Entry 120-1

Chad Brauer on Jig Fishing

Docking Your Jig

Editor's Note: Chad Brauer of Osage Beach, Missouri, cut his teeth on jig fishing. If there's one bait he prefers to catch a bass on, it's a jig. This week, he'll tell us five techniques for catching bass on a jig.

Brauer: One of the biggest advantages for fishing the jig is because it's so compact. You can hit the surface of the water with a jig, and it will bounce off the surface and go under the dock and into places that you'll never be able to cast. Many times deep under the dock in those shady places where you can't cast to is where the bass will be holding. There are some general patterns to dock fishing with a jig that will allow you to start to pick the dock apart. Generally...

  • during the summer months, the bass often will be holding on the deep side of a dock.
  • during the spring and fall, look for bass on the back side of the dock.
  • on a sunny day, expect the bass to be holding in the shade of the dock and
  • on an overcast day, the bass may be holding on the outer edge of the dock.

Most of the time the bass will take the jig on the fall when you put it in their strike zone, and the bass will tell you how they want the jig presented after it hits the bottom. If you drag the jig along the bottom and get a bite, then you know that's how the fish wants to take the bait. If that technique fails, hop the bait about 2 or 3 inches off the bottom. If you don't get a bite then, jump the bait under the surface, try swimming the jig in the mid water, and finally swim the jig just off the bottom. If there's a bass in or around that dock, and you target the various areas of the dock and present the jig with several different types of retrieves, most of the time you will get a bass to bite.




 

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