Jig problems

[Gary A]

When fishing a 1/8 or 1/4 oz.jig and minnow I can hook em but I cant hold em--have em on for abit--maybe get acrank or two on the reel and lose em.Tryed different rod and different line. Fihing slow in 8-9ft. close to the boat--think Im setting the hook pretty hard. Hooks are sharp.

[Stever]

Gary, how long do you let them have it before you set your hook? In my experience, patience is a virtue when trying to catch this allusive fish...I've waited up to 5 minutes before I set the hook.

[WAeyes]

5 minutes? After that long the fish is already beginning digestion with your hook stuck in its throat! Tell me you are only kidding or I will believe you retie a new hook after every fish you catch because the hook was swallowed. Am I in the twilight zone?

[Eyez]

One of two things is happening, either your hooks are dull, and you need to sharpen them or buy higher quality jigs, or the fish isn't getting the whole jig in it's mouth. Most likely it's just sucking on the minnow, that's why you feel him there for just a second or two. When that happens, you either need to use smaller jigs, use a stinger, or let the fish hold it a little longer, and hope he doesn't spit it out. You could also try using lighter line if you have trouble feeling the lighter jigs. Depending on the presentation, you could go as small as 1/64 oz if that helps you. I have had to do that a few times real early in spring when casting jigs to the shallows. You could also try using a fuzz e grub or twister tail on the jig, that makes it grab the water around it easier, so it falls slower, and moves into the fishes mouth easier.

Or, maybe, the fish just aren't hitting them very hard, and you should try using a lindy rig, a plain hook and minnow is easier for a fish to inhale than a jig.


Hope it helps!

Eyez

[Gary A]

Thanks for the info. When fish were active a spinner and minnow definitely put more fish in the boat. Im sure some of the fish I was losing werent real big and a few may have been crappies, but some I had on felt pretty good. A short stiffer rod or long lighter action rod didnt seem to make any diff. Line--mono or Fusion no diff. I'll have to give stinger hooks a try--hated to have to use them due to grass on bottom.

[Stever]

All right, I admit...maybe it just seemed like it was 5 minutes...but depending on the bite, patience paid off for me ;-)

[Fin Addict]

Give a fish 5 seconds to decide whether to spit the jig or not w/ a 1/8 to 1/4 oz jig and the vast majority of them will have spit your jig and moved on to a meal w/o a hook. Some days they slam a jig, on those days use a plain jig and set the hook at the first tap. Other days you just don't seem to get hookups this way. On those days, add a stinger. Another thing that seems to help is to use a jig w/ a wide hook gap like a fireball. I used to rebend the hooks to open them up but the fireball seems to hook them very well.