If you still haven’t figured out when to use a jig vs. a texas rig, we will help you understand the best option between these two famous fishing techniques. Find out what their differences are and the best time when you can use it.
You can use jigs to think that your target species wants to feed on crawls because this bait does an excellent job of imitating its prey. On the other hand, bigger and bulkier targets require slimmer texas rigs. It is all about understanding your target and knowing the current water situation in choosing between these two baits.
Jig and texas rigs are the two most common baits to flip or pitch into shallow water for various fish species, commonly on bass. However, each bait has its purpose. Before you throw any lure deep into the water, make sure that you understand the best time and condition to use these baits.
Understanding When You Should Use A Jig
Jigs are a little bit different from other lures like spinnerbaits or crankbaits, so it requires unique techniques if you want to maximize your chances of catching a fish. It would help if you also took note that jigs require a much more sensitive retrieval. Nevertheless, you can follow some general tips that will help you get started and avoid any bad habits of the bad. If you want to understand when to use a jig, understand the parts, types, and everything about a jig.
What Are The Parts Of A Jig?
Jig fishing is a typical fishing technique, but it requires efficiency to achieve greater success. Just like any course and lessons, you should begin with understanding the different parts of a thing and know its purpose if you want to maximize it to your advantage.
Jighead
Usually, the term “jighead” describes the simple jig, which is simply the head coupled with the hook. It is essentially the standard for all jigs styles, but for unique situations, additional components such as hair, rubber skirt, and weed guard are essential to maximizing its use.
They come in a wide range of weights and sizes. Usually, the head itself is from lead, which is very thick, but it offers a lot of value for its small size. Tungsten has also become standard due to environmental problems with lead, but some raise health issues for fish species.
Thin rubber or plastic coating or casing can also enclose certain jigheads to conceal the metal safely. The critical thing to note here, in any case, is that one of the most vital variables to remember is the size and weight of jigheads. What is the ideal jighead size? Keep on reading as we give you the answer in a while.
Hair, Rubber Skirts, and Trailers
These are the parts of a jig that differentiate them from each other. In colder water temperatures, anglers prefer jigs with thicker hair, especially when catching bass. It has a small design but provides more action. Moreover, it has a slow-motion that can cause the hair to gently sway while mimicking a breathing movement, both on the drop and retrieval.
You can also achieve this behavior by gentle underwater waves, which is one reason jigs with thick hair perform so well in colder water. They are better options in northern states, but it can also be an excellent time to try a jig with hair anywhere during a cycle when the water is colder than usual.
In almost any situation, you can use trailers for various fish species. There will be different events for different trailers so that you can cater to the water conditions. Some basic crawfish trailers with minimal action can work nicely in colder water, while when the fish are more involved, anything like a worm with a spinning tail can be suitable for warmer water.
Another benefit of trailers is that crawfish and worm trailers will perform better by using a slightly longer cast if you can’t get to a spot where you’re basically dropping the jig. After retrieval, you can create a swimming motion but still use the classic jigging method. As a result, it effectively creates a blend between a standard retrieval and a jig retrieval with a little more focus on retrieving the jig.
Jig Weed guards
A weed guard is a simple brush or thin metal piece that provides the hook with a bit of protection. Until making contact with the hook, weeds and another cover will reach the weed guard, and the resulting deflection will typically cause the weeds or other covers to slip past the hook, thus decreasing the risk of snags. When you drop a jig into a dense cover where they can be beneficial, it becomes the perfect the scenario when using this bait. The only drawback is that it makes it a little more challenging to set the hook, but sometimes it’s a worthwhile trade-off.
Jig Hooks
If you are fine-tuning the features of your hook, you are probably well versed in working jigs. One thing to keep in mind is to make sure the hook is still nice and sharp if you have been using the same jig for quite a while, as it can be easy to forget about this.
If you notice that because of snags, you’re losing loads and you’re also fishing for smaller fish, then a thin-wired hook might be the right choice, so it can bend when snagged, and for those fish, you don’t need something too large. On the other hand, if you are fishing for bigger fish that are a little tougher to set the hook on and put up a little more of a fight, it might be helpful to have a thicker hook.
Picking The Right Jig
Let’s give you a comprehensive of the ideal jig type for each major jig presentations. If you want to know the ideal for you to use, then keep on reading. However, you can skip this part if you already have the perfect type of jig in mind. Still, it’s best if you know what the options that you have are.
1.Swim Jig Fishing
Swimming a jig is just what it sounds like, one of the hottest techniques on the pro tours, winding a jig through the column of water, much like a spinnerbait or lipless crank. The ideal swim jig ranges from 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 ounce, has a lighter weed guard, and slithers around and through the cover with a bullet-shaped head.
Since swim jigs shift when the bass bites, they don’t need almost as massive a hook-for full penetration, you want something sharp and narrow. Grubs, paddle tails, or other plastics with plenty of action provide perfect swim jig trailers.
2.Casting Jig Fishing
To stand up from the bottom, perfect casting jigs should be 3/8 to 1⁄2 ounce and feature a round, Arkie type, or flat-bottom head. They should also have a regular medium-strength weed guard or cable. The ideal multi-purpose jigs are casting jigs, which you can fish with or without a rattle. An excellent example of it is craws, creatures, and grubs that have perfect casting jig trailers.
3.Flipping Jig Fishing
Flipping jigs are a popular option to go through the most massive wood or brush and come out unscathed. It should be 3/8 to 1 ounce for flipping jigs and have a stout, heavy-gauge hook. Anything lightweight, ideally with a recessed line attachment, should be the perfect head shape.
The weed guard should also be a little firmer than other forms of the jig on a flipping jig since it has to keep the jig from hanging up. Rattles are also a significant advantage when flipping a jig. Chunks, crawls, and monsters are the best flipping jig trailers.
4.Grass Jig Fishing
Grass jigs come in sizes from 1⁄4 ounce up to 1 1⁄2 ounce and have a conical head near the top with a line tie almost always. This size enables them, without gathering grass, to properly penetrate the grass. You can also fish grass jigs on heavy tackle, so a stout, you also need a heavy wire hook. Moreover, grass jig trailers should be lightweight and not have plenty of appendages on the grass to snag.
5.Football Jig Fishing
Meant for dragging along rocky bottoms, a football jigs pigskin-shaped head allows it to roll over rock and rubble without falling into the cracks. The ideal head weight for football jigs ranges from 3/8 to 1 ounce, and they should have a fuller skirt and a sharp wide gap hook.
Weed guards are standard on football jigs, but many anglers also remove or trim them when fishing looser cover to ensure better hookups. The best trailers for football jigs are skirted grubs, twin-tailed grubs, craws, and full-size creature baits.
6.Finesse Jig Fishing
In areas with smaller fish, strong angler strain, and cold water, finesse jigs excel. They are usually 3/16 to 1⁄4 ounces and come with finesse skirts or spider cut skirts and a soft wire hook finesse. They should have ball-shaped or compact heads, and when combined with a little craw or creature bait, they can be lethal.
What Is The Ideal Size And Weight Of Jighead?
Like any bait selection, the size and weight or the jig that you want to use mainly on the conditions and species of fish you are going after. Jigs come in several sizes and weights, but they typically range from 1/8 oz to 1.0 oz. The general rule of thumb is to use the lightest possible jig, as you would want the line and any potential bites to have a sensitive feel.
You will want to feel any cover that you end up touching, as well as the bottom for when you drop or cast the jig initially. Then, why can’t you use a 1/8 oz or lighter jig at all times? Water depth, current, and wind are the principal factors at play here. You want the jig to be hard enough to reach the bottom, but the slower the fall gets typically, the better.
However, if you find currents that impact the fall or some strong wind and friction pull your line to sustain the jig, you can need something stronger to offset those variables, enabling the jig to fall to the bottom. When it hits, you’ll want to be able to sense, preferably creating some slack in the line upon contact.
Understanding When To Use Texas Rig
Texas rigs will give you higher chances of catching fish species in vegetation. Throw it into more weedy areas with slimmer creature baits or Senko style stick baits attached, and you can have better success rates. As a result, texas rigs are an excellent option for slithering between aquatic vegetation. Let’s give you a better understanding of when you can use a Texas rig.
What Is Texas Rig?
The Texas rig is possibly the most common technique to rig a plastic bait and fishers’ most familiar. Fishing for one of the most productive bass lures, the plastic worm, is a fast and easy technique. You rig the worm on the hook, with the point of the hook pinned back into the worm’s body. As a result, you can make it weedless, and a bullet weight is essential on the line ahead of the hook.
The word Texas rig has come to mean the weedless technique of placing the bait on the hook in recent years, whether you use the weight or not. Many anglers speak of Texas rigging a Senko or other soft plastic stick baits. Moreover, Texas rigging allows them to fish around the wood and other hook-snagging covers for the drop shot.
There will be some variation of the essential Texas rig, which makes it a flexible technique. Everybody has a favorite hook-like straight shank, offset shank, round bend, bend of O’Shaugnessy, bend of Kahle, extra-wide gap, and the list go on and on.
Whatever hook you choose, when placed on a flat surface or suspended in the water, the final result should give the point of the hook stuck back into the worm’s body and the worm itself with a straight profile.
It will not look like a typical presentation to bass if the worm has a large hump or bulge where the point is inserted or ‘bunches up’ on the hook’s front. If this occurs, the number of bites you will get will decrease, and line twist will also increase as the worm continues to spin when recovered.
None of these situations are good. An offset shank, O’Shaugnessy bend, small gap round the bend, or extra-wide gap hook is are some of the most common baits for most anglers these days.
What Is The Ideal Size Of Texas Rig?
The worm’s size should decide the choice of hook size; the larger the worm, the larger the hook. The plastic bait used is mostly not a plastic worm, but something thicker, such as a Brush Hog or other large creature bait, a Senko, Fat Ika, or other thick and heavy flip bait that requires a giant hook. The weight of the line used is the other criterion when choosing the hook.
Heavy lines need heavy wire hooks because, before the line snaps, light wire hooks can straighten out, taking away the strong line’s advantage. The two best hooks on the market today are Gamakatsu and Owner. In multiple hook models, both of these manufacturers offer numerous wire gauges to match the line’s weight, right up to the super braid lines.
To decide the hook’s size that is best for each type of bait, position the bait flat along the shank of the hook and see how much space there is between the back of the bait and the hook point. Using a bigger hook or going to an extra-wide gap design if it does not look like many gaps. Downsize if the hook appears to overwhelm the bait you’re using.
Conclusion
While both jig fishing and Texas rig will give you a high success rate in fishing, it all boils down to getting the right option depending on the fishing conditions. Sometimes, you have to go with the fishing style that you’re most comfortable using. It’s because even if you use the most expensive jib and Texas rig, you won’t get your desired result if you are not comfortable with the baits that you are throwing into the water.
Familiarity with the fish species and choosing the right bait and lure will give you the best results in catching a fish. More importantly, you should know when, where, and how to use them once you throw it off under the water.