How Serious Are You About Jigging?

[Hawnjigs]

Not that there's anything wrong with other methods of angling - all good right? But if you spend equal amounts of time jigging, flyfishing, dunking bait, throwing cranks, for example, that makes you only 25% serious? Myself, since JJ2 switched me over, throw tied jigs almost all the time, resorting to plastics on a jig head only when bright flashy thump is required for targeting larger predators in low vis conditions. I might resort to bait if desperate for meat with no other alternative, but that would be almost never. So, close to 99% serious.

 

[AtticaFish]

I'd say it depends on the species i am targeting...

Smallmouth: 90% tied - 10% plastics (the 90% is split between flyrod/spinning gear)
Largemouth: 50 tied - 50 plastics
Crappie: 60 tied - 40 cranks (rarely use plastics anymore)
BG: 10 tied jigs - 30 flies/flyrod - 60 bait
Carp: 100 flies/flyrod

Yellow perch: i ALWAYS try my tied jigs first and end up switching over to live shiners to keep up with my Dad snickering over my shoulder - one of these days i WILL devise an Erie yellow perch jig!!!!!!!! :dodgy:

 

[CK3]

By species:

Bluegill-90% jigs, 10%poppers
Crappie-95% jigs, 5%tubes
Smallies-75%jigs, 15%spinners, 10%live bait
Largemouth-45%buzz baits,35%senkos, 20% other
Northern-75%plugs, 15%spinnerbaits. 10%live bait
Musky- 60%bucktails, 20%Suicks, 20% suckers
White Bass-40%jigs, 40%spinners, 20%plastics
Catfish- 75%stink baits, 25%live bait

I would say I'm very serious about jigging and tieing jigs!!
But, sometimes ya "got to go with the flow"! I try to avoid
using live bait, but sometimes.................................

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

I'd say I'm about 90% serious about jigs with about 70% hand ties and 20% plastics. The other 10% I'd say spinnerbaits 3%,flies 3%,crankbaits 2% and a couple times a year I'll buy some minners 2%. I do like a little variety.

 

[papaperch]

Sorry , I am too serious about fishing to rely on just one technique to put fish in the boat. I hate ,abhor , detest and in general dislike getting skunked. I will use cranks ,slip bobbers, jigs , spider rigging , trolling ,drifting or anchor whatever it takes. I will never be too ethical to use live bait. Minnows , leeches ,crayfish , waxworms , nightcrawlers , redworms if I think I need them I will use them.

However sometimes due to circumstances beyond my control I will get skunked. Unfortunately for the fish it just makes me more determined the next trip. In my 62 years of life and fishing nothing pains me more than leaving a lake figuring I left a stone unturned.

By the way I did have a friend that assured me he would never use live bait regardless of circumstances. He held out for about 4 years until one fateful ice fishing trip. Normally at this spot he would jig heddon sonars for walleyes whilst I angled for crappies using minnows and waxworms. One day the walleyes had failed to put in an appearance and he was just flat out bored. The crappies were running amok that particular day. They were black crappie , they were slabs and god did they look beautiful resting upon the white snow. After about 2 hours of me chortling and making such a clatter he finally plunged his hand into the minnow bucket. I admit to smirking just a little.

 

[ragged edge]

Jig for crappie year round. Nothing like the thump! Especially when hand tied.

 

[Hippel]

Since I started tying them myself, jigs are my first choice and I fish them 75% of the time.

I revert back to Senkos for bass sometimes since they're hard to beat!

Catching fish on my own jigs is much more satisfying than anything else, so I go for that first!