Jigs 

        The old faithful jig.   In spring, first of all, go with green pumpkin, green/black or green/brown, brown, brown/orange.  These colors best imitate early season craw colors as they have not been exposed to bright, shallow sunlight.  The skirt material is the key, living rubber, silicone, Lumiflex and so on as all will have different action in the water.  But when pitching, just use a heavier jig of any color and watch the line.  A good size is a 1/4 or 3/8 oz jig early in the year with a big chunk, as it will fall slow which will help catch the big early season bass while they are still sluggish.  In extreme cold water, pork will sometimes be less stiff than plastic, but using a bait like Yamamoto twin tail grubs for chunks they are so full of salt that they stay very soft since they are almost all salt.  The twin tails have much, more action that chunks or pork.  In summer, take twin tail Hula grubs and trim 2/3 of the skirt down and leave the rest as it gives the jig a bigger profile.

        There are several methods of presenting a jig.  When bass are less active such as in spring, just slowly raise the rod tip up and reel up slack and do it again.  It moves the bait slowly across the bottom, which will often catch bigger bass.  Plus, it will keep you in contact with the lure, which helps detect the soft early season bites.  As the water temp gets warmer, start a hopping retrieve.  Just small little hops made with the rod tip.  Try to using a 6' 6" rod in colder months.  Most anglers don't take into account that a longer rod moves the bait farther than a shorter rod.  And when you want it slow,  use the shorter rod so that you don't over work the jig for sluggish bass.  If in deeper water and warmer months, use a 7' rod.

        There are 2 main styles of bass jigs made.  Casting jigs and flipping jigs.  The two main differences between the 2 are the hook and the head shape.  Casting jigs usually have a round type head and a standard round bend hook.  Flipping jigs have a EWG style hook and a pointed style head.  The flipping hook head shape comes through the grass better plus has the extra wide hook for stronger, faster hook sets.  But when fishing chunk rock or fishing a hula grub style plastic on a jig head, go with a football head design.  It will help keep from getting hung up in rocks and will keep a twin tail grub up right.

        As the grass starts to come up in spring,  use a jig and swim it over the new grass.  This method will work through out late spring and summer.  When swimming a jig, point the rod tip out in front of you towards the jig.  When a fish hits, wait just a split second before setting the hook.  As the fish become more active, use a bigger 1/2oz jig with a very big twin tail grub for a trailer.  You can still use a big crawfish chunk every now and then for bulk.  And as the year goes on, go to black, purple and blue combinations.  The crawfish will start to turn darker with the hues of these colors in them.

        Keep a big collection of different jigs with and without rattles.  Often bass will be spooky, and a noisy jig is not going to catch as many fish.  But most of the time, you can use rattles, especially in darker or muddy water.  And also, one tip that works well is throw the opposite of what the other anglers are throwing if they are not catching a lot of bass or if there are several that have been in front of you on the same area, try to figure out which they are throwing and do the opposite.  You will catch the bass that didn’t want the noisy or the quiet bait.  Also, on post frontal days or super clear water, throw the smaller 1/4oz jig.  It will get more bites as bass have a strike zone of  8" or less in postfrontal conditions.  Also in postfrontal conditions, fish the jig  vertical.  Meaning pitch the jig along boat docks and work the posts as the bass will be tight to cover on these days.  In spring especially, flip the boat docks nearest the creeks or spawning flats.  The biggest bass will usually be on the last boat dock nearest the point or mouth of the spawning coves.  These docks have faster access to deeper water where the bass can move up to feed and back out deeper later.  They will move up and down several times throughout the day, but a lot of bass will live around boat docks year round and some will spawn next to them or in-between where the bottom is usually hard and rocky.

        Springtime is possibly the best time to look for a boat dock pattern with a jig.  But in Summer, pitch skip the jig as far back under the docks as you can and use the swimming technique.  Pump the jig past posts and submerged trees as this will imitate a baitfish.  And one more big tip for jigs or soft plastics in general is if it is raining or very dark and cloudy, throw a black/blue combo jig or plastic.  Don’t know why but bass will eat up this color on cloudy, rainy days.

        One more thing that you can do to all of your jigs. Take the jig and trim the skirt in a V shape with the bottom of the V at the bottom.  Do this at 2 different angles on each side of the skirt, maybe a  45 degree and a  20 degree angle.  It gives the skirt all different lengths which make it look more natural.  Also, trim off the weed guard, when looking at the jig from the side, where the guard is parallel to the hook direction.  Leave enough guard so that when you push it down, it still has enough that the hook has to go through it.  This is all you need and it helps with hook up's as there is not as much to go through before reaching the fish.  Be careful and don't trim so much that the hook doesn’t go through the guard.  This will defeat the purpose of having the guard to protect the hook from snags.