If you were to be stuck on a strange body of water somewhere in the world and told to catch a fish and didn’t know anything about the area, and if I handed you a jig, there is a chance you’d have some success.
Four out of five experienced anglers I surveyed agreed that the jig, in one form or another, is the most popular lure in the world. Plastic tail, feather tail, no tail, metal, skirted, baited or just plain bucktail, these variations, and who knows how many more, are really all a variation on the same theme: a weight added to a hook with some kind of additional attractant added (or not as we shall see).
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Regardless of the specifics, the general idea of the jig exists wherever fish swim.
In the waters of the Southeast, the variety of jig that probably gets used more than any other is the lead head with a plastic tail. When they were first introduced sometime in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with a variety of different lures manufactured by Creme and Tom Mann, soft plastic fishing baits began to really carve out a spot in every angler’s tackle selection. Beginning in 1975 with the invention of the Mister Twister, you could say a real revolution began.
Now the variety of plastic tails available for fishing seems to approach the infinite. From products made by huge tackle conglomerates all the way down to guys in their garages pouring their secret concoctions and color blends. With all this variety, how do you choose?
Grab what looks good to you and fish with it. If a friend has caught something with it, grab that. If the guy at the tackle shop recommends it, get that too.
At one time or another there isn’t something that’s made that won’t work. The biggest flounder that I catch every year come on a ¼-ounce jighead with a 5-inch Zman Shadz tail. When fished in marsh channels around oyster bars in early fall, it resembles the silversides minnows that are everywhere at that time.
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Retrieve with a snap-snap-pause-retrieve. Use braided line. Keep your rod tip low.
You’ll catch lizard fish, baby grouper, tiny bluefish, big pinfish, then the flounder and yeah … I guess you can catch some speckled trout and redfish doing this, too. Trout will hit with a slight tap. Lizards will grab and go. Big flounder will just feel like you’re snagged.
Have a net handy.
The classic style of jig is the bucktail. It’s simply a jighead with a deer hair tail wrapped around the hook and attached with thread. It was the first lure I ever caught a saltwater fish on (a striped bass on the Jersey Shore) and there’s a chance that more fish have been caught using one over the centuries than any other artificial fish enticer.
You can add a bit of shrimp, a squid strip, a piece of pork rind (which is how I used to do it), or just fish it plain. It works.
Cast it out there and snap your rod tip to make it bounce. Be prepared for anything that doesn’t feel right as it drops. A pause, a tap, a grab, some slack, then set the hook quickly. You don’t have to fall backwards out of the boat like some guy on a bass fishing TV show.
Quick, snap the rod-tip up. If your hook is sharp, it will find a spot. If you miss. Let it drop. A lot of times they will come get it again.
The last cobia I caught was on a bucktail jig with a plastic tail trailer. I don’t get to go offshore very often and when given the chance to go with a friend I accepted the invitation with enthusiasm. It was a perfect June day with calm seas and clear skies. We ran out to a wreck in 70 feet of water and shut down. Our goal was to see if we could get some amberjacks to smack a topwater plug but there were none present.
After a bit I looked down and saw three dark shapes swimming about 20 feet down. “Cobia!” I yelled as I grabbed a pre-rigged jig rod. I flipped it out and watched it sink to their cruising level. One rushed out and grabbed it and there it was. After a battle that saw a bunch of line disappear off the reel, I was able to get it boat-side. A true trophy caught on a jig.
There is a hybrid style called a jigging spoon. It’s not really a jig in the truest sense of the word, but when worked off the bottom, that’s what it is. It’s a metal lure with enough weight and density to get to the bottom quickly. When bounced off the bottom in our waters, it can produce almost everything that swims around a reef or wreck. A trailer is not needed. Snap your rod-tip up and pay attention to the line as it drops. Sometimes it will simply stop falling. Other times you’ll feel a little tap.
I’ve caught king mackerel that take it on the full run and kept going. Once in a while you’ll hook “something” that you never see. It’s just a phantom that pulls and threatens to bring you in.
These jigging spoons are sold in a variety of brand names. On our coast, the Stingsilver is quite popular. I recommend changing out the treble hooks to O’Shaughnessy-style singles in size 1/0 or 2/0. Expect to catch gray trout in the spring (some big ones have been around again), sea bass almost anytime, and of course, bait stealers and bottom dwellers of every variety.
If all you had in your tackle selection were these three types of jigs in a variety of weights matched to the depth and current speed — lighter for shallower and less current; heavier for deeper and faster — you could catch any fish that swims anywhere in the world.
