Football Jigs

[Bigbassbo]

My New Year's Resolution this year (in part) is to learn to fish football jigs effectively. Anyone have some helpful tips or guidelines to help a beginner football fisherman?

[Paul8877]

Slow down and take your time. I let the fish tell me how fast they want it or the retrieve they want.

[THKUSTOMS]

Get the right rod with enough back bone and long enough in the 7' or more and drag them on the bottom. Ive also used footballs in tight on wood cover hopping them along the bottom as well. You can cover some water though with them and find deep structure which makes them nice.

[jseasor]

ive caught a lot of fish on them. I only use them in the fall/winter when im fishing open water or rock. i mainly throw a 3/4 oz. i keep my rod tip at about 2 or 3 oclock and drag the bait, almost as if you were carolina rigging it. drag slow, turn up as much of that silk on th bottom as you can and bump as much as you can. you can also put your rod straight up and down and just barely pull up, working it slow....it all depends on the wind and how your comfortable. i top all my FB jigs with some sort of twintail

[Lsto19]

as fair as trailers... in clear water the chompers 3 and 4 inch twin tails rock in stained baby brush hogs are hard to beat but in dirty water I go with a regular bushhog.. as always water temp is a factor down size in colder water and trim the skirts back to create a smaller profile

[GitBitBaits]

One thing that I did not see mentioned was stroking a football jig. We do this a lot here in the summer time. It is an awesome big fish technique that has won us a good bit of money. We usually slowly crank the jig remaining in contact with the bottom until we come into contact with some type of cover (rock, wood, grass, etc.) At this point we will pause and then snap the rod from about 9 o'clock to 11 and then follow the bait back to the bottom keeping a slack line and watching for your line to jump. Most bites will come on the fall , but be ready because some of these fish will rip the rod out of your hands when they hit that thing. It is a fun technique to learn, but can become addictive :) There are a ton of good football jigs out there, but I would look for something that has a good hook and unique head. The one we have has both if you would like to check them out, but I will be the first to tell you that we are not the only good one's out there. As far as colors, you will find a variety of cool colors on our web site as well as on others, but in my opinion it is hard to beat the good old PB&J.
Good Luck and if we can help in any way let us know!

Git-Bit Baits
678-758-6567
http://www.gitbitstore.com
http://www.gitbit.net

[Ranger Keith]

First off get some good jigs. I'd recommend a Strike King 3/4 oz in green pumpkin with a green pumpkin Rage Craw for the trailer. Next would be a good sensitive rod, I use an AllStar ASR 7' 2" MH and a Pflueger Patriarch 7.1:1 spooled with Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon.

As for fishing a football jig it's really simple. Make a long cast and just simply drag the jig as you would a carolina rig. It's that simple. Just pay attention to your line as you drag it. When you make contact with a rock, stump, or any structure on the bottom work it slowly around or over it. Once you get the dragging figured out you may want to try stroking which is just simply ripping the jig off the bottom and letting it fall back. Expect a hit on the fall. As far as dragging vs stroking, I probably drag 95% of the time.

I have been fishing the Strike King football jig since it came out and I have had tremendous success with it. If you fish offshore this is a must learn technique. If you have more question just give me a shout.

Keith

[capticeman]

hey bro, great question... I drag a FB jig, in sizes 3/8-3/4... I like 12-15# floro... rod choice is up to you, I'd go a little longer cause fish can grab these things and run before you set the hook... I use only brown, pumpkin colors... use super chunk jr, in brown for a trailer...
I myself use the all terrain football jig, It has a lighter hook that I like, but alot of jigs out there... some great ones here with BBC sponsors...
last tip, buy lots of them, you'll snag em big time...

[PA Greg]

I want to try the stroking technique with them this year.

I have great success working them the same way you would fish a carolina rig. Keep no slack in the line and drag them. I prefer 5/8 oz eakins with a matching baby paca craw to whatever color I am throwing. My favorite is the green gourd color matched with a green pumpkin trailer. I will dip the claws in spike it as well. Usually when fishing offshore a buddy will throw a c-rig and I will throw the football head. It seems somedays they prefer one over the other.

Does anyone know of other companies that make a 5/8 oz football head? More than anything I think I just got so used to the feel of that weight that I do not feel anywhere near as comfortable with a different one.

I throw them on a 7' MH and a 6:3:1 reel and it suits me fine. Bites will be anything from a small tick or a thump all the way to ripping the rod out of your hand.

Finally, I learned this technique and how to target offshore structure from spending a couple of days with Dave Stewart on Kentucky lake. Money well spent IMHO since this quickly became my preferred technique.

[dchance]

I make my own FB jigs and my mold has 5/8. It is a Do-It mold that I modified with a dremel to fit a 60 degree flat eye Mustad hook. Beefier hook that what was recommended.

[Ridge Runner_20]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GitBitBaits &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">One thing that I did not see mentioned was stroking a football jig. We do this a lot here in the summer time. It is an awesome big fish technique that has won us a good bit of money. We usually slowly crank the jig remaining in contact with the bottom until we come into contact with some type of cover (rock, wood, grass, etc.) At this point we will pause and then snap the rod from about 9 o'clock to 11 and then follow the bait back to the bottom keeping a slack line and watching for your line to jump. Most bites will come on the fall , but be ready because some of these fish will rip the rod out of your hands when they hit that thing. It is a fun technique to learn, but can become addictive :) </TD></TR></TABLE>

Man, you gotta stop giving out all the GOOD secrets! Seriously, if you've never tried this (I've always called it "snappin'" a jig), it IS addictive! Basically, you're fishing the jig for active fish like a reaction bait, and summer is the best time I've found to use it. It also works great for night fishing with a real heavy jig (3/4-1oz.). When you snap it up off the bottom it makes a huge commotion as it comes crashing back down, making it easy to find and alerting fish to an easy meal. &lt;&lt;SNAP!&gt;&gt; &lt;&lt;KER-THUNK!&gt;&gt;

RR_20

[Bigbassbo]

Thanks everyone, I'll try and keep all these things in mind once the water becomes soft again.

On the strokin, I have been fortunate enough to grow up in an area where I can be outdoors and have the luxury of having two rock quarries near my house. One of our favorite things to do is go and seine crawdads from the creek near my house and feed them to the largemouth and smallies. After a couple yrs of catching the smallies on slow moving crawdad imitations, they have become weary of any type of crawdad dragging across the bottom, but can still tell the diference between real and imitation. The one thing they will not hesitate to flat out destroy, is a startled crawdad that flips his tail and goes flyin through the water.
Could this explain the stroking techniques effectiveness?

[PII Magnum]

it might