Looking through my tackle box when I got to the lake, I decided to start with a jig. I don't care what conditions you're faced with; you can't go wrong when you're fishing a jig for bass. Let's talk about five ways to fish a jig for bass throughout the seasons.
Swim Jigs
Swim Jigs have been one of the top choices for jigs and bass fishing in the last few years. What started as an accident has become a great tactic to give bass a different look at jigs and how they are fished.
How many times has this happened to you? You make a cast that falls short of your target, so instead of fishing the jig back to the boat, you start to reel the jig back for another cast. As the jig gets closer to the boat, you see a bass follow the jig. Your first instinct is to stop the jig. The bass stops, turns, and swims away when you do that.
After seeing this a few times, some pros got the idea to fish the jig back to the boat. To their surprise, they started to trigger strikes and catch bass. Thus the swim jig tactic was born. What started as a regular bass jig has now changed to specialty swim jigs on the market. My choice for this tactic is to use an Outkast Swim Jig.
If you can fish a spinnerbait, you can fish a swim jig. I'll often give a swim jig to new fishermen instead of a spinnerbait because the swim jig is, at times, more fishable than a spinnerbait. Fishing a swim jig is simple. Make your cast and start to reel the jig back to the boat. When reeling, don't try to impart any action into the jig. I have seen bass get turned off by a jig with too much action. You want to cast and reel.
How fast you reel will have to do with the jig size you're using and how deep you want to fish. I use either 1/4 or 3/8 ounce jigs for most swim jig fishing. The trailer is one of the keys to getting more bass to strike a swim jig.
I use a five-inch Outkast Fat Tail Grub most of the time, but I keep my options open and experiment. Plastic chunks, Naughty Bugs, and even double tail grubs are all great options to try from time to time. Play with different trailers and see how they affect your jig and the bass. You will soon learn what trailer to use for the conditions you're fishing.
I use a seven-foot medium-action rod for fishing the swim jig, teamed with a matching baitcaster spooled with twelve to seventeen-pound fluorocarbon line. The lower stretch factor of the fluorocarbon line helps me get a better hookset. I suggest you use a sweeping set when setting the hook. If you try to set the hook by raising your rod over your head, you will miss more bass than you will catch.
Jig Worm
As the summer months go on, bass will start to take up residence in deeper water along the outside weed line edges, or they may move even deeper to offshore humps. When this happens, you can't beat a jig worm presentation when the bite is tough.
Four and six-inch worms will be the choice when it comes to plastics. These will be mated to an Outkast Money Jig. I use and carry mainly 1/16, 1/8, and 3/16 ounce. When faced with cold front conditions, bass will slow down, and you have to follow by going to smaller baits to get bites.
I use a seven-foot medium-action rod for fishing a Money Jig, teamed up with a spinning reel, spooled with either six or eight-pound mono or fluorocarbon line. Special note here: The lighter the line, the more bites you will get. My rule of thumb is to use an eight-pound line fishing along the weed edge. This allows me a few extra pounds of line size if the fish get into the weeds. If I'm fishing in open water, I'll opt for six-pound line. I feel I get more bites using the smaller line.
Football Jig
If you're looking for bass on offshore rocks, you can't beat using an Outkast Touchdown Jig. The 1/2 and 3/4 ounce jigs allow you to explore the bottom as you fish, making sure you're spending critical time on the prime structure that will hold the biggest bass on the spot. When fishing this jig, I have two ways that I rig the bait. Usually, I rig the jig traditionally with an Outkast Spider Grub. However, when I want a different look, I'll add a Hitch Hiker and thread on a craw. When rigging the jig, I get an excellent craw imitation that gets bites when the regular spider grub rigged Touchdown won't.
The key to fishing a football Jig is the retrieve. Don't hop the jig along the bottom like you would when fishing a traditional jig. Instead, drag the jig along the bottom. That is what transfers to you the bottom makeup. When you get your jig next to a rock, try to rock it back and forth a few times before you move the jig onto the next rock. This action will get you more strikes by the end of your day of fishing.
When fishing the Touchdown Jig, I use either a seven-foot heavy-action baitcasting rod or a seven-and-a-half-foot flipping stick. Either rod is teamed with a matching reel spooled with fifteen to twenty-pound fluorocarbon line.
Snap and Pop
When bass move out onto the flats during post-spawn, they will take up summer residence. Some bass will stay shallow, while others will move towards the deeper weed lines and clumps located outside the weedline edge. When these bass become active, they will often station themselves on the tops of the weed edges and feed as food passes by. At other times they will bury down in the weeds near the bottom and wait for food to pass by. If you place your lure close enough, you may get a reaction strike, but if it's not, you won't get their attention and a bite. To appeal to this mood, you need something that will get a reaction from the bass. This is when I turn to the Outkast RT Jig and fish a little snap and pop tactic.
This is not fishing for the faint-hearted. This is power bass fishing all the way. Use either 1/2 or 3/4 ounce jigs for this tactic. Make short casts and let the RT Jig fall to the bottom. Once the jig hits bottom, give the rod a good snap. This will pop the jig off the bottom and out of the weeds. Then let the jig settle back to the bottom and try again. With the jig hopping out of the weeds, this is generally when a reaction bite will occur, so pay special attention when you move the jig again.
When it comes to equipment, this is power fishing all the way. I suggest using seven-foot to seven-and-a-half-foot heavy-action flipping sticks, with high-speed retrieve reels spooled with twenty to thirty-pound fluorocarbon lines. The reason for using fluorocarbon instead of braid is water clarity factors. If I'm fishing in clear water conditions, I will use fluorocarbon line. If the water clarity is low, I will use braid if conditions call for it.
Flipping and Pitching
Flipping and Pitching is a variation of the Snap and Pop technique. If the bite is slow and the fish are buried in the grass, you can't beat flipping and pitching. When it comes to flipping, match the jig to the cover that you're going to fish. Here you have to cover all your bases. For example, I carry all sizes of the Outkast RT Jig in my box. There will be days when you have to finesse flip your jigs to get critical bites, and then there will be days when you have to power your jig through the cover even to get your bait into the bass zone.
I use the same equipment for flipping and pitching as the Snap and Pop technique.
Give these tactics a try this season you will see that there is never a wrong time to use a jig.
Please remember to practice CPR (Catch, Photo, and Release). The future of fishing is in your hands.
