Jigging Spoons
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 o’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
