Left up : one and two tail grubs, under them two worms and the most under two tubes. On right from up a crayfish, a leech and two shads

Certainly the most commonly used jigs in Finland are grubs and shads, but also worms, tubes and special jigs include types that catch well in many fishing situations. When the pike are are very choosy, you can find the solution to your problem from for example lizard of frog imitation specials. In fly fishing the Leech-ties originally imitating leeches are appetizing to rainbow trouts in backwaters. Jigs also include morsels looking like leeches. Small tubes have yielded best when luring small lake perch. The worms are good for fishing all predators but the teeth of a pike will leave their distinctive marks on a long plastic worm.

In jig fishing the loss percentage is clearly higher than when you´re fishing with any of the traditional lures. There are two fundamental reasons for it. Firstly when fishing with the proper technique the jigs swim in most situations down by or at the bottom, so Mother Earth will often claim her own. Secondly jigs are made of plastic and aren´t thus guaranteed for life but can take only a certain amount of chewing depending on the species. A greedy long-nosed bonehead can chum a shad according to the principle: it´s gone once and for all. The popularity of jigs on the other side of the Atlantic is based on the cheap price of the lure. Unfortunately in Finland the prices are still relatively high. When I buy one grub at the price of a few marks, an American angler will get a whole bagful of twenty grubtails at the same cost. One may hope that since the selling of jigs is steadily rising the prices, too, will come down as the volume increases.

Grubs and tubes

The grubtail is surely the first impression for an angler not familiar with jigfishing. The grub consists of two parts. The forepart often knobby in different ways forms the body. When the body is covered with small knobs we talk about a Caterpillar jig. The tail itself is formed like a sickle, arched and flat. The tail is usually longer than the body, a strip slithering lively from the tiniest motion. Grubs come in one, two or even fourtailed versions. The size of the lure can affect the catching ability. The shape of a fourtailed grub is self evidently clearly superior in size to a onetailed grub of the same length when swimming. If the perch strike eagerly at for instance a three inch onetailed plastic grub, the same amount of strikes may be achieved by using a two inch grub with several tails, because the size of the lure as a morsel is then just about the same as that of a three inch onetail.

One of the most important factors arousing interest in fishes is the colour of the tail. Because the jigtail is a cheap device, the angler can have a much wider selection of colours in store than when it comes to wobbles costing ten times as much. Selecting the colour of the tail often presents a problem. Finding the striking colour is hard when the fish are eating badly. If you have two or three anglers in the boat, a sensible team will cooperate. Each angler will start with a tail of a different colour. Then you change the colour untill one of the team finds the striking colour. When the perch lurk in deep water you find the striking colour quickly using an illegal chain of jigs with three to five hooks. After you´ve found the striking colour it is best to switch back to legal jig fishing. When you build the chain you tie a lead downmost. Above the lead you tie fly hooks at twenty cm`s intervals in loop knots, a good hook is streamer 2-4x, sizes 4-8. To each hook you attach a different coloured grubtail. You let the boat drift with the wind and angle by the bottom with the chain. When you find the school of perch the anchor man has to be alert. After settting the anchor you can angle with the normal techniques using the colours in the chain that the perches accepted.

The storage problem of the jigs is connected with their colours. Plastic grubs have corrosive and dissolvent effects on each other. Grubs of the same colour get well along with each other but mixing e.g. red and white tails will turn them into a lump of pink stuff. The different coloured tails have to be kept in their separate compartments. The jigtails will also corrode several types of plastic in addition to their own pals. When you buy a box for keeping jigs you have to make sure the plastic will not be corroded by the jigs, else you might find a box with holes in it and a mostrous hump of jig slime in the bottom of your fishing bag. Certain boxes for keeping jigs are for instance gray polypropylen boxes made by Plano. The models 3600 and 3700 have compartments with adjustable partitions. When needed you can make new compartments for new colours.

Grubs and tubes are manufactured in several sizes. The length is given in inches in the American way. In the Finnish conditions small one inch grubs are well suitable for fishing perch and roach fish species in lakes. When fishing rapids small jigs often yield nobler fish like trout, grayling and even whitefish. The rainbow trouts are in their own category in both rapids and lakes. The colour scale of jigs is really extensive so it´s possible to find lures pleasing the eye of stationary rainbow trouts often infatuated to rather crude shades. Three to four inch tubes are suitable for fishing at sea. The lunker perch like their bass cousins on the other side of the Atlantic find a jig bouncing and slithering deliciously at the bottom very appetizing. A few years ago I used to swear on spinners as perch lures. I was even prepared to bet outrageously for my old trusted lures. Now I know I would´ve lost the bet in question and wet my eyes. Because my experiences in catching perch in the Archipelago Sea have proved that the grubs, and partly also tubes, are lure number one for lunker perch. The jig beats the wobbles, spinners and spoons as lures for perch especially when the fish are feeding down by the bottom. You can also offer small wobbles or spinners to those stripeshirts suspending or, better still, feeding on the surface.

In catching zanders during spring and in the early summer jigs have proved efficient for several years. When the brass-sides arrive at their wedding places, most often situated in areas where the depth of the water is less than two metres, it is time to change your trolling rods and wobbles to lighter tools suitable for jigging. From May onwards all the way to the middle of July you are able to catch these delicious phosphorus eyes with casting gear. Three to four inch grubs and shads are well functioning gatecrashers at the zander´s wedding. Jigging is effective even after spawning especially on the grooms that stay at the site in order to guard the fertilized eggs.

The basic catch of the angler, the pike, is often eager to taste a slithering grub. Also when fishing perch the loss percentage of lures is greatly increased by the greedy grinders whose sharply cutting teeth will snap the line by a slight turn of the pike´s head. When aiming to catch perch in waters where there are pike you can avoid frustration by using a thin tungsten leader. Still, all too often when the perch are choosy in grabbing the lure you have to tie the lure right to the end of the line without any snaps or leaders. The grubs best suitable for fishing pike range from four to six inches. Well known brands are Kalin´s Mogambo Grub and Mister Twister. Large shads have proved their special value in jigging pike. I will tell you more about them in part two of the Jig Fishing School.

Weighting

There are two schools when it comes to joining the jighead and the grubtail together. One says the sickle tail has to point upwards and the other swears on the productivity of the downward pointing tail. I, personally, haven´t found any difference on the productivity of the grub either way. But if the tail is slanting sideways the lure swims in an angle causing the hook to slip readily out of the sides of the fish's mouth.



Setting the hook:

1. Measure the length of the straight portion of the hook for the body of the jig.

2. Push the point of the hook in at the head of the tail.

3. Slip the hook out at the point you measured previously.

4. Check that the hook, body and tail are in a straight line.

5. Make a test run on the lure and if OK start angling.

This technique of hooking is valid also for tubetails. Another way to use a fixed lead-hook combination is, in cases the form of the jighead allows it, to push the lead part of the head all the way inside the tube. You can also weight a tubetail with a plummet body. The plummet is threaded on the line in front of the tail. A straight eyed hook with a shaft of suitable length is pushed in the head end and out the measured point just as when using a grub. You can also hide both the lead and the hook in the tube part of the tail. When doing this you have make a hole at the end of the tube for the line.

The jigheads

A quick count made through the American mail-order store Cabella´s catalogue gave the result of 24 different jigheads, and they are definitely not all the different models on the market. The form of the head affects the swimming of the lure and the way it sets itself when hitting the bottom. The jigging culture in the USA has progressed so far that differing shapes of jigheads all have their own names. An ordinary jig angler will do with a few basic models but it is still good to know the properties of the heads one uses. A jighead is thus not merely a weight but its form makes the jig the whole required in a given fishing situation.

Left row from up to down

A round head with a collar:
           - for grub-, shad- and tubetails
               - the barb of the collar stops the tail from sliding backwards
               - the basic model for most fishing situations
               - the swimming motion is made by the angler

Grave Digger:
           - for grubtails, especially multiple
           - the form gives the lure a wobblelike swimming motion
              - originally meant for the Grave Digger tails with two front wings added to the                 grubtail

Stand Up:
           - for grub- and shadtails
           - slow reeling slides the jig along the bottom with its tail wagging upwards

Kuusamo jighead
               - Fishes like a balance-jig, when a small 1-2 inches long grub is added

Right row from up to down

Erie:
            - for grubtails
            - Erie lift the to an almost vertical position at the bottom and slides well along                   the bottom
            - for zanders and perch when the fish are feeding all the way down at the                   bottom

Shad:
                - for shadtails
                - its arrowlike shape cleaves the water and vegetation well. It´s a natural                   continuation to a shad

Tip Up:
                - for grub-, tube- and shadtails
                - stands on the bottom on its head and lifts the tail up
                - good for catching zander and perch

Banana Head:
                - for grub-, tube- and shadtails
                - glides well among the vegetation
               - the weed protected model fishes well among among weeds and grasses

So the form of the jighead affects the swimming motions of the lure supposed to make the fish strike. The colour of the tail is often the decisive factor in arousing the interest of the fish. As it is, also the colour of the jighead may cause the final triggering. Especially zander and perch like red heads. The basic colours of jigheads, and the most often needed are lead, red, orange, yellow, green, brown and black. In addition to a normal jighead it is possible to use the weed protected type, which you can present to fish hiding among the bottom vegetation.

Fishing techniques for grubs and tubes

Productivity of both the grubs and the tubes is based on the fact that they can be set to swim at a requred depth. In bottom angling you get the bait right down by the bottom but using jigs you can make your fishing a lot more active. The biggest mistakes of a rookie jig angler are hurrying and fear of losing one´s lures. Reeling too fast brings the jig in through the middle water, while most of the fish are down by the bottom. Also the fear of losing the lure at the bottom will cause fussing. because both grubs and tubes react and move very sensitively you can take it very easy when making them swim.

The technique for jigging near the bottom is as follows:

1. After the cast you let the jig sink all the way to the bottom. Keep the rod level. The line will go slack as the jig reaches the bottom. When it´s dark or twilight a fluorescent line is an excellent indicator.

2. Lift the rod up in a 45 degree angle or even higher depending on the required length of the bounce

3. Lower the rod back to level and reel the slack in.

4. After the bounce wait for the jig to hit the bottom again..

5. Repeat these movements as many times as the line allows.

If the jig body is a type standing on the bottom on its head like Stand Up or Tip Up you can tighten the line after the jig hits the bottom and give the jig slight vibrations with the rod. Predators then get the impression of a shiner groping the bottom or some other delicious bug.

When fishing with gliding jigheads like the Walleye, Erie, Bullet or Banana Head you can join slow reeling along the bottom to the bouncing. A tasty morsel for perch, the eelpout, is a small fish grubbing about on the bottom, rather slithery in appearance. You can imitate it by using the gliding technique when using a grubtail in the colour Motor Oil or similar.

When fishing in the middle water and on the surface one still has to be patient and calm. Too quick a reeling will take the jig away from the fish. You can often raise a school of perch up under the boat or even right by the keel if you take time to jig for a moment just under the boat after reeling in each cast. When the perch are hungry and keen to strike you often see eager and obviously jealous schoolmates following a perch caught in the hook almost all the way to the surface. At such a situation there´s no reason to make a long cast butyou should carefully lower the jig back down towards the bottom. You´ll very propably get a strike before the jig reaches the bottom. The same way of jigging works well when fishing zander, especially if you have felt even the tiniest jerks when reeling the lure in.

The main rules in the fishing techniques of grubs and tubes are:

It is not forbidden to use your imagination

It is worthwhile to vary the techniques with which you swim the lure.

If the fish stop biting, change the colour of the tail and try to make the lure swim in a different  way

Be patient and calm!

In the second part of the Jig Fishing School:

Shads and worms and their fishing techniques.

An introduction to jig rigs. For instance: how and what you can fish using a floating jig body and jigtail.