You can swim it, crawl it, hop it, drag it, dead stick it, pitch it, flip it, the sky is the limit. This is the type of bait that when you gain confidence fishing it, it can really help you fill out your bag in a tournament or get a kid hooked on fishing. It can take a little while to get the hang of fishing a jig, but if you spend some time fishing it, it will pay off.

With the spider jig you are trying to imitate either a crawdad or a baitfish, or both. These plastic baits are available in a multitude of patterns that can imitate a crawdad, shad, bluegill, perch, pretty much anything a bass would find in his lake or river. I have also had excellent luck fishing colors such as bright purple or chartreuse that don’t resemble forage but obviously press some buttons that get the bass to chew.

There are many ways to rig a spider jig. My favorite way to fish it is to rig it on a football head jig head. Make sure the plastic bait is threaded onto the lead head properly so the body sits straight and you are good to go. I fish the spider jig on heads weighing 1/4 to one ounce. I like to fish the smaller 4 inch baits in shad patterns on the lighter 1/4 and 3/8 ounce heads, and I usually fish the 5 inch baits in more traditional jig colors (black/blue, black, brown, brown/purple, brown/orange) on 3/8 to one ounce heads. I know a lot of emphasis is placed on the color of a lure, but I think an angler’s confidence in a certain color may have more to do with success. Some days it does seem like the bass really want a certain color. More times than not I’ve only been getting them on one of my favorite colors yet when I talk to three other guys that are only getting them on their favorite colors, they are all completely different. Concentrate on the presentation of the bait and then go from there.

The football head is ideal for fishing around rocks due to the shape of the head keeping it snag free, although if you are fishing the bait correctly and keeping it in contact with the bottom you will lose your share of jigs. If you are not feeling bottom contact then you should go to a heavier leadhead. A high quality fast tapered graphite rod and fluorocarbon line will only help you feel every pebble as you work the bait across the bottom, as well as the sometimes subtle bite. Some days the bass will try and rip your arms off when they hit the jig, but sometimes it’s a really mushy bite and hard to feel. If you feel anything weird or different, swing! Sometimes they’ll suck in the jig while swimming towards you and you’ll just notice that you can’t feel the bottom anymore. This part of jig fishing takes time until you know what’s going on (or think you know, then the fish will show you what’s up and keep you in line!).

The football head is a very effective tool to target prespawn bass staging in deeper water, often times on points. You’re going to want to fish the heavier lead heads to take advantage of these nice fish in 25-40+ feet of water. If you’re trying to fish too light of a bait then you’ll have no contact with the bottom and you’ll be lucky to get bit, and even luckier to stick that fish biting on a slack line. When the wind is blowing or you are fishing in current, you also have to fish that heavier jig. It can be a little intimidating throwing the one ounce jig head in freshwater when you are not used to it, but try it out and see what happens. You can also fish the heavier jigs in shallower water as a search bait. You can cast them a long way and retrieve them quickly while still keeping contact with the bottom. Some football heads come with a weed guard, but because I am throwing them mainly in rocky structure I don’t think the weed guard helps me and I prefer not to use it. When fishing near vegetation, that’s when I’ll fish the spider jig Texas rigged.

The Texas rig is another very versatile way to fish the spider jig. It’s a great way to fish the jig through grass and other vegetation. The point of the hook is imbedded in the body of the bait, so you can fish where the fish live without hanging up constantly. Dragging the bait or shaking it like you would a plastic worm are two of my favorite ways to fish with this rig. You can choose to either peg the weight right above the hook, particularly if you are flipping or pitching the jig in heavy cover, or just let it slide freely. You can also thread a glass rattle on the line between the hook and worm weight when shaking the bait to add a realistic click clack sound like a crawdad that can really be the deal maker some days. Tungsten and brass are the preferred material over lead for this application because they are harder and make more noise when hitting the glass bead. Although it will cost you some extra dough, spring for some tungsten bullet weights. They are about half the size of a similar weight lead sinker and are more sensitive due to the denseness of tungsten. It’s just another advantage you can take to give yourself a better feel of what’s going on down below.

I briefly touched on equipment. Fishing a jig on a parabolic fiberglass rod is not going to work out to your advantage. You want a stiff graphite rod with a sensitive tip to let you handle the jig, feel what’s going on, and really set the hook properly. I prefer bait casting rods to spinning rods for fishing a jig, although there are some spinning rods that would definitely be up to the task. I prefer seven foot rods and I fish the jigs on eight to twenty pound test fluorocarbon. I usually stick to twelve pound test and up, although when fishing the smaller jigs trying to imitate a shad in clear water I’ll go down to eight pound. Monofilament also works well, although it’s not as sensitive as flouro. Braid is also a viable option, particularly when flipping and pitching. Make sure, particularly when fishing around the rocky stuff, that you check your line for fraying often and retie if you even think the line may have suffered some abrasion. You don’t want to give the fish any type of advantage, especially when you stick that double digit prespawn momma. It may take a few extra seconds every time you retie, but what are you going to remember? Tying a few extra knots or the heartbreak of dumping a pig that you know you shouldn’t have lost? Take the time and retie often.

Give the spider jig a try. No matter what type of water you are fishing, no matter if you’re fishing for largemouth, smallies, or spots, or whatever month of the year it is you can catch them on it. Be creative. Try it on a Carolina rig. If you like to bed fish, a white spider jig can be very effective. Please practice catch and release, or if you are going to take some fish home for dinner then by all means respect your catch and do it right on the plate!

Chris Nietzel's passion is fishing and writing about it.

This article Copyright © 2010 Chris Nietzel.
Please write to him for permission to use this article for distribution in
company newsletters, for commercial usage or distribution to other sites.