swim jig help

[coreynov902]

Even though I have a few swim jigs, I never use them. I always seem to tie on a spinnerbait instead. This year I am going to try and use a swim jig more often, but I could use some help. I want to buy a few but am unsure what to look for. I see many different head styles as well as vertical and flat line ties, but am unsure which to get. I'm thinking that most of the time I'm using a swim jig it will be on the Mississippi River around weeds, rip rap banks, and laydowns. What type of trailer do you guys usually use? Single tail grub, double tail grub, paddle tail swimbait, or something else? What size do I use in shallow (6 feet or less) water...3/8 or 1/2 oz? I thought I had read somewhere to keep colors simple, black/blue and white/shad...correct or not? Any other tips or things I've missed would be great as well.

[karol]

youtube is all the answers

[johnnybass]

Check this out also: http://www.brovarneybaits.com/SwimJigBasics.htm
They are midwest guys so I thought the tips would be most applicable.


I was in the same boat as you and never had any confidence in them. This late summer/fall, I just decided to start chucking them around shallow grass in SE WI. I went with 1/4 an 3/8 finesse style and used swim senkos/keitechs and now I am hooked. Brovarney seems to recommend 1/4 for most applications but I liked fishing the 3/8 in windy conditions.

[DrewFlu33]

Advice is for Minnesota, but would have to believe it applies for your area as well.

I really jumped onto the swim jig train hard last year. I actually made a similar post about this time last year and got an absolute ton of good advice. A lot of what follows is recycled from that thread. After getting all that advice and forcing myself to throw it, the swim jig quickly transformed into my absolute favorite thing to throw and it's really not very close at this point. To loosely quote Hackney: They'll work in water from 35 to 90 degrees and in any water or cover imaginable. Several things I look for in a swim jig: a bullet shaped head that will come through vegetation well, a sparse weedguard, a good hook, and a sparse skirt. What I mean by sparse skirt and weed guard is, comparing a swim jig to a regular flipping or football jig, you want to see roughly half the number of strands in the skirt and in the weedguard.

I almost universally throw a single tail grub on mine. Big Bite Baits' "Finesse" 5 inch grub and Zoom Fat Alberts are both very good (and are roughly the same size despite them being listed as 2 inches different). I'm going to experiment with using craw trailers a little more this year, but really want to try orienting them with the claws veritcal instead of horizontal to mimic the tail on a shad or sunfish.

White swim jigs are great shad imitations on the Mississippi (really the only place where we have shad in MN). Tack on a white grub and just throw it - you'll catch fish. I like green pumpkin or other bluegill type patterns for bluegill imitations, and will often add a dab of chartreuse either to the trailer or skirt as an extra enticement. Black and blue is another good color, especially for dirty water. A lot of money has been made on the Mississippi throwing black and blue swim jigs in the wake of big storms that suddenly muddy up the water.

I've had luck ripping them through weeds, dropping them in holes in weeds, off of weed edges, over limbs in brush and laydowns, and just generally throwing them in the same places/ways I'd throw a spinnerbait or chatterbait. Where they really shine in the latter scenario is for days where conditions aren't especially conducive to spinnerbaits or chatterbaits (sunny, no wind, clearer water), though this isn't to say that they don't work in dirty water on cloudy, windy days. They also skip easier than anything else for me, so they're awesome around docks and the like.

I think you're thinking too heavy, especially for shallow water. I pretty much exclusively throw 1/4 oz ones, but will step up to 3/8 if I need to get deeper. Check out BrovarneyBaits.com for what I consider to be the best quality swim jigs for the money. They have Gamakatsu hooks to boot. That site also has a lot of good reference material about swim jigs that's mostly specific to the Midwest, so that's very valuable also.

Oh, and here's a link to my thread from last year. As I said, a ton of good info in that one.

[DrewFlu33]

Ha! Just noticed that johnnybass gave some of the same info I did. I'm clearly not the only Brovarney fan!

[iabass8]

www.Brovarneybaits.com

Best river swim jigs you'll find. He will also be at the quad city sports expo next weekend down in the quad cities with a booth.

[johnnybass]

Drewflu, are there any conditions where you prefer to put a boot tail on or do you go with grubs in all situations?

[johnnybass]

Confidence booster!

[DrewFlu33]

Drewflu, are there any conditions where you prefer to put a boot tail on or do you go with grubs in all situations?

I've thrown a boot tail a few times, but really think the grub works better and is cheaper as well. If I had to say one way or the other, I personally feel like a boot tail may actually be more visually subtle than the grub which feels a little crazy to suggest. What I mean is that the grub tail sort of flutters with the slightest movement and really catches the eye, while the boot requires a quicker retrieve to get going and the tail kicks side to side putting out more vibration. So I suppose if I had to pick I'd say a boot tail may be better in dirty and or warmer water and a grub in clearer and or colder water...but if I want vibration, I'm probably not throwing a swim jig. Just my gut instinct. Realistically it probably all washes out and doesn't really matter.

[Jeff Hahn]

I also got into swim jig fishing pretty heavy last year. If you're going to use them around very sparse cover and use a rod with mono/copolymer/fluoro, then go with a Bovarney type jig with a very light weedguard and light wire hook.

But, if you're going to fish around heavy cover and fish braid, then go with a strong hook and little heavier weedguard. This is what I do the vast majority of the time. I like the Gambler Swim Jig. http://www.gambler-lures.com/Swim_Jig_s/174.htm But, I also use a bullet nose swim jig the majority of the time that I make myself. I also throw a 1/4 ounce bait with a matching Zoom Super Chunk Jr or a Zoom Z Craw about 95% of the time. As far as color, 95% of the time it's either black/blue or green pumpkin. But, I have one each of the following colors: white, bluegill, and perch. As far as weedguards go, I like a wire weedguard. When I buy a swim jig, I pull out all of the bristles and epoxy in double wire cable guards. I got on to these weedguards years ago fishing a Stan Sloan jig: http://zorrobait.com/product/casting-booza-bug/ You can buy the same cable guards here: http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Onlin...Weedguard.html

[DrewFlu33]

Have people bent hooks on the Brovarney's? I've heard people say they're not good around heavy cover, but I winched a couple 5+ lbers out of the weeds with them last year without issue. In fact, the only time I bent a hook on one was on what was in hindsight probably a state record bowfin ("dogfish" in MN) and that was just the hook point. I wish I had weighed that fish...state record now is like 12.5 lbs and 31 inches, and this fish was on the same pool on the Mississippi where the current record was caught. I'd bet a fair sum this one was heavier - there's zero doubt in my mind that it was longer.

[coreynov902]

Thanks so much for all of the great info! I'm glad I asked before purchasing, since I think I'll go with 1/4 oz now instead of 3/8 or 1/2. And I think I'll stick mostly to the single tail grubs (I was favoring double tail before). Great info and the reason why I love this board!

[coreynov902]

One more question...do you guys usually match your trailer color to the color of the swim jig, or do you change it up?

[DrewFlu33]

One more question...do you guys usually match your trailer color to the color of the swim jig, or do you change it up?

90% of the time I match them, but have had some luck mixing as well. Creating an "Okeechobee craw" color by sticking a green pumpkin trailer on a black and blue jig or vice versa seems to always work. I've ended up trying it as an attempt to have a one size fits all type option since the black and blue is usually good in dirty water and the green pumpkin good in clearer water. In full disclosure, I'm not sure it necessarily works any better or worse or even differently than a matched trailer as I've never alternated on a given day to see whether one worked better than the other. My inclination is that it probably doesn't matter - more and more I've started adopting the belief that we put way too much stock into colors and that light vs dark and opaque vs translucent are really what matters in 99.99% of situations.

On one occasion last year I ended up going to a contrasting trailer (I think it was a white grub on a green pumpkin jig, but may have been a chartreuse grub) when I was having fish just swipe at my usual green pumpkin combo with chartreuse highlights. They started eating it really well then, but I had zero luck on that combo after that - and believe me, I tried it a bunch. Overall I think it's best just to experiment and see what works.

Also, forgot to thank Mr. Hahn for the info about wire weedguards and the related links. I'm going to try that this year. In fact, I've got some swim jigs I got from the fellow who makes my chatterbaits. Problem was, he didn't put weedguards on them! Could be perfect to not only try to wire weedguards, but also to save those otherwise nice looking swimjigs from the trashcan.

I'm really interested to hear other thoughts on trailers and really on swimjigs in general. I feel like I've sort of "dominated" the discussion here and don't mean to...I'm pretty passionate about my swim jigs these days and probably ramble on too much about them. If I'm honest, I probably ramble on too much in general. That's a different discussion for a different day!

[coreynov902]

DrewFlu33, thanks for the feedback. I just ordered a half-dozen 1/4 oz swimbaits and some single tail grubs from brovarneybaits.com...wouldn't have even known to look there had it not been for you guys. He's got a great selection of colors and very reasonable prices as well. Thanks again!

[johnnybass]

I thought that you were supposed to match colors with the trailer but I saw a Bass Pros show with Timmy Horton and he was fishing a white jig with a dark blue trailer. He said that he always like to contrast so I will have to try that this year. He was also waking it right below the surface because there were a lot of active shad in the area. I will have to try waking it too. I generally keep it relatively close to the bottom.

[BleedingBlue]

I was in the same boat as the OP. Read all kinds of good things and never caught any fish. Where I fish is all wood and rock yet most everything I read pertained to fishing them in grass. I finally had some limited success last year using 1/4 oz. Strike King (white) with a pearl swimming fluke trailer. Now it is a lure I'll throw in some situations but I've yet to approach the kind of success where I'd want to put down my spinnerbait. At the very least I don't feel like I'm wasting my time throwing it.

[Jeff Hahn]

In terms of a matching or contrasting color of jig and trailer...I think it's more a matter of confidence than it is whether or not the fish care one way or another.

[Munkin]

Do not make it more complicated than it needs to be! For me a swim jig is just a bladeless spinnerbait and I fish it as such. Fish then in the same colors as you do spinnerbaits or whatever matches the natural forage where you fish. As far as size I like a 1/4oz with a small grub for open water but a 3/8oz for fishing through cover. A paddle tail bait like the Keitech 3.8" fat impact has more lift than a grub which is why I use the heavier weigh.

Allen

[Basswhippa]

Strike king makes a decent swim jig