Entry 120-3

Chad Brauer on Jig Fishing

Jigging on Rocky Points

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: Without question, my favorite place to fish a jig is on rocky main-river points. Crawfish live on rocky points. Although the jig can look like a wide variety of different kinds and shapes of baitfish, I believe that the jig can best be used to imitate a crawfish crawling across rocks, along clay banks and jumping off small underwater ledges, just like a crawfish does. There's really nothing complicated about working the jig on a rocky point. You simply cast the jig out, let it fall to the bottom on a slack line and watch your line as the jig falls for any type interruption in the falling of the jig. Often a bass will take the jig on the fall. If you're fishing with a slack line, the only way you can know you have a bite is to watch your line.

Once the jig hits the bottom, my favorite type retrieve is to slow crawl the jig across the bottom. I want to be able to mentally see my jig crawling up, over and down the back side of rocks just like a crawfish. After the jig comes over a rock, I may let it sit still on the bottom and shake my rod tip to make the jig appear to quiver on the bottom. Many times, that quivering action will get a bass's attention and cause the fish to attack the lure. I've found that the less action I give a jig when I'm fishing it on rocky points, the more bass I'll catch.

I've seen some bass fishermen who like to pop the jig up off the bottom so that the bait jumps 3 or 4 feet before it falls back to the bottom. But, I've learned that I catch more bass fishing that jig extremely slowly, taking my time and making the bait look like a big, ole slow-moving crawfish walking around on the bottom looking for something to eat. I've learned that when you go to a new lake and you don't know where to fish or how to find and catch bass on that new lake, go to any of the main river points, and start fishing the Strike King jig with a Denny Brauer Chunk. You can often locate and catch bass because there are very few lakes in the nation where you won't discover bass holding on points at some time during the day, and more especially on points that have current hitting them.

Current on a point causes all fish to feed - baitfish as well as bass. When current hits a point, crawfish also will start to move. By using a bait that looks like a crawfish moving on a point when crawfish are supposed to move, then you can expect bass to want to take that bait when you fish it. I don't think you can beat fishing a jig on a point for bass-fishing success.
 

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