The story goes that soldiers in World War I carried survival kits containing basic fishing equipment, including line and jigs. The thought was that if a man became isolated or ran out of rations, he could locate a body of water and catch a meal. The jig’s universal appeal to fish must have motivated its choice as what to throw with survival on the line.
The question remains, however, was the lure a weed jig, a timber jig, a football head, a darter head? Was it a Stanley, a Strike King, or one of Don Iovino’s latest creations?
Jigs catch fish because they get down where bass and other species do much of their feeding. Predators like to corner their prey. Underwater, the bottom’s the best barrier. The surface makes another good barrier, and while some predators are too lethargic or live too deep to take advantage of the surface, bass certainly do. Hence the success of topwaters, another lure type featured in this year’s In-Fisherman Bass Guide.
Choosing the right type of jig to match the bottom terrain or bottom cover helps a jig help you. Variations in head shape and weight make the most difference, but style and stiffness of brushguards, eye placement, and hook size and style can affect the number of fish you catch and how often you get snagged.
Most bass anglers first think of jigs as skirted leadheads with weedguards, designed for fishing various types of cover. These baits are backed by pork rind, plastic craws, plastic pork, or other trailers. In many parts of the world, this type of lure can carry an angler through most of the year. Indeed, several top pro anglers use jigs as least 75 percent of the time when big bucks are on the line. Jigs are rightly considered a top bait for big bass. Weedless bass jigs can be divided into categories, depending on the type of cover they fish best in—weed, rock, or timber.
Weed Jigs
At one end of the spectrum of jig shapes lies the tapered weed jig. This style slides between weed stalks near the bottom or forces its way through a thick mat of weeds or algae to reach bass lurking below. Only heavy models (3/4 to 11⁄2 ounces) can punch through summertime hydrilla or milfoil. For thinner stands of weeds, models as light as 1/8 or even 1/16 ounce provide the slow fall that can arouse the interest of a somnolent bass. A straight eye helps the lure move among vertical stalks.
Note, too, that weed-style jigs work well for skipping under docks or overhanging tree limbs. The lure’s smooth edges slide well at any angle it hits the surface. And the soft brushguard helps get a good hookset with the rod at an odd angle, as sometimes happens in tight quarters. Choose the lightest models you can throw, with some adjustment for depth, cover, and wind. Hooks, though, can’t be light, for fish must be pulled immediately from their lair.
Another category of weed jigs overlooked by many avid bassers are open-hook jigheads. Active or semi-active bass often hold near deep weededges, while active groups roam, sticking their noses from the weed stalks into open water. Worms rigged on open-hook jigheads can entice these fish better than anything else. Gopher Tackle’s Mushroom jighead has long been a favorite, but darter heads, designed for rocky conditions out west, also work well. And other shapes of open-hook jigs may outfish heavier weedless models. We’ll cover this category in the section on jigworms.
