Trimming Jigs

When bass are lethargic -- whether from cold water, cold fronts or heat -- lower-profile lures are the rule. But what if you still need a heavy bait? Louisiana pro Sam Swett has an answer: trim your jig.

FLW Example

He uses this year's Wheeler FLW as an example. "They were drawing water every day and the lake actually was coming down," he says. "I was in a creek that I'd chosen because it had good laydowns that extended out into deeper water, and I knew that with the creek channel, no matter how much water they pulled, the fish would always have cover."

Swett noticed that the fish wanted to hold in about 5 feet of water, so he started out with a 1/4-ounce jig. But "the minute it hit the water, you'd see it moving. The current was taking it."

Obviously that was no good: the jig wouldn't get down to the fish. But Swett also needed a straight fall. "The fish wanted it dropped into the crevices of tree limbs," he said. "You had to work every inch of the cover -- the fish wouldn't swim to the bait.

"I made 20-30 casts to every treetop, if not more," he noted. "Then I'd come back a half-hour later, work it again and catch one. So I knew they weren't chasing the bait. It had to be dropped right on top of them to get a reaction strike."

Swett went up to 3/8-ounce and finally a 1/2-ounce jig. The 1/2-ounce size got the jig down, but the profile was too big. "The fish were lethargic and wanted a lower-profile jig," he says. The solution: he trimmed the skirt and the trailer. "Pinch the skirt with your fingers and trim it right by the hook," he said. "When you trim it, the scissors should actually be scraping the very bottom of the hook."

Swett "cut size of the jig practically in half." The result was a jig that was "bushier but smaller in profile."

He also trimmed the trailer, a Riverside Beavertail Chunk. "Cut about 1/2-inch off of it (measured) along the rib lines. That keeps same action, but makes it smaller."

Trimming the jig gave Swett the smaller profile he needed plus "it still had the weight needed to get it on the bottom and hold it there without drifting under logs and getting hung up."

"I use this technique frequently when it gets cold down in south Louisiana," he added. "I've used it on Grand Lake (Okla.) and other places too."

Other equipment notes:

> Rod -- 7 /12-foot All Star heavy-action Titanium flipping stick. "It has a very fast tip, which is important to feel the bite, yet the main body of the rod is stiff which you need when you flip heavy cover," Swett said.

> Reel -- High-speed, 6.3:1 Pflueger Trion reel. "Sometimes as the bait is falling, the only sign of a bite is a line twitch so you need a fast reel. If you feel for the bite, the fish already spit the bait. So a split second can make all the difference between a hookset and losing the fish."

> Line -- "It depends on the water clarity. Wheeler was fairly clear so I used 25-pound Silver Thread AN-40."