Entry 167-4
Shaw Grigsby on Late Spring and Early Summer Fishing
Part 4: The Denny Brauer Premier Pro-Model Jig
Editor's Note: If you want to know how to catch bass on any day, you’ll always get the best information from the anglers who fish the most. Anglers who fish the most are professional anglers and guides. The second way that you learn the best information on how to catch bass on any day you go fishing is to obtain information from the anglers who make the most money. Strike King Pro, Shaw Grigsby, fits both of these criteria. He’s made over $1 million in tournament fishing and earns a good income from his TV show. This 48-year-old fisherman from Gainesville, Florida, fishes as much, if not more, than any angler I know. When he’s not fishing tournaments, he’s fishing for his TV show. We’ve asked him what the best tactics are to catch the most bass in June, and this week you’ll see his answers.
Question: Most people don’t think about fishing a jig at this time of year, but you do. What jig are you fishing, and how are you fishing it?
Grigsby: I like the Denny Brauer Premier Pro-Model Jig. I don’t think there’s any other fisherman in the country who knows jigs better than he does. He designed the rattle, the head, the hook, the skirt and the trailers for these jigs. He also picked the colors for the jigs. He has colors all the way from the Texas Craw through chartreuse and darker colors. As the weather begins to warm up, if I’m trying to catch big fish, I’ll be fishing that jig.
The jig is a versatile lure that allows you to fish in many places. I fish it though limbs, around logs and in the middle of brush. You can drop a jig in a hole that’s not any bigger than a tablespoon and put that bait in an effective place to make a big bass bite. As the weather warms up, and those bigger bass move out to deeper ledges, I move up to the 3/4-ounce jig and fish it on those ledges and drop-offs. By simply changing the sizes of jigs, I can fish the bait from 1/2- to 40 feet of water.
Another advantage to fishing the jigs is that it tells you what’s on the bottom. You can feel rocks, mud, logs, brush or whatever type of cover is on the bottom. I believe that the jig puts eyes on the bottom for the fisherman, not because the fisherman can actually see, but because he can feel what’s actually there. Besides dragging the jig on the bottom, you can hop the jig off the bottom and make the bass bite.
There are many different ways to get a bass to bite a jig at this time of year. That’s the reason I believe the jig is an effective bait to use for bass. It’s extremely versatile when the bass are in a transition mode and moving from shallow spawning flats out to deep-water ledges. In June and July, the jig is a deadly bait.
Denny Brauer won the Bassmaster Classic during hot weather by flipping and pitching the jig in water less than 2-feet deep. That proves that wherever the bass are holding, you can make them bite with a jig. Denny found the bass that won the Classic for him beside a log on a mud flat that nobody in his right mind would fish. Certainly, you wouldn’t fish in that spot with a jig. That’s exactly what he did, and that’s why he won the tournament.
Tommy Biffle is another angler that’s always on the hunt at every tournament who will wear the paint off a jig throughout most of the year. I’ve seen so many tournaments won and so many fish caught on a jig at this time of year that it has to be at the top of the list for one of my best baits to fish right now.
Question: What pound-test line are you using when you fish a jig?
Grigsby: I usually fish the jig on 20-pound-test Stren DuraTuf line. If I’m fishing in heavy cover, I use 25-pound-test line. If I’m fishing deep ledges, I use 17-pound-test line.
Next: Buzzbaits
Contents:
- Part 1: The Spit-N-King
- Part 2: The Diamond Shad
- Part 3: The Premier Plus
- Part 4: The Denny Brauer Premier Pro-Model Jig
- Part 5: Buzzbaits
