Jig No Pig!
 Hold the Pig. Most
anglers today continue a long bassing tradition of using pork
frog chunks with their jigs. Some advantages to pork are its
saltiness and its fluid, life-like movement. Heck, it was alive
at one time. Pork has to be stored in a bottle of brine solution,
otherwise it dries out, gets rock hard, and you have to use a
hacksaw to get it off your jig. Uncle Josh has been making pork
frogs that have been bagging big bass forever. Stike King is the
new kid on the pork block and their "Bo" chunks are
perceived by some as the newer, improved model pork chunks. Some
super sharpies put a few drops of glycerine into the brine
solution to tenderize their porks, thereby making them more
supple and fluid. But the glycerine also shortens the shelf life
of the pork - unless you freeze it between trips. The problem
here is if you are like me and forget to take it out of the
freezer. Unfortunately, pig chunks are not what this article is
about, so you may not read any more about pig chunks in here.
 Stop Hurling Chunks. Some
non-traditionalists hold off on the pig chunks and substitute
with copycat plastic chunks that imitate the pork frogs in shape
and size. Some advantages of plastic chunks over real chunks are
that the plastic does not dry out or need to be kept in a brine
bottle that leaks corrosive salt stains all over your tackle bag.
Importantly, manufacturers can get pretty creative with the
plastic shapes and colors. Anglers like that and buy many shapes
and shades of plastic pork! Manufacturers like that! However,
plastic chunks of any shape or size are just not what this
article is about, so you may not read any more about plastic
chunks here. Just one last thing though, there is a general
feeling among anglers that pork chunks work best in cold water,
like deep winter fishing, and that plastic chunks work best in
summer time. You figure it out and maybe you can write about it,
okay? But not in this article.
What's it all about? This article
is about neither pork nor plastic chunks, although they both
produce plenty of big bass. This article is about fishing big
bass jigs with twin tail grub trailers instead of hurling chunks.
The article will feature the best I know, which are the double
tails available from Yamamoto Custom baits. But before we get
into the twin tail trailer, let's review the basic anatomy - and
the variables - of the jig itself.
What are the Variables? There is a
long list of variables to be decided upon in selecting a jig to
use, such as: 1) the lead head (shape, weight, color, collar) 2)
the hook (bend, wire gauge, plating, etc.) 3) the fiber fanguard
4) the skirt and skirt collar, 5) the trailer, 6) the rattle. In
ther next few sections, let's take a closer look at each of these
variables.
The Leadhead. Concentrate your
bass jigging efforts on ¼ ounce, 3/8, and ½ ounce weights. You
will find much less of a need for lighter or heavier weights. As
far as the color of a jig head, it’s really not too important.
I fish all my leadhead lures (jigs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits)
unpainted. THE BASS THAT I CATCH COULD CARE LESS. If you make
them yourself, as I do, then you know the painting process is the
most laborious step in making jigs. Just skip it. It took me
years of inhaling paint fumes to learn this one simple truth:
jigheads are just molded hunks of metal. Believe me, I used to
make some real art museum pieces with up to 7 colors and eleven
coats of paint, eyes, sparkles in the clear coat - the works.
Unfortunately, the jighead is not the attraction, the jighead is
the tool that delivers the skirt/trailer. It is the skirt/trailer
that provides the allure, the attraction, the seductive
come-hither. The jighead shape and weight are far more important
than its color. The shape of the jighead must be expertly
designed in order to present your skirts/trailers to fish at the
most receptive angle, depth, fall rate, and ANGLER-IMPARTED
MOTION. This shape needs to snake through grass, bang through
rocks, bounce through wood, stand up on the bottom, and through
it all, AVOID SNAGGING OR FOULING WITH DEBRIS. It is a very
desirable quality for the jig head to stand up on the bottom.
That way you can keep the jig in place, yet still activate it
with a life-like rocking or shaking motion imparted with the rod
tip. Personally, I am not too interested if the jig “kicks up
bottom debris” though. Most of the time, I am on bottoms where
there really isn't anything to kick up – I just want it to
shake or rock in place. Drop many jigs to the bottom and they
will land and want to lay on their side, not upright, especially
with a big trailer attached. This laying on their side is often
what gets jig heads snagged too! It's hard to envision snagging
the hook point straight up dead center. Snags happen because the
jig flips on its side and gets caught. So your mission is to find
a head design that places the center of gravity at the bottom of
the head, so it lands upright every time. Also, it must have a
pointy leadhead nose so that it is far more weedless than other
head shapes. It doesn't have to be an elongated nose either; it
can be a snub nose.The important point is that there is
absolutely no crevice where weeds can lodge between the eye of
the hook and the nose of the jig. And, when some weeds do get
caught on the line and travel down to the jighead, the nose
design must allow you to snap the rod tip crisply to easily shed
off any debris that may have collected on the jig. So, try to
find a jighead with a short, streamlined pointy nose – and an
underslung, wide, flattened or roundish belly section. Also,
recognize that this wide belly is the center of gravity as the
jig falls through thick weeds, drops through drowned tree limbs
and such. So, it will drop horizontally – belly-first rather
than nose-first – which means to drop weedless and snagless.
And don't forget to stay alert for bites as it drops - you will
get most of your hits on the drop, especially the initial drop
when you first cast, or on subsequent drops, as you lift the jig
and let it fall, lift the jig and let it fall.
The Hook Itself. Look for a medium
wire gauge hook for spinning (¼ & 3/0; 3/8 & 4/0; ½
& 4/0) and a heavy wire gauge hook for baitcasting (¼ &
4/0; 3/8 & 4/0; ½ & 5/0). Note the repetition of “4/0”
in the preceding sentence. Because many people use pork frogs or
plastic chunks, most jig manufacturers today use a wide-gap,
round bend hook . The wide, round bend seats the frogs and chunks
better than any other hook style. The very strongest hooks will
be forged, although these are rarely found in the round bend
models. Many jig manufacturers today are using jig hooks that
have the line tie eye bent horizontally as opposed to the
traditional jig hook which has a vertically-aligned eye. There
are even some claims that the horizontal eye imparts better
motion, or makes the jig more snagless, or makes for a better
hookset. Personally, I make and use them both ways and I can't
tell any difference. Can you?
Flipping vs. Casting Jigs. If you
look through lure catalogs, you may notice manufacturers making a
distinction between what they label flipping versus casting jigs.
The only material difference should be a thinner wire diameter
and sometimes a smaller casting jig hook size. Sometimes the
shape of the casting head is slightly different than the shape of
the same manufacturer’s flipping jig head.
- Flipping jigs have heavy gauge wire hooks to
be used on stout baitcasting rods/lines to flip or pitch a jig
into thick cover (weed beds, wood jams, reed berms, rock piles,
etc) at fairly close quarters. You usually pull the boat right up
on these spots and flip or pitch from a few feet up to about 20
feet away at the most. When you get bit, you bear down on the
gear and haul with great intensity, and you depend on the heavy
rod/reel/line to hold together and drag the bass out of there.
Sometimes, you can’t even drag them out, and you must bring the
boat to the fish instead! I would not want to use the thinner
wire hooks on CASTING JIGS with such heavy gear, but even still I
do not think the hooks should bend easily, even on an decent
fish. Maybe a monster bass could bend the CASTING JIG hook
mismatched on heavy baticasting gear, which is reason enough not
to use them on heavy baitcasting gear!
- Casting jigs are designed with thinner gauge
wire hooks. They are favored by bank fishermen with spinning
gear, who need to cast out to reach heavy fish-holding cover that
they cannot get close enough to on foot. You should still be
tossing them into nasty cover as usual, but because you are on
the bank - you cannot get close enough to flip or pitch with
heavy baitcasting gear. You ideally use heavy spinning gear with
20 lb. test line. Casting jigs are also used by boaters whenever
you cannot get a boat close up to fish-holding cover, or whenever
you are jigging water about 20 feet or deeper, such as deep
submerged bushes and sunken roadbeds in man-made impoundments and
deep rocky bottoms in natural lakes. You basically use lighter,
longer lines in these deepwater jigging applications, and the
thin wire of a casting jig allows easier hook penetration on
lighter, longer lines. in fact, it would be downright difficult
to hook fish in these situations with heavy wire jig hooks
designed for shrt range pitching and flipping.
 The Fiber Fanguard.
The reason to use a fiber fanguard is the desire to get your jig
back out of some real nasty places bass use, including downed
trees, drowned bushes, thick matted weed and pad beds, pools
behind tall walls of phragmites or tulles, etc. Jig manufacturers
don't know where or how you will be using their jigs, so they
usually make the fiberguards extra long and extra thick so you
can always cut them shorter or thin out some of the fibers as you
see fit Ideally, you want the fiberguard to be just stiff
enough to allow you to get the jig back out of where you tossed
it. Trimming the fiberguard doesn't have anything to do with how
the fish are eating the bait - that gets addressed during the
hooksetting phase which we discuss further down. Rather, you make
the fiberguard longer, shorter, thicker or thinner solely
depending on the type of cover you are fishing.
Here's how to make a jig that is just snag-resistant enough
for you to consistently get it back out of the gnarly places
you'll be throwing it:
- Press the fibers back against the hookpoint and shorten them
with a scissors. Never cut them shorter than just beyond the hook
point. Better to trim too little instead of too much.
- It's hard to envision snagging the hook point straight up
dead center. Snags happen because the jig flips on its side and
gets caught. Therefore, separate the fiber bundle into left and
right halves with your fingers and spread them far to the sides
of the hookpoint. In fact, it is absolutely perfect if the fibers
form a vee well out to the sides of the hook with no fibers at
all directly in front of the hook.
- Put your thumb behind where the fibers are glued into the
jighead. Press at the base of the fibers and push towards the
hook eye a few times until the fibers stand almost straight up.
They also fan out a bit as you do this. Overall, aim to make at
least an inch-wide safety zone as far ahead and out to the sides
of the hookpoint as possible.|
- Now test the snag-resistance of the fibers by pushing back on
them with your index finger. If too resistant, cut away fibers
until you achieve your desired snag-resistance, a
"feel" which only comes with experience. Cut them at
the base of the stem, where they are glued or molded into the
leadhead. You will rarely need the full 30-40 fibers the jig
comes with fresh out of the package. Rather, most cover can be
fished using 12-20 fibers. Needless to say, if you are using ½
oz jigs on a pool cue baitcaster with 80 lb. test spiderwire, you
can handle more resistance and leave more fibers in your
fiberguard than if you are using 1/8 oz jigs on 12 lb test
spinning tackle.
As I mentioned already, I leave the jig head itself unpainted,
but I do make use of the fiberguard to add some color accents. On
store-bought jigs, you can usually only get clear or black
fiberguards. However, do-it-yourselfers can order other colors
like red, orange, green, blue, chartreuse, brown fiberguards from
the mail-order component catalogs. For instance, I make two tone
black/red or brown/orange fiberguards to match skirts of the same
colors. And I make tri-tone fiberguards out of blue, orange and
clear fibers when I am using jigs that match the crayfish in some
lakes that at times appear to be smoky gray with bright orange,
powder blue and white markings on their claws and the lower parts
of the carapace. If you want to learn more about how to make your
own jigs, I recommend the following book that you can order
online: Lure Making : The Art and Science of
Spinnerbaits, Buzzbaits, Jigs, and Other Leadheads.
The Silicone Skirt. The best
general purpose skirts I know are the flat silicone skirts made
by Z-Man, who acquired the former RM Industries. Call them at
(843) 747-4366. During the 1998 season, there has been a
renaissance move back towards round rubber skirts. Now years ago,
all jig skirts were made out of rubber before silicone was
recognized as a skirt material. The disadvantage rubber has is
that it leeches chemicals that cause the skirt to melt over time
or upon contact with other reactive plastics, wood varnishes,
boat finishes, etc. However, many anglers claim the round rubber
skirt is more lively than the flat silicone skirt and therefore
catches more and bigger bass. Therefore, round rubber is
"hot", reactivity and all. Due to the round rubber
rage, two other options have been produced recently. One is round
silicone skirts and the second is silicone-treated round rubber.
As for the bass I catch, they like flat silicone just fine, and I
like the fact that the silicone skirts won't melt the beautiful
finish off that Japanese popper that just cost me thirty dollars.
Regardless of whether the skirt is rubber or silicone, jig
manufacturers don't know where or how you will be using their
jigs, so they usually make the skirts extra long and extra thick
so you can always cut them shorter or thin out some of the skirt
fibers as you see fit. I trim both the front and rear-facing
fronds of the skirt to create an overall willow leaf-shaped
"layered look" that presents the silhouette of either a
crayfish or a baitfish body. Also, I do not leave too much of the
skirt trailing out past the hook.
The Skirt Collar: Most jig
manufacturers use a short section of neoprene tubing that holds
the skirt in place on the jig collar. Some manufacturers lash the
skirt on with wire or thread wrappings. I like the convenience of
the neoprene collar. To me, it is better to be able to take the
skirt off rather than not to be able to take it off - that is the
question.
The Trailer. We already mentioned
the desire for a wide, round bend hook because many anglers are
fond of pork frogs or plastic chunks. The round bend seats these
properly. Also keep in mind that, instead of hurling chunks of
pork or plastic, you may at times prefer to thread other things
like plastic crayfish or single tail or twin tail grubs onto the
hook shanks. Otherwise, you probably would not have read up to
this point in the article, right? You will need to carefully
superglue the grub trailers into place, otherwise they slip down
all the time. So, when you buy jigs, look for ones that keep the
entire hook shank clear from any rattle contraptions. Also, don’t
place any faith in any grub holder collars or barbs that are
touted by some manufacturers. In my experience, they never hold
nothing in place. Only thing that holds them is a little shot of
superglue. Just thread the twin tails all the way up the hook
behind the skirt and glue them on, they will stay on longer than
the plastic chunks, which you will need to secure on the hook by
sliding a toothpick horizontally through the flesh of the plastic
chunk in front of the hook. Otherwise, the chunk will tear off
easily. To get back to the twin tail grubs, just pay no mind if
one of the legs tears off. The bass don't care. I always tell
people that they put a second leg on these lures so that you will
have a spare in case you lose the first one.
The Rattle. Been there, done that.
Tried all the brass, the glass, all the rattle packets, pockets,
pods, tubes, yo-yos, claw ball inserts, etc. Yeah, sure they all
worked when they were new and exciting. Today? I don’t need
them, you can have them. I keep them off my jigs.
The Color Guide: Divide your jig
color patterns into two series: a crayfish series and a baitfish
series. In the baitfish series, always sling a white
silicone-skirted jig with a smoke/silver flake (135)
twin tail trailer. This combo represents shad, shiners, minnows
and such. Z-man has a series of semi-translucent white skirts
called “glimmers”. They have overtones like gold, blue, etc.
Sunlight gives a living, vibrant sheen to the glimmer colors.
Also, consider a “rainbow trout” pattern which is green
back/black flakes with white/pink glimmer belly. Works well
everywhere, even where rainbow trout don’t happen. Might want
to toss a “golden shiner” or “shad” pattern too. On all
these skirt patterns, try the smoke trailer with silver, gold or
copper metal flakes to match. What the smoke-colored trailer
gives you is contrast against the white-bellied skirts. Contrast
is an important thing in a lure. You can also try a white single
tail grub trailer instead of the twin tail. Many anglers feel
strongly that the single tail grub trailer represents a baitfish
better than the twin tail, but I don't think the bass feel as
strongly about this as some anglers do. And if we were writing
about pork (which we aren't), I might tell you to use a white
Strike King Bo Leech, which is a chunky fish-shaped pennant of
pork. Or I might tell you to buy a bottle of Uncle Josh Offshore
Bigboys, which comes with two large pork rinds for marlin and
tuna, but that you can cut into 14 bass-sized, fish-shaped
pennants. But we're not writing about pork, so I won't tell you
those things.
Another baitfish pattern is fire tiger and its derivatives,
which on a jig can represent yellow perch and sunfish patterns.
These gaudy patterns provide increased visibility in thick cover,
in stained water, or for highly active fish in spring and fall,
particularly pre-spawn. Try white twintail trailers with the
figer tiger family.
When bass are on crayfish (and they usually are), match the
color. When crayfish are greenish brown with orange spots, use a
brown/orange skirt with smoke rootbeer/green & copper flake (236)
twintail trailer. When crayfish are black/red, try black/red
skirt with black/red flake (051)
trailer. When they're blackish brown, try the black/red skirt
with watermelon/black & red flake (208)
trailer. In clear water, crayfish are sometimes smoke-colored
with powder blue, bright orange and white accents on their claws
and bellies. A good clear water match is a clear crystal/copper
flake skirt with a smoke/copper flake (163)
or clear/bronze flake (200)
twin tail. When I make this one, I make a matching tri-tone
fiberguard of blue, orange and clear fibers. The twin tail colors
referenced here are Gary Yamamoto’s and the skirts are Z-Man's.
In dark or dingy water, I like a black skirt with an orange
trailer for contrast. You can use a black laundry marker to spot
and mottle the orange trailer. At night, start right off with
some contrast in the skirt itself - use a black/chartreuse skirt.
Then add more contrast by sweetening it with a light brown
trailer such as amber honey/copper flake (182) or root
beer/gold flake (149).
The Fall Rate: Many anglers
consider that changing the trailer is the thing to do to
alter the fall rate of a jig as it descends to the bottom. As you
may know, most jigs get hit by bass on the fall. So anglers use
bigger trailers to slow down or smaller trailers to speed up the
jig's fall, thereby achieving the ideal fall rate to trigger more
bass. To the contrary, I disregard the trailer's effect, and I
use a heavier or lighter weight of jig head to achieve the
desired fall rate. I find I can control the fall rate far more
effectively by switching the weight - and shape - of the jig head
while keeping the desired size, shape and buoyancy of the plastic
trailer intact the way fish seem to want that at any given
moment.
Hot and Cold Running Bass. In hot
water, slower is not always better on the descent. I've noticed
sometimes when the water is hot during the summer that bass
eagerly hit heavier than usual jigs as they are falling faster.
In cold water I have noticed the active movement of the twister
legs on the twintail grub may discourage some lethargic bass from
attempting to pursue the lure. It gives the illusion that the
bait is too agile and discourages the bass from pursuing it. In
these cases, trim back the curved sickle-shaped tips of the lure
legs to produce only a very subtle flapping action. Better to
trim little by little instead of too much. In a certain sense,
you are converting the twister tail to behave more like a plastic
chunk.
Where to Fish 'em. A lot of
articles have been written about how to fish jigs in wood, rocks
or weeds like milfoil. This article is different. We will tell
you how to fish jigs in the tall grass. Tulles are the most
common tall grass in the West and phragmites are the predominant
tall grass in the East. Phragmite berms grow everywhere that
largemouth grow out East. Cattails are second most common out
East, but not nearly as invasive as phragmites. Phragmites are
much harder on your line than tulles, seem to grow closer
together than tulles - but bass seem to me to use all varieties
of tall grasses in the same manner.
Most informed anglers will know to fish natural points made by
the tall grass, but fewer anglers realize that they also should
fish any indentations made in grass walls. Like where there are
long stands of tall grass, look for any small indents that would
make you feel as if you had a little buffer or safe haven, like
you were tucked away out of the wind and water current if you
were a bass, okay? On a regular day, look for agressive bass to
be in the pockets themselves, but on off days or cold front days,
look for little baldy patches 2-5 feet further behind the apex or
pocket of the indent where otherwise thick-growing canes create a
wind and current break zone. Drop your baits back into the tall
grass behind the indent into the baldy spots which are 2-5 feet
back further than the end of the pocket. Sometimes you have to
wait for the wind to blow so it sweeps back and parts the reeds,
and creates a brief opening for you to drop the bait into the
bald spot.
An interest thing about tall grasses is that they act like a
natural heat exchange system between water and air. Each
individual stalk transmits heat down into the water from the air
during the cool months of spring and fall, or allows heat to
escape up the stalk from the water into the air during the hot
summer months. I like to fish deep into the heart of dead, dried
phragmite beds on the first warming days of spring for just that
reason! You will find all kinds of fish - not just bass - banging
off the reed stalks back there.
Setting the Hook. Now that we have talked about the jig itself and where
to fish 'em - let’s move on to the hooksetting phase! Here's
how. Let's assume you are fishing thick cover. As a fish picks up
the jig, the bass may keep moving towards you swimming straight
out of the cover or off to one side. There is speculation that
bass may do this because they may expect the bait to be
struggling furiously and the bass needs to be prepared to spit
out and retake the bait in order to get a better grip or better
control of it, they will move out of cover over more open bottom
where the bait cannot find hiding as easily. Whatever, you just
continue to reel in deliberately and at the same time move the
rod tip down and extend your rod arm down in front of you. It is
definitely not good to let the line go slack or come too tight
when you do this. It is usually perfect to find that you are
putting slightly extra steady tension on the line. This all needs
to happen in the space of a few seconds, sometimes longer if the
fish was way back deep in heavy wood and you want to lead her out
of the nasty stuff first. Then start to bring your rod up towards
your shoulder as you reel faster and sweep the rod tip back
overhead. This stretches the line and starts to pull the jig out
of the fish's mouth. At that instant, the fish will clamp down
hard on the bait and compress it against the roof of its mouth,
thereby depressing the fibers and helping the hook point stick in
a spot. The hook point has pierced soft tissue now, but not in
past the barb. Doesn’t matter if it’s hypodermic needle
sharp, just aint set yet. When the fish makes its initial run
against a tight line, you must follow through with a couple of
short tugs to set the hook past the barb into the fish's mouth.
You need to follow through properly before the fish jumps.
Otherwise, all will be lost.
Glad You've Made It! Congratulations
for reaching the end of this article. We did not mean to imply
that pork or plastic chunks are not as good fish catchers as twin
tail trailers. They're really just as good in the hands of a jig
master. Hope it helps!
Want Even More Grub
Fishing Know-How?
This could easily turn into a diatribe if you try to digest it
all in one mind-meal. So pace yourself. There's a lot of grey
matter about grubs to absorb here. You may even spot some
dichotomy betwixt authors and articles, but that's fishing for
you! Make no mistake, grubs are universal fish-catching tools. If I had to pick only one lure to use the rest of
my life? It would be a grub! - Russ Bassdozer
All grubs shown from Gary
Yamamoto Custom Baits.
Big (really big) grub fishing :
Heavy (really heavy) grub fishing :
Topwater (really, no kidding) grub fishing :
Hula grub fishing :
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