(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Veteran Bass Pro Tour competitor Bobby Lane remembers his introduction to the bladed jig, at the hands of fellow pro Bryan Thrift on Lake Okeechobee. “When you come to Florida all you do is you flip and your throw worms,” Lane thought at the time – until Thrift beat him with a newfangled lure called a ChatterBait. The rest is history. But rather than go home with his tail between his legs, Lane adapted bladed jigs into his own arsenal, and he’s continued to do so.
“It doesn’t take a genius to fish these things,” he explained, which is good for the rest of us, as long as you follow certain basic rules. Most important, perhaps, is what sort of trailer you use to adapt to certain conditions.
Early in the season, Lane starts off with the Berkley PowerBait Grass Pig Jr. “It’s the perfect little swimbait,” he said, noting that it has a subtle tail action and thanks to the clamshell packaging, it stays straight. As the weather and the water warms up, he goes to the larger Grass Pig, which has a tail almost twice as hefty. He does, however, trim down the body with scissors. He wants the tail extending just an inch to an inch and a half behind the skirt to give it a compact package but maximum flare.
As the fish get increasingly active, he likes the “perfect little action” of Berkley’s Rock Craw, with it’s hard-flapping claws. “As this thing’s coming through the water, these little kickers are just getting it the whole time and it’s creating a lot of commotion in the water.”
He likes to mix his colors up, noting that “bluegills are always changing colors,” but sticks to general bladed jig colors like white, green pumpkin and black/blue. With the latter color, though, he might tip it with a junebug, green pumpkin or watermelon trailer to get the right triggering effect. If he’s in an area that he’s confident has fish, but he’s not getting bites, it’s either the color, the trailer or the retrieve. When they’re particularly finicky, he works diligently to match the hatch, and he’s particularly fond of Berkley’s HD colors which represent specific baitfish closely.
He pays careful attention to how and where he gets the initial strike: “That first bite is real crucial in fishing,” he explained. Fortunately, the bladed jig is good for more than just a chunk and wind retrieve. One of his favorites is to let the lure get momentarily hung in submerged aquatic vegetation like hydrilla and then pop it free. At other times, he’ll crawl it, yo-yo it, or even burn it. “Don’t always stick with one retrieve,” he cautioned.
If you want to learn some other aspects of Lane’s vibrating jig system, including his specific Abu Garcia tackle choices and why he likes an 8:1 gear ratio baitcasting reel, check out his full on-the-water video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
