Summer Time Jig Fishing is Different

There are many ways to fish a jig, but I do however think that the presentation of fishing a jig in the summer time heat is different than the cold of the winter. The biggest reason for the difference is the bass are more active in the summer especially when there is a current from TVA pulling water to generate power or the wind is creating movement. Bass are more lethargic in the winter and hence your presentation is generally slower.

The summer time however allows you to do many creative presentations fishing a jig, the presentation that has evolved as one of the best is called “stroking” a jig! Many years ago while fishing a tournament on Kentucky Lake, I was astounded by the fish we were catching while ripping the jig out from around the stumps. I certainly didn’t create this presentation but rather learned it from a co-angler in my boat. We would present the jig around stumps, let it drop to the bottom then rip it back to you with a sharp yet controlled movement. The bass would react to the jig when it was dropping back to the bottom; generally speaking it was a fast and furious hard thump and generally was big fish!

One of the things I use to do fishing a jig, was to soak the jig in soap or rub a soap bar all over the skirt, and then let it dry allowing the skirt to collect soap and hence form a spider type look while on the bottom. The jig skirt would become more buoyant from the soap and would float up like a spider web reaching out from all sides of the skirt. Today with the on- set of rubber skirts you can fish a jig with what has become known as a mop skirt, where the skirt strands are round and the rubber actually floats the strands out and up to form a large spider like look on the bottom. One of the things I have found while fishing a jig over time is to let your imagination go because there are many ways in the summer to create reaction bites with a jig!