To help novice learn to fish a jig well

[genec]

First,do not go with the intent of catching fish that day,i do a lot of camping and talk to those fishermen and they fish a jig too fast,so i try to help them. I know many of you have went pass this stage but be patience with those who have not,and this includes minnow fishermen thst sometimes throw jigs. First have if possible 2 light sentive rods and put 4 lb hi-vi line on it ,now pick a day when its calm and go out into lake on a flat about 10-12 feet deep and anchor in order to not be distracted,put 1/16 jig on one and a 1/32 on other with plastic jig, now bend hooks in so they will not hang. Now cast one out and count till it hit bottom,reel about 10 times and stop and count till bait hit bottom, do this till you master in your mind how slow you must reel for that size bait to stay in same depth,then do other jig untill it becomes easy. Now see if you can find bp under water and how deep it is ,then cast pass it and count down a little more than bp ,watch your line ,it will have a sag in it ,now as you reel the line will hit limb and sag will start straighten out ,but bait has not got to limb yet,now feel when bait hit limb and slowly come over it, was it a tap,a drag ,line jump,but still have hook bent. Do this till you can tell if a limb or fish, now do other rod,when you have confidence of control of bait then you are ready to put that knowledge to work ,but do not rush it ,for you are doing this for future fishing and not for todays fishing. Make sure you do not have no nibbles or minnows with you this day for you do not want a fall back to something this day. Take a few baits like bgss in only a couple colors that are good in your lake,so you won't be trying to find a majic bait and start losing your confidence on your ability to control your bait, remember this has to be a day when catiching fish is not your purpose, but to learn how to fish jig good which will make your future fishing much better. Now if you know where you or someone has been catching fish, it is time to put your training to the test, boat control is of most important but for now anchor in order to just think on how you were reeling. After that on another day you must learn to control tm very well. I have taught many and all was reeling too fast and would say slow down ,then have to say slow down much more and most times say slow even more. Then later you can start twitching, dropping ,jerking and so to entice fish but not now. Hope this helps ,you will find out you dont need all these other gagets to catch fish

[redear]

thanks genec!! that has to be one of the best little articles I have read!!

[redear]

one little question genec, if you feel your line against a limb and the bait is just about to get to the limb, what is the best thing to do, to avoid hanging up?

[genec]

Without a weedless you are going to hang up some but if you use the 1/32 as much as you can and use a # 6 hook ,then always reel over brush slow or pull rod over it and you will minimize your hang ups,and if it comes over limb let it pause just for a second. You can also get the thin wire hooks and pull free most times. But now after you learn to control bait ,what you really want to do is if brush is 10 feet then you want to fish in the 9 feet zone until they stop bitting , they will come up after a bait if it is slow ,then you go down into brush. I did not mention that at first because wanted each one to learn to feel different between brush and fish, that should be first

[jaxsprat]

Good advice, thanks

[ifish4redd]

Great info,thanks.Im trying to shed the minnow

[Spaceman]

Excellent information! I learn something new everytime I visit this site...and, this is why I like this forum.

[genec]

The more you use a jig the more it will become second nature and realize that if done right it will out fish minnows most all the time. here in my area nov and dec are 2 of the best months for fish ,went friday ,caught 100 with one 16, two 15 , and most of the rest 10 - 14 but we throw most back and all big ones, I don't want to argue with minnow fishermen if that is what he rather do then I don't blame him, usually in jan and feb ,the minnows out fish jigs ,but I can still catch them on jigs so thats what I do,just love to hold rod and feel that tic. I only use about 2 or 3 different baits a year,I make my own and they are skinnie than bgss which is a bait every jig fishermen should have or one seamiar to it

[Luvfatslabs]

great info,thanks.im trying to shed the minnow

x2

[Crestliner08]

Excellent article! Good job.