Winter is my favorite time of the year to fish a football jig. You
can generally find fish ganged up on structure this time of year and
a football jig can be the most effective way to catch them. These deep
fish have seen a spoon or drop shot so many times that something new
is all you need to turn a fishless day into one you will never forget.
First, we will
discuss the kind of places fish will take to in the winter. The best
places to start are creek channels and ditches. The better ones usually
have some type of cover on them, such as rocks, brush piles or standing
timber along the edge. I start looking as shallow as 15 feet down
to 55 or 60 feet. Of course, you might find fish
at any depth this time of year depending on current weather conditions.
So I usually tie on 2 football jigs. I use a ½ oz. for the more
shallow water and a ¾ oz. for the deeper depths. For fishing
extremely deep water, I sometimes use a 1 oz. jig, and have actually
caught spots as deep as 85 feet with the 1 oz. jig.
You can also look
for other signs in these places that will make the day even more
productive. Look for channel bends, points, and large flats along
the ditches and channels. Some of my best places are ditches or channels
that bend around a point with chunk rock on it. The fish will move
up out of the channel and up on the point to feed. This creates a
good scenario for the football jig. Another thing to keep an
eye out for is bait. I constantly watch my graph to see if the bait
are balled up on the bottom.
Now, lets go over
how I fish a football jig. Most of the time when the water is cold,
the best way to fish it is just drag it slowly until you hit something.
Then you might want to pause it or just lift your rod and hop it
very slowly. You also can just keep dragging it. Most of the time,
you don’t want to stroke it like you would in the
warmer months, but just hop it slowly. But keep an open mind and use
different retrieves because you never know which way the fish prefer
on any given day.
Next, lets discuss
color choices. With the endless colors available today, it can become
mind boggling. Find the 4 or 5 colors you
have the most confidence in and stick with those. In clear water,
I like Peanut Butter Smoke and Keowee Craw. I will throw these two
and see which the fish prefer. Any color green or brown should work
just fine. In stained or muddy water I generally use Green Pumpkin,
Texas Craw or Black & Blue. Again,
the fish may prefer one over another, so try a few different colors
before moving off of a spot. As far as trailers go, I like the Zoom
Twin Tail Fat Albert Grub or a Super Chunk. My favorite combination
is the Peanut Butter Smoke with a Cinnamon Purple or Green Pumpkin
Fat Albert Grub on it. The Peanut Butter and Jelly is also a good jig
color, but the smoke just gives the fish something different to look
at because everybody uses the PB&J. When I get around schools of
big fish I like to use a Zoom Brush Hog on the back of the jig to try
and eliminate the smaller fish from biting.
Benny
Rigney is the owner of a South Carolina
tackle company called KandyBass Custom Lures. They specialize in
custom lure painting and lure modification. They also have a custom
line of Touchdown Football Jigs. You can vist there web site
at www.kandybass.com
