Flippen Jigs

[bassNspear]

Just looking to get a new topic started, so what does everyone perfer when it comes to jigs. Long/short skirt, colors, rattlers, trailers.

I perfer black/blue jigs, trailerd with ither a pig or craw. Love the craw alot, becuase i feel that alot of people use the pig. Have to have that rattler on there to make some noise. Then again, what do i know about bass fishing. LOL

Just looking to see what everyones favorite is.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I LOVE TO FISH JIGS!!!! And have probably close to 75 jigs in my tackle box. But my answer is.... Depends. I have some with long skirts, some with short.. Some with silicone, some a mixture of silicone and bucktail(my own made jigs) some with rattles some without. Different head styles, different weights... Colors.. I have a ton of different ones of those as well.

It will all depend on conditions!

[Ray Esboldt]

I mean this as a complement to guys that do think about color, size, skirt style, rattles (or not), the angle you trim a weed gaurd, etc. You guys are analytical fishermen, and I wish I wasn't so darn lazy or I would be one too.

Here's my thoughts on jigs (and I throw them a ton). Heavy enough to penetrate the cover, but not too heavy that it sinks like a rock; I prefer the plastic chunk style trailer but whatever I grab first is fine; whatever color is on top of the jig pile will work as long as it's black, blue, green, or brown or any combination of those.

Guys, honest to goodness, I'll fish the same jig until it gets bit off. I think the power of a jig is through presentation. Fish it slow, fish edges with it, and bang it off stuff and you'll get bit. Fish it with some passion and enthusiasm, put some life into that hunk of lead and plastic, throw in some little oddball twitches, pop it hard off of weeds, bang it into rocks or dock poles. That's what fires up a semi-curious bass.

[bassNspear]

See ray, that sets us apart from the rest. As soon as the paint comes off the head of the jig, i am changin it, and then repairing it if i can.

I hear what your saying dietz. It really does come down to what condition your in. That is why you have to have tons of them babies sitting in the boat ready to roll.

[river rat316]

Jeez Deitz only 75? I have 5 different jig boxes in my boat.... do I need that many?.. no... do I have a problem.... yes... I was just rummaging through stuff looking for bobber stops for Mille Lacs tomorrow and realized why the speed went from 33 to 29 this year, way to much stuff And thats after selling about 1/4 of the stuff I never use on hsolist this winter. I fish jigs alot, mostly football heads for obvious reasons on the river, my other favorite is the arky head, it does good around wood and light rocky areas. Most of my jigs have a full skirt thats untrimmed there are times when I move down to an Eakins type jig with not alot on it and a swimming chunk trailer, I like claws for trailers, dont like the pork type chunks (plastic or pork) I also love hair jigs in colder water.... but thats top secret The great thing abut jigs is the versatility you can mimic just about any type of pray with a jig. Im like Ray to I use em till either the hook dulls or they get bit or broke off, the only other way I toss em is if the hook bends a little I won't take a chance on losing a good fish with a bent up hook.

[TB Basser]

Best tool going by far. I carry 3 boxes in jigs in my boat.

One of premade casting jigs, one of swimming jigs and one of

flipping jigs of various weights with skirts loose. That way I can make up any combination that matches condition and prey. Far as trailer, I use craws, chunks and pork. I remember Al Lindner saying the in cold water pork out preforms plastic. Don't know if its true or not but I carry it just in case, lol

[Superduty]

Do jigs catch bass? LOL

[Daze Off]

I've got a bunch o' jigs too and like others have said, likely way too many. As for what I use most it would probably be the Mann's Stone Jigs - they come through weeds well because of the arrow shaped head, they stand up well, they swim well, and they skip pretty well (proabably very well but I am still trying to master pitch-skipping a jig under docks with a baitcaster). Colors - Black/Blue, Green Pumpkin, Watermelon, Black/Red, and White get wet the most.

Other jigs I like to use are Eakins Finesse and FlaMinn Lures models. I put Northland double claw rattles on every one of them except the Eakins.

Just starting to use footbell heads so no preference there yet.

For trailers I almost always use one of three things - Lake Fork Craw, Lake Fork Creature, or Zoom Swimmin' Chunk.

Daze Off

[RK]

Hiya -

I love jigs... Depends on how far-ranging the discussion is too. If you're getting into jigworms and grubs, that's a whole 'nother element to the discussion.

For flipping, a lot of which I do in rushes or cane, I still really like the Northland Jungle Jig. I like the rattles and the bullet head. For weedline stuff I like Arkie-style heads like the old Stanley heads a little more because they fall a little differently than bullet heads do. Seems like my hooking percentage is a little better for some reason, although that could all be in my head.

I do like small Eakins type jigs sometimes too - fish them on a spinning rod and 8# Fluoro.

For trailers, I like Berkley Power Craws - the 4" for bigger jigs, or the 3-inch butten down about 3/4 of an inch for smaller jigs like the Terminator Tiny-Ts. have started to use more of the Paca Craw-type mudflaps too, and am getting to like them. Berkley has a new trailer of that style - the Chunky Trailer - that looks pretty good.

Someone else mentioned it, but hair jigs don't get nearly enough attention anymore. They can really be awesome in cold water, or after cold fronts. I'm not sure why - maybe it's the translucence of hair or how it moves compared to silicone, but there are definitely times when a hair jig will clobber a silicone skirted jig. Love them for post-spawn smallies, or either smallies or largemouth in October and November... Punisher makes a great one, and the Bass Pro branded one isn't too bad either.

cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Daze Off]

Rk -

I've got some of the BPS models because I thought they would be good in the rivers in late fall cold water but stopped using them because they catch the current too much and get blown downstream too fast. Lots more than rubber-skirted varieties

Has this been an issue for you at all? Any advice/solutions?

Daze Off

[RK]

Hiya Daze -

Check out the Punisher hair jigs. I think part of the issue with the BPS jigs in current is they're bucktail jigs, which is pretty stiff stuff really, and catches the current more. The Punisher jigs have a synthetic craft hair that's a lot softer. Bunny strip jigs work pretty well too. Not always easy to find them, though. Plain old marabou also. A Fuzzy Grub is a pretty dang good cold water bass jig... caught a lot of smallies on a rootbeer colored Fuzzy Grub on a 1/4 oz ballhead.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[river rat316]

if theres that much current in "late fall cold water" ,Im taking that as under 45 degrees, Your more than likely not in a high numbers area if your talking smallies, I fish alot of 1/4 ounce and under hairjigs (mostly bucktail) in the fall and dont really have a problem with them blowing out.

[Daze Off]

River Rat -

I am talking smallies and I typically fish them with a regular old 1/2 oz bass (LM) jig with plastic trailer flipped into wood. Not interested in numbers - just size. If I get a couple (or more ) between 16-20" on a trip I am happy.

I have flipped smaller Eakins finesse jigs at times but they seem to prefer the larger bait and I am able to hold it in place and shake it for longer periods of time. The Eakins work better in shallower water near grass for me.

Actually got the idea from Hank Parker - watched one of his shows from the water I fish and he was using these baits.

RK - will do - I thought of thinning the hair on the BPS ones but I never think of it when I am sitting at home and it is usually too cold to mess with something like that when I'm on the water. Easier to just try the other brand.

Daze Off

[bassNspear]

man, looks like i hit a topic where people in love with huh?

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[river rat316]

Daze I have no interest in numbers, but sometimes you'll be more productive on the bigger fish with a smaller jig, just depends on conditions, also the hairjig thing was a location comment, check how much current your fishing in cold fall water (below 45 degrees), if theres more than a trickle move, there maybe some still left in current but the motherload is stacked somewhere with no current find em and you can have days with 15+ 18" or bigger fish

[RobertELee]

I really loved the All-terrain jigs before last year when I talked to Dietz, he said he uses the Jungle jigs, I took a look at them and tried them out and I have totally switched over, they swim awesome, are very weedless and the best part is they hook fish in the hard part of the mouth. When I used the All-terrain's they would almost always hook into a very soft area and or into the eye. Thanks Dietz!

[Daze Off]

River - I could not agree with you more which is why I'm tossing these big jigs deep into wood where the current breaks much more but it still carries the BPS hair jigs too easily. I do also fish holes (weighted soft jerkbaits and carolina rigs) and bridges (drop-shots and tubes) as well.

I have had some days like you describe but they are few and far between on this body of water. Oddly enough 4" soft stickbaits rigged wacky-style and weightless are nearly as effective as the jigs for big fish at that time of year in the slack water.

Daze Off

[BassAkwards]

I bought my first bass jig set this past year. brown skirt with brown craw... saw that a lot like black and blue... when is a good situation to fish brown? clarity? temp? season? just curious...(i will be getting blue and black, lol)

[Central Bassman]

I like a brown jig in the river or in clear water.. If the water is really clear or has just a little brown to it, then i will throw a brown jig aswell. A brown jig is also good on high pressered lakes, its something different to show them.

[river rat316]

water clarity, water temperature, and light (sun or clouds) and what i have confidence in! Depth also plays a role!... We could probably fill about 5 full pages on the color subject, and there would be lots of different opinions.

[SluggoMaster]

I have basically three colors that work for me.

Black/Blue

Black/Brown

White (fall)

What I do change up are the trailers, which each have their own situation that I won't get into.

I start with black/blue which works in any water clarity from what I've seen. I usually punt to the black/brown if the fish don't hit the black/blue for whatever reason. I believe the forage is the key to the color in any given lake, which would explain the black/blue and black/brown situation.

White is a good fall color for some reason, not sure why on that one.

[slopmaster]

i bought my first jig this year ( brown and green) and used it very little.. i dont why the first day i used it i landed a nice 20 incher but i think this year im going to go out for a whole day and just use a jig mabey that will help with the confidece..i also bought a white one so maybe i will play around with them this year. one ?? when you use a jig i know your looking for quality and not so much quanity but on average what is the smallest fish you will catch on a jig in inches...

[Central Bassman]

im not real sure but im sure i caught at 6 iner one time, haha... NO for real you will still catch smaller fish on them to. but they are know for catching big fish.

[delmuts]

you will/can still catch little fish with them. my smallest came flying out of the water when i set the hook! oops!

[RK]

Ahahaa...that's funny Del. Done that a few times flipping, especially when a rock bass grabs it. 7'6" flippin stick and 30-pound braid, you can send a 7" rock bass into low orbit...

Funniest I think I've ever seen though was - gah - probably almost 20 years ago now. 3 of us from Camp Fish were fishing bass out of a 16' Lund V-hull with wooden bench seats. The guy in the front was standing on the little triangle seat in the bow fishing a jig and pig. He'd watched too many bass fishing shows I think, and he had one of those 'knock down a small building' hooksets. So he gets a hit, reels down to it, smokes the hooks - and completely whiffs. Fish wasn't there. So he rocks the boat, loses his balance up on the little seat, and starts doing the pinwheel arms thing to get his balance back. No joy - over the side he goes. This would have been funny enough - but he was wearing flip-flop sandals, and *both* of the sandals caught on the gunnel, so he's hung up on the side of the boat, upside down, flailing around trying to A.) get his feet loose, B.) throw his rod back in the boat before he loses it. and C.) occasionally get his head above water so he can take a breath. Of course his two 'buddies' were collapsed in the bottom of the boat laughing, so we weren't much help at first. Eventually his sandals fell of and he was able to toss his rod in the boat and climb back in. I can still see the look on his face when he realized he'd lost his battle with physics and was going in...

cheers,

Rob Kimm