The Best Fall Swim Jig Tips and Tricks - How To from Wes Logan

Wes Logan: Maybe.

That's a good one! I thought it was a big one, but he got it. A thick one there. He got it good, too.

Hey, guys. Wes Logan here with BassResource. Gonna go into depth with you about fall fishing swim jigs. And, you know, it's one of my favorite patterns to do. In the fall, it's not the predominant pattern but you can still catch some really big fish on it. You can have some great days swimming a jig, you know, in the fall because these fish are gonna be moving wherever you're at in the country. If you're where I'm from, you know it's anywhere from the end of September, 1st of November, middle of November, depending on how quick it cools off. And obviously, the further you go north, the faster that's gonna happen. You're gonna move into, you know, early September, late August.

The baitfish will start moving into these backwaters. They'll be getting really grouped up. And a lot of times, in the fall, you're gonna be dealing with small baitfish. We're actually out here on the La Crosse Mississippi River right now and that's the main thing that's going on. There's a lot of grass in this area, and anywhere you go on this river right now there's, you know, inch to three-quarter inch shad just balled up everywhere. And most of the time, throughout the day, you'll see these fish coming through them and blowing up, and they're just hard to get to react to the normal baits we throw because they're just so keyed in on that little stuff.

So how I like to approach that if I'm going after them with a swim jig, or if I have a swim jig tied on, is I'll knock my profile down big time. I'll throw a smaller trailer. I'll throw a lighter jig. So just trying to get as close to matching those smaller fish, or smaller baitfish, as I can.

And one way I do that a little bit is I'll take... I've got a Dirty Jig. This is a quarter-ounce swim jig that I've got. I'll cut the skirt down a little bit. I haven't cut this one, but just for instance, I'll cut the skirt down a little bit, and most of the time I'll either be using a Zoom Ultra-Vibe Speed Craw or a Zoom Z Craw. And what that is is just a smaller inline craw trailer than what I normally use. Normally I'm throwing the big flappers, you know, bouncing around making all this commotion.

Well, in the fall, I found it better to have a smaller profile jig, have a smaller trailer, not throwing out a lot of action, and also I like to throw a more natural color but still have a little bit of shad pattern in there, whatever you might be comfortable with. I tend to go towards more of like a green pumpkin, you know, more natural shad color with a little bit of, you know, some clear skirt in there, and then I'll throw a natural trailer. This is a green pumpkin flash from Zoom, and it's green-pumpkin on top, but when you actually throw it out there and on the bottom you've got a lot of flash in. So when you throw it out there in the water, those legs get to kicking. It's actually giving off a flash but it's not like a pearl or a white that's just so standing out that those fish see it.

And I feel like when they see... Like if you were to throw a regular-sized swim jig with that Zoom Super Speed Craw in there, it looks like a dinner plate coming through the water towards them, and I really think that those fish think that it's a whole ball of shad and they'll just run through there and attack it and not really be keyed in on your bait.

So I feel like with this smaller profile and a more natural look, that they see a little bit of flash and they think it may be one or two, and they really try and go just eat those two or three that are swimming together. And I feel like that's why you get more commitments in the fall on a smaller swim jig, and you're not gonna have them rip your tail off or rip your chunk off or you see a four-pounder, like, blow up on you and it looks like he ate the whole jig and you swing and there's nothing there.

As far as retrieve goes, you know, it's still the same basically throughout the year. With the craw, I'm gonna be throwing out there, I'm gonna be popping it on top of the water with the fish. They'll run these edges like these baits are doing here at La Crosse. These fish are just running the edges of this grass and they'll get a ball of bait balled up and they'll just run through them and blow them up. Well, if you just keep your trolling motor on high or medium and just, you know, make your way down and just throwing this down the edges, eventually, you're gonna run into a fish. And I feel like when he sees this more natural, he's gonna be like... Like I said, there's one or two shad, he'll come up there and actually commit to it.

But just throw it out there, bring it down the edges, you know, keeping it up in the water column where you can see it and just kind of letting it flutter back to you. Sometimes you can work it a little bit faster. It might get you one to react to it, but I mean, just a normal retrieve.

Like I said, the setup I use is the same as I've always used. It's the Lew's 7.5:1 gear ratio reel. Excuse me. And again, that keeps that bait coming at a good speed but not too fast and not too slow to wear you out.

The one thing I do different on the quarter-ounce, this is not a No-Jack hook, it's just a regular wire, but I will still throw it on braid. I'll put it on 50 or 40. You don't wanna go to 60 with this light jig because it kind of takes away from the action, so, anything 40 to 50 I use, you know, the SX-140 a lot of the time, and I'll actually use the same rod that I use in the summertime swim jig setup where I'm throwing it around, you know, the floating docks. I'll use that 7'4" medium-heavy with that regular action, because with that braid you're not gonna have any stretch in the line. You're still gonna get a good hook set if you jerk hard, but it's not gonna be that overpowering to be able to flex that hook out where you're gonna lose that fish halfway back to the boat because you're gonna have that parabolic bend to the rod.

So I feel like that action on this style swim jig in that situation with the braided line is the best deal. That's what I found works best for me.

And that's kind of the gist of the whole fall deal. I mean, I go with...I don't get crazy with the colors. I don't like a white. If the water is dirty for some odd reason in the fall, you may have had a hurricane or something, you can go to a black and blue. But still, the smaller profile...the smaller profile trailer, and just... I mean, you know, find the bait in the fall and you're really gonna find the fish and then you just gotta figure out what color is gonna work best for you and see how it goes. And good luck to you guys, and hope you catch them all.

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