Jigging Q & A - Part 2

[Sea Draggin]

I find myself once again, looking at a long weekend of bad weather, Wifes B-day and a sick son (strep). Needless to say, I'm not going anywhere. So I figure Q & A Part 1 was so good, then lets do a Part 2.

I'll start with a question that is based on experience during my last two trips, during which I have not had great water color at the depths I wanted to jig. Lots of green blended nasty stuff.

Do you guys jig differently in green water, over clear blue. Slower? Use different color jigs etc.?

Jim

[Joey Herring]

Well Jim....glad you asked.... I myself prefer to jump overboard..head first and see if the fish "really" are down there. Some times you can't trust those bottom machines, you know....
Guys...I really need to go fishing....it's getting bad...caught my self dropping jigs in my 50 gallon fish tank the other day... Almost thought about trying to snag a deer with a long jig tipped with an apple..just to get some pullage.....

Sorry to highjack....

Here's a real question..
Don't knock me too hard for this one...
When the bite is SLOW.. I have been known a time or two to "tip" my jig with a small piece of cut bait. It has out fished almost everybody else using straight cut or live bait. This has brought MANY grouper,trigger fish and b-liners too the boat. Have any of you tried this??

[Taz575]

Well, I have a question myself! I am looking to build up a rod for cod/pollack/haddock jigging/live bait, but mostly for Cod jigging. Maybe a trip to the GoM, out of NH, or Stellwagen. I realize there are different rods for each, but I am looking to do a general purpose rod, able to handle a 16oz jig with light underhand or overhand lob casting to get it out from the boat a bit w/o doing a hard snap at the end and also be OK for bait fishing with 8 to 12oz weights and get a decent action out of the 16oz jig. I have a Calstar 800H waiting! I have read some people don't trim the tip and use it as it, and other said to trim it back to a 14 or 16 tip. In playing with the blank, the tip is pretty soft! I don't think it will work a 16oz very well, so I want to trim it down a bit. I would like a 7' rod and can do that if I trim 12" off the tip to a 14 sized TT. If I am using jigs around 16oz, is there a way to see how it will handle the jig with different tip sizes? I read somewhere of a person using a wire or heavy mono to attach the jig/line to the blank at different points along the tip to see where it gets the action they want. I know things weigh less in water, if I am looking to get some action out of a 16oz jig in the water, what weight should I use with a "dry" jig?? Ie a 10oz jigging in air will be about the same action as jigging a 16oz in water? I know water friction is a factor and currents as well, so should I just see how it is bouncing a 16oz in air? Thanks!

[paul708]

I find myself once again, looking at a long weekend of bad weather, Wifes B-day and a sick son (strep). Needless to say, I'm not going anywhere. So I figure Q & A Part 1 was so good, then lets do a Part 2.

I'll start with a question that is based on experience during my last two trips, during which I have not had great water color at the depths I wanted to jig. Lots of green blended nasty stuff.

Do you guys jig differently in green water, over clear blue. Slower? Use different color jigs etc.?

Jim

finding the right to jig depth is probably the most important thing about jigging,
unless you are bottom fish jigging,
then. i usually try different colors and styles

[paul708]

Well Jim....glad you asked.... I myself prefer to jump overboard..head first and see if the fish "really" are down there. Some times you can't trust those bottom machines, you know....
Guys...I really need to go fishing....it's getting bad...caught my self dropping jigs in my 50 gallon fish tank the other day... Almost thought about trying to snag a deer with a long jig tipped with an apple..just to get some pullage.....

Sorry to highjack....

Here's a real question..
Don't knock me too hard for this one...
When the bite is SLOW.. I have been known a time or two to "tip" my jig with a small piece of cut bait. It has out fished almost everybody else using straight cut or live bait. This has brought MANY grouper,trigger fish and b-liners too the boat. Have any of you tried this??

we will be starting to seabass jig soon..tipping the jig works great.
tipping a bucktail jig also work very well, stripers ,fluke, alot of fish.
it also works well for grouper and tile fish.

for tuna and cod usually just a jigs work fine.

we also use a teaser above the jig for cod

[paul708]

Well, I have a question myself! I am looking to build up a rod for cod/pollack/haddock jigging/live bait, but mostly for Cod jigging. Maybe a trip to the GoM, out of NH, or Stellwagen. I realize there are different rods for each, but I am looking to do a general purpose rod, able to handle a 16oz jig with light underhand or overhand lob casting to get it out from the boat a bit w/o doing a hard snap at the end and also be OK for bait fishing with 8 to 12oz weights and get a decent action out of the 16oz jig. I have a Calstar 800H waiting! I have read some people don't trim the tip and use it as it, and other said to trim it back to a 14 or 16 tip. In playing with the blank, the tip is pretty soft! I don't think it will work a 16oz very well, so I want to trim it down a bit. I would like a 7' rod and can do that if I trim 12" off the tip to a 14 sized TT. If I am using jigs around 16oz, is there a way to see how it will handle the jig with different tip sizes? I read somewhere of a person using a wire or heavy mono to attach the jig/line to the blank at different points along the tip to see where it gets the action they want. I know things weigh less in water, if I am looking to get some action out of a 16oz jig in the water, what weight should I use with a "dry" jig?? Ie a 10oz jigging in air will be about the same action as jigging a 16oz in water? I know water friction is a factor and currents as well, so should I just see how it is bouncing a 16oz in air? Thanks!

try a 700XH if you want a 7'
if you add a gimbal and take a inch off tip you will be close to 7'
most of the cod rods are a little longer than 7'
the guys do like to cast those jigs..and the longer rods help a little.

to get your 7' rod you will be really cutting the blanks up..and there may be no need.
there are a few blanks that we cut that wont work well when cut that much ..

you will see, its all part of the learning.
and everyone has their likes and dislikes in blanks..

what someone may tell you is the best..5 guys may not like it.

and the internet make it tough,
because some guys sell blank A which they say is the best..
and may not carry blank B..which they say is not good..
so it may be more about sales, than how a blank actually works.

[Sea Draggin]

I read somewhere of a person using a wire or heavy mono to attach the jig/line to the blank at different points along the tip to see where it gets the action they want. I know things weigh less in water, if I am looking to get some action out of a 16oz jig in the water, what weight should I use with a "dry" jig?? Ie a 10oz jigging in air will be about the same action as jigging a 16oz in water? I know water friction is a factor and currents as well, so should I just see how it is bouncing a 16oz in air? Thanks!

Attaching a line to the rod at different points doesn't truly work because of the physics of the rod. There was something a snippet in RodMaker this month that referred to something along a parrallel path regarding this, but I will have to dig a little to find it again. But hey, I've got all weekend.

As far as testing jigs. You best test would be at a dock, pier or in some water. I just couldn't see getting anything close without.

[Sea Draggin]

When the bite is SLOW.. I have been known a time or two to "tip" my jig with a small piece of cut bait. It has out fished almost everybody else using straight cut or live bait. This has brought MANY grouper,trigger fish and b-liners too the boat. Have any of you tried this??

Mr. Sandflea,
Thanks for the response.

Yes for those snappers, tipping worked well, but on the last two trips I didn't tip any. Trip 1 we were working bottom structure, so that may have helped. Trip 2 was mid water, so it probably wouldn't have mattered.

I did see a report in the main forum that guys were doing well on tiles using tipped jigs.

[Sea Draggin]

finding the right to jig depth is probably the most important thing about jigging,
unless you are bottom fish jigging,
then. i usually try different colors and styles

On Trip 2 I literally tried 8 different jigs and colors for tiles with out success, but I didn't tip them. Most of our fishing is bottom/structure related.

[Sea Draggin]

we also use a teaser above the jig for cod

That is something I have not done. I sort of forget about it.