Lure Fishing UK

Jigs: Part 1

I cannot say that I have caught loads of pike on jigs, but I have caught enough to show me that they can be a valuable lure in some conditions.

I first tried them in about 1993, I had a Cabela's catalogue and they had a special offer on "Grave Digger" jigs. I was trying to catch zander at the time and thought they might be useful so I odered a pack. They are quite small, 1/4oz and 3/8oz (from memory), with slim curly-tailed grubs about 3 to 4 inches long.

First time I used them I caught pike, either retrieving with an up and down rod action, trying to bounce them along the bottom, or jigging them under the rod tip. All this was on the river Avon near Pershore, in Summer. This river has a slow to moderate flow, with depths in the middle of about 6 to 12 feet generally, with lots of weed growth icluding rushes, sedges and lilies growing on the shallower marginal slopes.

Fishing from the bank I used a 10ft rod and wished it was longer, 15ft+(!) would be better. The best method for pike I finally settled on was creeping along the bank as quietly as I could then poking the rod out over the weeds and jigging amongst the lilies. The water was usually about 4 to 6ft deep and I tried to work the jig about a foot or so from the bottom with say, 6 to 10 inch lifts, not too violent, watch the jig a few times to see what it's doing, what looks right is right! Takes are very positive, with the pike inhaling the jig and usually being hooked well inside the mouth. I used bright colours, whites and yellows worked better than dark patterns.

I found I lost very few fish despite the fine wire hooks which are rather weak for pike, but they will straighten when snagged so you can get them back.

A rod with a fairly soft tip helps in detecting when the jig has hit bottom and when hitting lively pike at very close range. It is good fun but you do feel a bit of a fool creeping around like a commando and then waving the rod up and down like a demented garden gnome, but if pike are lying close to the bank, and you don't frighten them, it works very well.

I caught pike up to about 7lb with jigs, but the Avon is a small-pike river, and I suspect bigger jigs would work better. I never caught a single zander with a jig although I have been told often enough that they work well. One notable aspect of jigging is that it caught numbers of pike when normally retrieved lures did not, I am going to try them again soon in bigger sizes, I feel that an "up and down" action might trigger inactive pike.

I have tried them a few times without success from the boat on the Severn, but I have not given them a fair try, again though I would prefer bigger sizes.

Jigs: Part 2

I bought some larger jigs and grubs from DLST at the 1999 LAS conference, I've chucked them a few times, but apart from a couple of missed jacks on a gravel pit, I had seen no action on them. In the first week of September I had two days boat fishing on the Severn, expecting two hard working days I packed the jigs to provide a break from cranking rather than with any real hope of success. I enjoyed some good sport with 15 pike including 7 doubles, but most importantly 5 of them, including 2 doubles, came to jigs.
The technique I used was completely different to that which worked on the Avon, fishing in water between 6 and 20ft deep it was necessary to bump the jig very slowly across the bottom, lifting it when it bumped a snag. Every now and then one of the snags would pull back! The pike presumably were very confident with the soft feel of the lure and did not panic when they felt it, so I received no indication of the take.

Successful grubs were a 6" flo-yellow twister tail, a 7" white twin-tail and a 9" Slug-go cut back to about 8". I was very excited by this development, nearly all Severn fish come to crankbaits in the 5" to 10" range, and nothing too fancy in the retrieve, an occasional pause is about as exciting as it gets, so a little variety is a pleasant change.

I was back on the river a few days later, and it was hard, three of us fishing all day managed one good double and all the rest less than 4lb. The jigs caught nothing, I may not have used them enough, but I was disappointed that my new miracle method failed.

In retrospect I should have stuck to my guns and persisted with the jigs, perhaps trying some different retrieves, the pike were obviously in a very different mood and I should have pushed a little harder to try to find a working technique. Perhaps the jig is not a particularly good pike lure but it can be used in a way that no other lure can match, tight to the bottom in snaggy water where diving or sinking plugs just can not, or dare not, go.

I have obviously touched on a new technique - for me - and opened up a whole new can of worms, so to speak. I want to try different jig weights and shapes, different coloured tails and different locations. So much to do, so little time!

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