Jigging
Spoons
By "The Bass Coach" (Roger Lee Brown)
Through out the past several years while fishing with
co-anglers, charter clients, and some of my bass fishing school
students, I have noticed that most of the fisherman and women don’t
carry jigging spoons in their boxes, in fact when I ask them if
they’ve ever used one they usually reply that they have never used
one or they wouldn’t know the first thing about using them. Well,
let me suggest to you that a jigging spoon is a very "Highly
Productive" type of lure that you need to learn if you plan to do
a variety of bass fishing.
There are many different brands of jigging spoons on
the market today to choose from and most of them work as well as any
others that you might select from all the different manufacturers but
there is always an exception to the rule, right? While recently on a
fishing business trip in California a fellow (a former bass fishing
school student of mine whom I spent 3-days on the water with)
introduced these jigging spoons to me, and let me tell you: "You
won’t find any better than these!" They have such a unique
design, ultra sharp hooks, and the different color combinations are
great, anyway, when I got back home to Lake Champlain and Lake George,
NY I headed straight for the water to give them a try. I caught a
limit in the first two hours of using these jigging spoons with one of
the bass weighing a solid 6 lbs. (a Smallmouth bass). And since then I
always have one rigged up on one of my rods.....
Now, there are several different patterns you can
apply when fishing a jigging spoon while fishing suspended fish,
bottom fish, structure fish, and in and around vegetation just to name
a few....
SUSPENDED BASS: Suspended bass are probably the
most difficult bass you’ll ever fish. Many anglers use several
different methods and lures to fish suspended bass but, a jigging
spoon can prove to be as productive as any type of bait you can ever
use in this situation. Now, I will suggest how I use a jigging spoon
with suspended fish but keep in mind that every angler seems to
develop his or her own little touch, flare, or certain technique that
suits him or her with any bait used.
If I fish suspended bass whether it be over tree tops,
along bluffs or cliffs, or any structure that may be in the water
where suspended bass are I will vertically drop the jigging spoon
straight down just below the suspended bass and let it pause for a
moment. Then using my rod to do the work, I’ll lift the tip of the
rod about 2 feet, drop the tip about a foot, lift the tip another 2
feet, drop the tip about a foot and repeat this technique until the
rod tip is usually up to a 10 o’clock position. Then, while keeping
the slack out of the line I will slowly drop the tip back close to the
water surface and start again! Sometimes you will feel a little
pressure instead of solid hits, but as the ole’ saying goes!
"When in doubt?..SET THE HOOK!"
I strongly feel that if you give this a try (not just
for 5 minutes), but if you really give this pattern a honest try I’m
sure that you won’t be disappointed at all!
BOTTOM BASS: Bottom bass fishing with a jigging
spoon again, can prove to be a highly productive technique you should
try. Now, before we fish for bottom bass we want to make sure of
what’s on the bottom as far as vegetation and structure because we
probably won’t use a open exposed treble hook if there is lots of
stuff to get hooked up on, (get the picture?) If there are lots of
obstructions to get hung up on, switch to a "Weedless jigging
spoon" instead of using the open exposed treble hook.
There are several different techniques to use when
fishing bottom bass with a jigging spoon and I will share a couple
with you to get you started. The first one would be to vertically drop
the jigging spoon and let it hit the bottom. Lightly twitch the rod
tip, making the jigging spoon dance around the bottom, then let it lay
still for a moment, and repeat the technique.........I have caught
small and large Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Spotted bass using this
technique (one I remember being a 7.8oz largemouth.)
The second technique would be to make long casts and
slowly retrieve the jigging spoon back to the boat. I’m quite sure
that if you use this technique you won’t go home empty handed.
FISHING VEGETATION: There are two techniques I
will use when fishing in and around scattered or thick vegetation. The
first one I will use will be especially for thicker vegetation areas.
I will tie on a "Weedless" jigging spoon and even apply a
trailer (plastic grub, 1/2 of a plastic worm, plastic crawl, or just
about anything used for a trailer) and make a cast letting the jigging
spoon fall "ON TOP" of the thick vegetation. After letting
it set still for a moment I’ll start to drag it slowly back towards
the boat with a "Stop & Go" technique. All I can say is
HOLD ON!.... I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had big bass
come up and grab the lure.
The second technique I’d use around vegetation would
be using the same bait but now instead of dragging the bait on top,
let it fall in the open pockets of the vegetation, and once again,
HOLD ON!
I can’t really tell you in so many words of how
great a jigging spoon can be for bass fishing, but I can promise that
if you gave these jigging spoons a good honest try you’ll surly find
these to be one of the best baits you will ever use for not only
quality, but for quantity as well. I definitely teach all my students
while attending my 3-day bass fishing school how to use these baits
because they have most definitely proven themselves to be one of the
top universal bass baits you’ll find on today’s market.
If you have any questions concerning jigging spoons or
have any questions about bass fishing in general please don’t
hesitate to contact me at my Email address at: rlbrown@capital.net
or you can visit my web sites at: www.capital.net/~rlbrown
and at www.fishing-boating.com/basscoach
or you can call me at (518) 597-4240.
Until next time! Take Care & God Bless.......
"The Bass Coach"...Roger Lee Brown
Visit "The Bass Coach" at:
Pro Bass Guide & Bass
Fishing School
Route-1 Box-65, Pearl Street
Crown Point, NY 12928 Tel. 518-597-4240
or email him at rlbrown@capital.net
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