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Techniques

Jig

A weighted head, a stout hook, a skirt and a weedguard. It is the oldest big-fish bait in the box, it goes where a crankbait cannot, and once you learn to read its bites it will catch bass from a Kentucky Lake ledge in July to a Dale Hollow flat in January.

Fishing knowledgeUpdated October 6, 202614 min read

What it is

A skirted jig is a lead or tungsten head molded onto a hook, dressed with a silicone or rubber skirt and usually fitted with a fiber weedguard, and fished with a soft-plastic trailer on the hook. Field and Stream's definition is the plain one: a hook, a molded head, a weedguard and some kind of skirting. Wired2Fish adds the detail that matters for durability: skirts are either tied on or held by a rubber collar, and the tied ones never slip.

Two things separate a jig from the other bottom rigs on this site. It carries its own weedguard, so it fishes wood and grass with the point exposed and ready, where a Texas rig buries the point and a Ned rig leaves it bare. And it has bulk: a skirt and a craw trailer displace water and make a bigger profile than any finesse worm, which is why the jig has the reputation it does for large fish.

Basis: consensus (Field and Stream, Wired2Fish, Outdoor Life)

The five head styles

Wired2Fish's Jason Sealock sorts skirted jigs into five classes by head shape, and the shape decides where the jig fishes well.

  • Football. A head shaped like a football turned sideways on the hook eye. Sealock's reason: the wide nose rolls over rock instead of wedging a pointed nose into a crevice, and the shape lets the jig be heavy, up to an ounce, for dragging deep over large areas. Tackle Warehouse calls football jigs bottom-contact jigs best suited to rock and offshore structure. This is the ledge and smallmouth jig.
  • Arkie, or flipping. The cupped, flattened head that Arkie Jigs made standard. Sealock likes it because it planes, skips and stays upright in heavy cover, keeping the point up and over the wood instead of sideways and down in it. A flipping jig carries a heavier-wire hook and a thicker weedguard than a casting jig, in Tackle Warehouse's description; Wired2Fish's 2025 guide puts it as everything beefier and stronger.
  • Casting, or round. Smaller heads, shorter hooks, often wire weedguards, compact profiles. Sealock reaches for these for smallmouth in clear water, and he writes that he likes to think the technique was born in central Kentucky on lakes like Cumberland and Dale Hollow, where smallmouth clamp down so hard that a small head and a light guard help get the hook in. That is his view, not a documented history, but the lakes are ours.
  • Finesse, or ball head. The round-head jig with a spider-cut skirt and a small flared collar, the profile kept narrow. The Jewel Eakins jig put it on the map on the clear, rocky Ozark reservoirs. Wired2Fish notes that the lightest ones want spinning gear.
  • Swim jig. A flat-bottomed or cone-shaped head that planes and slides between grass stalks, fished on a steady retrieve through the middle of the water column like a spinnerbait without the blade.

A skipping head, wide and flat so the jig stays on top of the water on its way under a dock, is a sixth style worth knowing; In-Fisherman's review of one gives its sizes as 3/8 and 1/2 oz.

Basis: consensus (Wired2Fish 2012 and 2025, Tackle Warehouse, In-Fisherman)

When it wins

Bassmaster's Gerald Brown puts it in four words: jigs and wood just go together. Bass hold in heavy cover and a jig gets in and out with the fewest hang-ups of any bait that can be fished there. Beyond wood:

  • Rock and ledges. The football jig is, in Wired2Fish's words, the best head design to drag through rock, ledges and hard structure. Andy Morgan's ledge program in Bassmaster runs on 3/4 oz football jigs on ledges that top out in 6 to 15 feet and fall into deep water, from May through August and best in the hottest weather.
  • Docks. Skipped. Bassmaster's dock piece has a pro skipping a 1/2 oz flipping jig with a flat trailer under docks in 6 inches of water or 20 feet.
  • Grass edges and holes in grass. Brown fishes jigs in holes in hydrilla and swims them over vegetation; a swim jig is Wired2Fish's answer for bass schooling along weed edges.
  • Steep clear banks, points and channel swings. Sealock's casting-jig water, especially in clear, cold water.
  • Brush piles. Bassmaster's year-round jig profile keeps the jig on bottom and pulls it up to the pile.

Where it loses: the published sources describe the jig's limits rather than a situation where it fails outright. Pull hard into brush and it will snag. A jig that is not worked correctly, as Wired2Fish's 2025 guide says, does not get bit, and anglers are intimidated by how simple it looks. Smallmouth clamp down on it. And the finesse rigs on this site, the shaky head, the drop shot and the Ned rig, will out-fish it for numbers when the fish are small, pressured or suspended off the bottom.

Basis: consensus; editorial on the comparison with the finesse rigs

Species

Largemouth first, in wood, grass and on ledges. Smallmouth on rock, with a football or casting jig; Mark Zona's Dale Hollow winter piece in Bassmaster has a 3/4 oz green pumpkin football jig catching 3 pound largemouth and 3 to 4 pound smallmouth on alternate casts off the same 18 to 25 foot flats. Spotted bass on the same rock and riprap, usually on the smaller heads.

Basis: consensus; published reporting on Dale Hollow

Season and environment

  • Winter. The football jig and the finesse jig. Field and Stream puts the football jig in summer and winter when bass go deep and the finesse jig in cold water from winter into the pre-spawn. In-Fisherman's winter jig piece has Andrew Grills fishing 3 to 30 feet, with the big fish deep from 14 to 24 feet in January and February, on a slow, steady retrieve that comes over the fish's shoulder with no hopping. Brian Waldman's hair jig, a cousin, comes out in October and stays in the boat until April, keyed to water at or under 55 degrees.
  • Spring, pre-spawn. Swim jigs on secondary points and grass edges; the pull-and-drop jig around the first warming wood. Bassmaster's year-round profile swims a ball head across secondary points in spring and fall.
  • Spawn. Pitch it to the cover beside the bed and let it sit. Check the regulations page for the water first.
  • Summer. Ledges. Morgan's May-through-August window, peaking in the heat; Kentucky Lake's summer ledge bite is the national example, and KDFWR's early-summer notes on Lake Barkley say the same about creek channels near deep water.
  • Fall. Swim jigs in shad colors as the bait moves shallow; the flipping jig in the creek-arm wood.

Hackney's weight rule, via Wired2Fish, cuts across the seasons: 1/2 oz and lighter below 65 degrees.

Basis: consensus

Structure, cover, clarity and current

Rock, wood and grass, in that order of how often the jig is the right tool. On rock, the football head rolls over chunk rock and gravel and tells you through the line what it is touching. In wood, the Arkie head and a trimmed fiber guard come through laydowns, brush piles and standing timber. In grass, a swim jig over the top or a heavy flipping jig punched through.

Clear water calls for the compact casting or finesse jig, natural colors and lighter line; stained water for the bulk of a flipping jig and a bigger trailer; muddy water for black and blue and a trailer that moves water. In current, the jig's weight is its advantage: a 1/2 to 3/4 oz football jig holds a seam and drags a ledge where a lighter rig washes away.

Basis: consensus; editorial

Rod, reel and line

Beginner

A 7 foot medium-heavy casting rod with a fast tip, a casting reel around 7:1, and 15 lb fluorocarbon tied straight to the jig with a Palomar. Bassmaster's line piece has a tour pro who rarely goes below 15 lb fluorocarbon for jigs; Morgan fishes 14 lb fluorocarbon and a 7:1 reel on the ledges. Our baitcasting setup guide covers spooling and brake settings, and rods and reels explains the power and action ratings.

Intermediate

Three outfits cover most jig fishing. The ledge and rock outfit above, with 15 lb fluorocarbon and a 1/2 to 3/4 oz football jig. A flipping outfit: 7 to 7'6" heavy rod, 20 lb fluorocarbon or 50 to 65 lb braid, 1/2 to 1 oz Arkie jig. A swim jig outfit: 7 to 7'6" medium-heavy or heavy, a 7:1 or faster reel, 12 to 20 lb fluorocarbon in open water or 40 to 50 lb braid in grass, per Tackle Warehouse's swim jig guide. Bassmaster's line piece gives the reasons: fluorocarbon's abrasion resistance around wood and rock, 20 lb for swimming a jig where diameter does not matter, 12 lb for a finesse jig in clear water, heavy braid for ripping a jig out of thick grass.

Advanced

Tungsten heads. Jeff Kriet's case in Bassmaster: a tungsten head is substantially smaller than lead at the same weight, so it comes through cover better and transmits the bottom far better, and a 3/8 oz tungsten jig stays on bottom better than a 1/2 oz lead one. Match the trailer to the fall you want, not the color you like: a bulkier trailer slows the fall. For finesse jigs and hair jigs, go to spinning gear: Waldman fishes 6 to 7 foot medium-light rods and 5 to 8 lb braid for 1/8 oz hair jigs on cold-water smallmouth.

Basis: consensus; editorial on the three-outfit recommendation

Leader

Most jig fishing needs no leader; the sources tie fluorocarbon straight to the jig, or braid straight to it in grass. Where braid is the main line around rock and wood, a short fluorocarbon leader of 15 to 20 lb, two rod lengths or less, joined with an Alberto or a uni-to-uni, protects against the abrasion braid does not tolerate. See line systems and mono, fluoro and braid.

Basis: consensus; editorial on the leader length

Terminal tackle

  • Head and weight. Hackney's rule in Wired2Fish is the heaviest jig you can get away with, because a heavy jig lets you fish faster and cover water, but with the corollary that you will fish a heavy jig faster than the fish want when they are not cooperating, and should lighten up to saturate the cover. His bands: 1/2 oz and lighter below 65 degrees; 3/8 oz to 1 oz otherwise. Field and Stream's quick guide puts football jigs at 1/2 to 3/4 oz over 10 feet of water and swim jigs at 3/8 oz in the shallows. Maker runs we read: Strike King's Hack Attack heavy cover jig in 3/8, 1/2, 3/4 and 1 oz, and Dirty Jigs' pitching jig in 3/8 and 1/2 oz, both from retailer listings.
  • Hook. A flipping jig's hook is heavy wire for braid and a hard set; a casting jig's is standard wire; a finesse jig's is light wire for spinning tackle. Hone the point out of the package, as Bass Pro's tune-up piece advises.
  • Weedguard. Trim it to just past the hook point. Shorter is stiffer; too short and it stops guarding. Thin out strands at the base for more flex in open water, fan it out for more coverage in cover, and bend it back and forth at the base a few times to loosen it. Sealock, Tackle Warehouse and Bass Pro all give the same trims.
  • Skirt. Trim it so the strands do not bury the trailer's appendages; a skirt that is too long leads to short strikes.
  • Trailer. Craws and chunks for the bottom jigs, a paddle-tail or grub for a swim jig. In cold water, less is more: In-Fisherman's winter piece has Grills on a small Zoom Chunk with no flapping. In warm water, a Rage Craw, a Chigger Craw or a creature bait with claws that swim. A buoyant finesse craw such as Z-Man's TRD CrawZ floats its claws up at rest on a finesse jig. Thread the trailer on for grass and for a compact profile; hang it on the hook, as Sealock does with pork-chunk-style trailers, for a free swing in open water.

Basis: consensus; official on the maker size runs, from the retailer listings named in the sources

Knots

A Palomar on fluorocarbon or braid to the jig's eye, which is the knot named in the Brauer flipping rig and the one most of the sources assume. Shaw Grigsby ties his with a Double Pitzen; it is a legitimate alternative, and not one this site teaches. No published source we read snells a skirted jig. Braid to a leader is the Alberto or a uni-to-uni.

Basis: consensus

Lure, bait or fly choices and color logic

  • Clear water, bright sun — green pumpkin, brown, watermelon red; a compact casting or finesse jig with a small craw. Florida Sportsman's color piece makes the rule explicit: translucent natural colors as the water clears.
  • Clear water, overcast — darker greens and browns for contrast; a football jig dragged on the deep edge.
  • Lightly stained — green pumpkin with blue or orange, brown and orange; a 1/2 oz jig pitched to wood. KDFWR's early-summer piece likes green pumpkin, brown and orange with a touch of chartreuse.
  • Muddy — black and blue, black, junebug; the darker and dirtier the water, the darker the bait, in Florida Sportsman's words. KDFWR names a 3/4 oz black and blue jig and trailer for the ledges.
  • Shad water — white, shad patterns and bluegill patterns on a swim jig, matching the forage rather than the clarity.

Basis: consensus

How to rig it

  1. Pick the head for the cover: football for rock and ledges, Arkie for wood and docks, finesse for clear rock on light line, swim jig for grass.
  2. Trim the weedguard to just past the hook point and fan it slightly. Bend it back and forth at the base so it flexes on the set.
  3. Trim the skirt so it ends about where the trailer's body begins and does not smother the claws.
  4. Thread the trailer straight on the hook so it sits square behind the skirt; a crooked trailer spins. For a free-swinging craw in open water, hang it on the hook through the nose instead.
  5. Tie on with a Palomar. Wet it, seat it, and check the point one more time against your thumbnail.

Basis: consensus (Wired2Fish, Tackle Warehouse, Bass Pro)

How to fish it

Five retrieves, and the first one to learn is the one that is mostly waiting.

  • Pitch and let it fall. Underhand, to a target, on a semi-slack line, watching the line where it enters the water. Most jig bites come on the fall, and Wired2Fish's line-watching guide explains why you watch rather than wait to feel: a bass that eats the jig on the way down often leaves the line looking as if the bait is still falling. If nothing happens by the time it hits bottom, shake it twice, hop it once, and pitch to the next target.
  • Drag. For the football jig. Sealock fishes it with a steady sideways drag like a Carolina rig, and the Bassmaster ledge pros crawl it over every piece of the ledge, slowing down at any cover. Rod low, to the side.
  • Hop, or three short pops. Sealock's casting-jig retrieve: three short pops of the rod tip and let it sink, like a crayfish that swims off the bottom in short strokes and glides back down.
  • Stroke. Rip the jig 5 or 6 feet off the bottom and let it fall on a controlled slack line. Bassmaster's year-round profile calls it a post-spawn technique in particular; Wired2Fish's piece on stroking has a Guntersville guide using it to fire up a school.
  • Swim. Cast and reel a swim jig steadily just under the surface or over the grass, with the occasional twitch or pump of the handle. Tackle Warehouse and Wired2Fish both describe the erratic version; a steady retrieve catches fish on its own.

Bites are a thump, a mushy weight, a tick, or the line jumping or swimming off. Keep the rod at nine or ten o'clock, as Bassmaster's Stephen Headrick advises, so you can set at once; he says you will see more strikes than you ever feel. The hookset is reel down, feel the weight, and drive, with no slack anywhere in the process, which In-Fisherman's hookset piece names as the reason fish are missed. Then keep reeling.

Basis: consensus; the retrieve names are the sources' own

Common mistakes

  • Rod tip too high. Headrick's number one. A high tip means a slow set.
  • Fishing it too fast. Hackney's point: a heavy jig makes you fish fast whether the fish want it or not. Lighten up and slow down when they are not eating it.
  • One cast per target. Brown: one cast, flip or pitch is usually not enough. Make several.
  • Letting it fall on a fully slack line. You will not see the bite. A semi-slack line shows the line jump and still lets the jig fall straight.
  • Over-trimming the weedguard. Too short and it stops blocking the point.
  • A skirt too long. Short strikes.
  • Slack in the hookset. Reel down until you feel the fish, then swing.
  • Pulling hard into brush. It snags. Lift and shake instead.

Basis: consensus (Bassmaster, Wired2Fish, In-Fisherman, Bass Pro)

Kayak notes

A jig is a close-range bait, and a kayak puts you at close range quietly.

  • Pitch from the seat. An underhand pitch to a laydown or a dock post is easier seated than an overhand cast, and lands quieter.
  • Braid helps the hookset. Wired2Fish's kayak rod piece has a kayak pro on braid almost exclusively to make up for weaker hooksets from a hull that gives under you, with a high-speed reel and a longer rod. Pair it with a short fluorocarbon leader around rock.
  • Drag from a drift. On a ledge or a rocky point, let the wind move the boat and keep the football jig in contact; the drift is the retrieve.
  • Hold position near wood. A stake-out pole or a tie to a limb beats an anchor in current.
  • Mind the hook. A jig hook is big and sharp and the fish comes to hand close to your lap. Lip it or use a grip.

Basis: editorial; Wired2Fish on braid from a kayak

Fly counterpart

A weighted crayfish fly fished on the bottom. Dave Whitlock's NearNuff Crayfish, in Fly Fisherman, hops and crawls over the bottom hook point up and is fished slowly with a stop-and-pause or slow-crawl retrieve, in orange, dirty brown and dirty olive; the Clouser Crayfish is the other standard, kept within a foot of the bottom with darting spurts and pauses or a steady crawl, per Bass Pro's crawfish-flies piece. Neither source draws the comparison to a jig; we do, because the retrieve and the water are the same. See streamer fishing for the drift and the non-slip loop for the knot.

Basis: consensus on the flies; editorial on the comparison

Where it came from

In-Fisherman's profile of Bob Carnes, of Springdale, Arkansas, tells the story of the bass jig as we know it. A bait-shop owner in Rogers talked him into building a jig more snag-free than the banana-head jigs of the day, which were narrow and rolled on their side and snagged; Carnes tinkered with molds until the head balanced, and in the early 1970s began manufacturing the Original Arkie Jig with a bucktail skirt. After Bo Dowden won the 1980 Bassmaster Classic on it, Carnes sold 36,000 at one show in 1981. The Arkie head is still the flipping standard. Finesse jigging came out of the Ozarks' clear highland reservoirs, and swimming a jig, as Sealock wrote in 2012, had been around thirty years and only recently gotten popular.

Basis: consensus (In-Fisherman, Wired2Fish); retailer copy dates Arkie Lures to the early 1960s and is not relied on

In Kentucky

KDFWR's species pages put reservoir smallmouth on rocky shores under ledges and around stumps, and largemouth in standing timber, stumps and other cover, which is jig water in both cases. Its early-summer piece on two state resort park lakes, Barren River Lake and Lake Barkley, fishes a jig in a slow pull-and-drop retrieve, likes green pumpkin, brown and orange with a touch of chartreuse, names a 3/4 oz black and blue jig and trailer for the ledges, and says the ledges may offer the best chance of the year at a largemouth over 6 pounds. In published tournament reporting, Kentucky Lake is the ledge jig's showcase: the 2025 Bass Pro Tour event there turned on summer ledges, with the winner doing most of his final-round damage on a 3/4 oz football jig and a craw in green pumpkin, and other top finishers dragging 5/8 and 3/4 oz football jigs in 9 to 17 feet. At Dale Hollow, Zona's winter flats piece is the model. Herrington Lake has a jig-and-pig reputation in the backs of its creeks from March. For Lake Cumberland's winter smallmouth, KDFWR's float-and-fly piece puts a tiny hair jig under a float; that is a different technique, but the same fish and the same water a casting jig covers in spring and fall.

Basis: official on the KDFWR habitat and the early-summer piece; published reporting on the lakes; editorial on the Cumberland note

Skill level

Intermediate. Rigging is simple, but a jig asks you to pitch accurately, to fish slowly on purpose, to tell a limb from a bite through 15 lb fluorocarbon, and to set hard without slack. It is the bait that rewards time on the water more than any other on this site.

Basis: editorial

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