Spider Jig Basics
Maybe The Biggest Fish Of Your Life Is At The End Of Your Line!

By Margie Anderson

At almost every tournament in Arizona, no matter what time of year it is, one or more of the top finishers will state that he caught his fish on jigs.  Usually, this means a spider jig — a football-head jig. 

These jigs have a well-deserved reputation for catching big bass, and there are several ways to fish them to entice the lunkers into biting.  There aren’t a whole lot of people in Arizona who are better at fishing these lures than Dean Farrell. He credits much of his fishing success to his skill with a spider jig.

There are a lot of different brands of football head jigs in the tackle shops.  Some stores will have bulk generic jigs in bins, with the brand names sold in bags.

The most important part of the jig is the hook, and spending a little more on a good jig will make a big difference in your bite-to-boat ratio.  If you want to save money, use the cheap ones for pre-fishing and “fun” fishing, but tie on the good ones when you are serious about getting big fish in the boat. 

Check The Hooks

When you select a jig, examine the package to see what kind of hooks are used.  The hooks are usually pretty large, which means that they have to be very sharp and strong; it is imperative that you get quick penetration with a spider jig hook.  If the hook doesn’t go through on the first smack, you will lose the fish.

Collar styles also vary among brands.  Some have rings on the collars and some have barbs.  Barbs hold the trailers and skirts pretty well, but softer baits may tear more easily, making you replace them more often. 

The rings are less destructive to soft baits, but stiffer plastics may slip off them more quickly.  Choose your style to accommodate your plastics, but make sure there is enough room on the collar to use both a skirt and a trailer (usually a grub) unless you plan to use only one-piece plastics on your jigs. 

You can also get painted heads, but since spider jigs spend most of their time crashing into things, the paint usually doesn’t last long unless you go with the high-dollar brands like Picassa and Tru-Tungsten.

Equipment Important

For jig fishing, your choice of equipment is extremely important, says Farrell.  You need a good strong rod with plenty of backbone, preferably 6 feet long or more.  The rod needs to be able to whip the line up hard and fast enough to slam the hook through the bony mouth of a big bass, and long enough that swinging it one way or another will keep the line tight while you fight him in. 

Farrell uses a 7-foot jig — pig rod.  A long handle on the rod is nice because you can rest it against your body while you hold on in front of the reel, and it gives you extra leverage.

A fast reel is a necessity.  Once you set the hook, you need to keep that line tight.  A big football-head jig is a considerable chunk of metal. 

If you give a fish any slack, he can throw the hook easily because the weight of the head helps him.  A fast reel will let you keep up with him.

Your line is important, too. Farrell uses 14- to 17-pound-test line, and many anglers go even heavier.  A good strong, clear mono is best, and since you’ll be crashing the jig around in rocks and trees, you need to remember to re-tie often. 

If you stretch the line out by pulling on a snagged jig, you may need to remove quite a bit of it, since stretching the line weakens it.  It’s better to just go back and get right over a snagged one; it usually comes free with just a couple of snaps once you get situated correctly. 

Some anglers like fluorocarbon or braid because no-stretch lines really smack the hook immediately, making for better hooksets.  Just make sure you choose and tie your knots wisely with either of these lines — fluorocarbon has a tendency to break, and braid can slip.  Since jig fishing is a big-fish tactic, you want to be extra careful.

One Tonner Does The Job

Most of Farrell’s jig fishing is done at depths over 15 feet, so he usually chooses a heavy jig — 5/8 ounce or 1 ounce.  The 1-ounce jig (called a “one tonner”) is great for deep water.  It falls fast and kicks up a lot of mud on the bottom, like a crawdad. 

You can drag it, hop it, bounce it down bluffs, or swim it.  Lighter jigs fall more slowly, however, and this can trigger more bites in colder water.

You can cast a one tonner a long way.  Once you make the cast, says Farrell, leave the reel in free spool and allow line to peel off freely until the jig hits bottom.  Watch the line!  Often big bass will take the lure while it is falling, so keep your eye out for twitches or sideways movement in the line.  When the jig hits bottom (you’ll see the line go slack), engage the reel and start working it. 

If you are fishing a bluff, give the rod a couple of up and down twitches — not much, just enough to make the jig hop a bit.  Keep the line taut so you can detect any differences in how the jig feels when you move it. 

If nothing happens, drag it to the edge and let it fall to the next ledge.  Then hop it again.  A fish may just take it while it is falling; so if the lure feels any different at all when you start to hop it, set the hook hard.

If it isn’t a fish, you haven’t lost anything; you just start over.  When you are letting a jig fall down a rock, make sure you give it enough slack to fall straight down. 

If you don’t, it will pendulum out away from the structure.  Keep it right in next to where the fish are likely to be lurking.

Smallmouth bass like a jig hopped a little, Farrell says.  He has a fairly basic assortment of skirts and twin-tail grubs that he uses in different combinations. 

Crawdad Colors Best

The main colors to have are crawdad colors (pumpkin and watermelon colors), shad (smoke/sparkle, white, smoke/glitter), and bluegill colors.  Smallmouth bass seem to go for brighter colors, so keep a few chartreuse skirts in your box as well.

Dragging a spider jig over rocks and submerged trees is one of the best ways to catch a big fish, says Farrell.  When you drag the jig, the key is to get contact with as much structure as you can.  After the lure hits bottom, engage the reel and get the line taut.  Keep the rod tip low — this will give you more room to swing when you detect a bite, and help you get a better hookset.

Farrell doesn’t just let the boat drag the jig; he says you’ll miss a lot of bites if you do that.  You need to become accustomed to the way the jig feels because any difference may mean a fish. Pull the jig along the bottom with the rod, then take up the slack.  When you start pulling again, if the jig feels heavier or has “disappeared,” set the hook.

When you are dragging the jig, the bass sometimes attack it viciously, smacking it hard and fast.  Other times they just pick it up softly, and all you feel is a sudden absence of weight.

Bass may smack the jig to kill it, like they do a crawdad, then come back and pick it up.  It takes practice to fish a football jig well — when you first start, you may miss a ton of fish. 

You’ve Been Bit

In fact, you may not even know you’ve been bit.  But, after a while, you will start to know what is happening to the lure by the feel, and this is when jig fishing really starts to pay off. 

Fishing a spider jig requires concentration.  It isn’t the lure to use when you are daydreaming or having a deep conversation with your partner, says Farrell. You need to pay attention to the lure and the line. 

He keeps his thumb and forefinger clamped loosely on the line just in front of the reel.  This helps him notice small changes that he might otherwise miss.  If you only catch the fish that give the jig a good hard bump, you are missing about 80 percent of the bites, he says.

With a one-tonner you can thump the bottom to make a lot of noise and draw attention to your bait.  Drop the jig straight down under the boat and once it hits bottom, raise and drop the rod tip about 6 inches to make the jig swim up a little then thump the bottom. 

This kicks up mud and makes quite a bit of noise.  “Crashing a jig” like this is an excellent way to get bass to come from a distance and grab your lure. 

Most of the time they grab it while it is swimming, says Farrell, so suddenly, instead of feeling a 1-ounce jig at the end of your line, you feel nothing.  This is the time to slam it to them.

Once you have a fish on, reel furiously to keep the line taut.  If you get the line good and tight, the bass will usually head for deep water, but if you ease up and give him slack, he’ll take advantage of it and head up to throw the hook. 

Keep the rod pointed in the same direction all the time — if you switch sides, it will put slack in the line.  Pull hard; you have strong line and a stout rod, so don’t let up. 

You may just find the biggest fish of your life at the end of your line!