Fishing tip of the week

Fishing Tip of the Week

Thursday, 10 June 2021 05:58

Jigging spoon anyone?
by Mike Gerry

The heat of the summer can be your friend if you choose the correct presentation.
When the bass are looking for oxygen and looking for cooler water, or just suspending, nothing duplicates the results of a jigging spoon. What makes it even better is that it is a bait that even the most inexperienced fisherman can use and be successful. You can present the bait with long casts, or just drop it over the edge of the boat and just jig it up and down; schools of fish cannot resist it as it makes them compete and you benefit from their aggressive nature.

There are a few key things you need to prepare for when using a jigging spoon. If you use the heavy, one-ounce spoons, they have big hooks and seem to snag everything on the bottom. When you get one stuck into a stump, well, it soon becomes a bottom decoration. The next thing to be prepared for is if you cast it hard and snap your cast it will break your line easily, so hook it up on braided line. With braid you have enough strength in your line to keep it from snapping off. Braid also gives you a fair chance of being able to pull the spoon off a snag on the bottom and retrieve it from hang-ups. Jigging spoons come in many shapes and sizes and weights, so have a variety of different styles available to use.

Another key to using a jigging spoon is to fish it with a fast-speed reel like a 7.1:1 reel and rig it on at least a heavy rod where the tip strength aids the hook set when you are fishing it. Catching up to the drop speed of a heavy spoon requires the fast reel to catch up to the drop speed; it also allows you to be in position quickly to set the hook, when needed, in a retrieve.
The key to catching a fish on a jigging spoon is snapping the spoon off the bottom and when you do, that the spoon falls quickly back to the bottom. This is the time when you generally get hit and the reel and rod must support the hook set so rod strength and reel speed to catch up to the spoon is especially important.
Captain Mike