Summer Swim Jig Fishing: Tips and Techniques That Work!

Okay, guys, Bryan Schmitt here with bassresource.com. We're going to talk to you about summertime swim jigging. The summer season of swim jigging is an option, guys. This is a time of year where you could still catch them on a swim jig. You know, you might have to change your mindset a little bit depending on where you're at in the country. You know, if you're way up north somewhere, it could still be on fire, but if you're somewhere in the south, you know, let's just say, you know, south of, like, Middle United States area, you're starting to get really, really hot, fish are transitioning to deeper water, your options are going to get limited.

But, first and foremost, let's just talk about something that can happen in the summer, early summer. You know, you can get a shad spawn, guys, and if you've ever seen this, it's an incredible deal and only lasts a little bit in the morning, but you can make your day. And this swim jig here, guys, just a white, very natural baitfish-imitating swim jig can really do you a lot of a lot of good during the shad spawn time of year, guys. The crazy bite of it is early, you know, for a couple of hours in the morning, but you can still kind of push this until about mid-morning. You're not going to catch as many, but you can tell, you know, you'll see the bait just rippling all on the surface close to the shoreline. You know, if it's some kind of shallow vegetation growing, let it be primrose, you know, some kind of alligator grass, just anything reeds. They'll get on boat docks, seawalls, etc., and this is an option for you, you know. This jig will catch a lot of fish for you. 

Generally speaking, when I'm doing this presentation in the early summer, I want a 3/8 model. I want to keep it up. I don't want to get it too deep. Cover a lot of water. The Missile Baits Shockwave trailer is my go-to for this situation. It's a very, very excellent choice for imitating the shad. Small Boot Tail trailer like this in frosted purple, very, very natural look.

Okay, let's talk about another deal. This is something that I would like to share with you, guys, that I've seen a lot, and I'm sure you guys have too. You get in the summer, and you'll fish a tournament or you'll notice just these crayfish, some of these fish are spitting out, are just so red and bright in color, and that's when I'll bring out my fire craw again. This is not only a tool that I'll use in the winter, pre-spawn, early winter kind of bite. I'll break this guy out again in the summertime. I want to imitate them crayfish, and there's a time where this bite gets really, really good. It gets overlooked in the summer where these reds start to shine again, and, you know, where I'm fishing this, guys, I'm fishing this shallow, shallow cover, you know, shallow submerged grass, shallow anything. You know, I want to imitate the crayfish. I believe the crayfish are up there a little bit shallower, covering a lot of water with this, just trying to maximize that little crayfish bite that I know happens in the summer.

But, now, let's talk about it's hot, the weather is warm, it's a warm part of the summer, guys. The fish are starting to move out. How can I still apply my swim jig? This is probably one of my favorite times to do this. I really enjoy finding very deep the last bit of grass in any body of water if the vegetation exists. So what I mean by that is if there's a lake or a body of water that has grass, I want to find the deepest grass on the lake, the farthest out grass on the lake, and there's going to be fish that relate to that in the heat of the summer. And, guys, my swim jig, because it's designed for this low and slow technique, can be a deadly weapon out there in 8 to 12 to 14 foot of water on 15-pound fluorocarbon. What you got to remember is you might not want to throw the D Bomb. You can go to the Chunky D, or you can go to the Mini D Chunk or the Shockwave just to really make it compact to keep it down in the water. You want something to get really, really low and deep in the water and crawl it, crawl through these areas, you know.

And this is a bite that not a lot of people take note of, and this is kind of how my swim jig setup, my swim jig approach originated, was by doing that. I actually was fishing a shallow area of grass and wasn't catching anything and started to troll out to the deeper water, and while I was actually going to get on plane and run to another spot, and I just made a real long cast with my swim jig, a 1/2-ounce model, and just let it hit the bottom, just maybe I'll get a lucky bite as I'm trolling out of there. Well, nothing bit, and I started to reel it in, and as soon as I started to reel in, I got a really nice fish way out there in the 12 foot of water on a swim jig, and that's where I kind of realized how deadly this deal can be. This is a finesse approach. Once again, you're covering water at a finesse approach, and it's hard for fish to resist it in the summertime if you can find a habitat.

So, you know, I'll rotate between the river special and got five, you know, colors for this or the nasty color for the deep water approach. You know, the white and the fire crawl are for the shallow approach in the summer, but any kind of natural color, just get out there, guys, and throw it out, let it hit the bottom, and slowly start reeling it in. This also has to be mentioned again. I think I have. But this is for my swim jig setup, how I do it. This isn't a normal swim jig that you get at your local store that has a beefy weedguard, a beefy hook on it. This is a very finesse weed guard, finesse hook designed for this approach to not fish at really a thick, thick cover, but isolated sparse habitat, it really, really shines, and it's one of those deals where you just slowly, slowly reel it in, and [vocalization] you'll get a bite, set the hook. So, summertime, you've got to check this out, guys, on your home water. Hope it works for you.