I'd go as heavy as you can. But the difference between the Sniper and the Shooter is that the Shooter is a lot stiffer. It takes more abrasion resistance, and you can really lean on it a lot, lot more. And I think as them fish start to spawn, they wanna get on a piece of cover. They want a spawn right beside that piece of cover. And so the Shooter seems to really take away the advantage they have of breaking you off.

And then one tip I'm gonna give you too, as you can see here on my trailer, it should be turned horizontally this way to lay flat like a crawdad when it comes around the spawn, I like to imitate a perch a lot more. You can see here, I turned it vertically with the bait to where, when you have it after swimming and moving, the actual appendages are sideways, kind of like a shad's tail or a perch tail. And I just think that that's more natural and gets more bites as far as being able to think that that fish is gonna spawn here. That's an intruder, he's gonna stick around because it looks like a bream, or a perch, or bluegill, or goggle-eye, whatever it might be in your part of the country. But that right there is just something that gets me a lot of extra bites. And, I don't throw it like this all the time, but when you get around the spawn, be sure and kind of give that a try too. It's a great way to increase your catch that day.

And then as the post-spawn kind of comes on, we're gonna move out and do a little bit of something different, you know, as the fish start to move. But, as far as pre-spawn, coming up to spawn, this is a great one, two set up. If you're in the right type of area to where you can actually target all three species, catch them in the spawn, catch them out of the spawn, and hopefully just have a lot better day on the water trying to do it a one-two punch this away.