Take a moment the next time you visit your favorite sporting goods store and look over their bass jig selection.  You will notice a wide variety of fineness jigs, small and compact for those tough fishing conditions were one needs to down size to get bit.  Next, you will see an assortment of swimming jigs and skirt-less specialty jigs (e.g., wacky, jig-worm, football, shaky, and the list goes on...).  Then, you will run into the standard bass jigs, seemingly ignored as of late.  Now, look more closely at the those jigs, they vary in sizes of 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 ounces.  Sometimes you will find a few 3/4 or 1oz. jigs in limited numbers and colors.  This brings me to my revelation of last year, heavier was better.

With a big tournament on the horizon, I had nothing going pattern wise.  I was checking docks, slop, inside weed lines, deep rocks, deep weeds, nothing!  In a last ditch effort to locate something I went to an area know to always hold fish, it was not a big fish location, but it had held numbers of fish in the past.  I found myself using a 3/8 and 1/2 oz. jig with little to no success.  I was baffled about the whole situation.  In the process of leaving I heaved out one of my larger jigs on a flipping stick, it crashed though the deep weeds and before I moved my rod tip to work it in, I had a fish on.  A few seconds later I was holding a 4 plus pound largemouth, ten cast later I had another fish of similar size.  The next few locations produced the same results.

This is what I figured was going on.  Fishing pressure was pushing the big, well educated fish deep into cover, but not shallow heavy cover where one would find them by flipping or frogging.  The larger bass stayed deep and found the thickest coontail.  Here is the interesting part, 3/8 and 1/2 oz. jigs would only land on top of the weeds and not penetrate deep enough into it.  Once I started utilizing a heavier jig, it would go through the weeds and the fish would strike it on the way through.  Heavier jigs were producing a reaction strike, which is much different than other bites were they may pick up the bait without you knowing it. The reaction strike of the bass was very explosive, as the bait make its way down through the vegetation, your line would jump them run off quickly.

Another important development or realization was that many of the bites I got where on the initial drop and they would not go after a bait being pulled through the vegetation.  Boat position and cast placement was a vital component to success.  I would not cast much more that 10 to 15 feet, I wanted the bait to go strait down on slack line and if nothing hit on the way down I would instantly reel in and recast.  Besides the weight of the jig being heavier, I did not waste time fishing the jig back to the boat.  It was an unproductive pattern.

Equipment choice is a key to landing these heavy weight bass.  Going heavy is an understatement, 7’ or 7’ 6’ heavy action rod with a high speed bait casting reel, and 20 pound fluorocarbon is critical.  Fluorocarbon has minimal stretch for increased sensitivity and is nearly invisible under water.  It can be a challenging task, pulling a 4 or 5 pound bruiser through thick coontail and it needs to be done quickly.  Light equipment equals lost fish.

When you find tough fishing conditions many individuals will tell you to go light and down size your approach and technique, some will insist on going with larger baits looking for the same results.  Here is your third option, keep the size, just go heavy.  The basic size of the jig and trailer did not change, only the weight of the lure and how fast it fell through the water column.  Be prepared to have you rod ripped out of you hands, it is a deadly technique.  Be sure to gear up right for this approach this summer, you will not be disappointed.  


Barrels Up Pro Staff
Gary Rehbein