Scott Petersen

With a tournament coming this weekend you are glued to the weather report all week wondering what you can expect. During practice the week before you found bass located on the weedflat and outside weed edge on an Outkast RT Jig with a chunk trailer. But the forecast when you are hit the water Saturday morning calls for 2 days of rain leading up to Saturday with cooler temps for the weekend.

On Saturday morning you get to your first spot and start to work the pattern you found the weekend before. After the first hour you are still looking for your first bite. Faced with these conditions what would your next move be? For me confident that the fish are still there I will stay the course but I will make a lure change and downsize to an Outkast Finesse Jig.

Looking at the situation at hand, not a whole lot has changed the bass are probably still located in the same area but will not take the bigger profile jig offering. For these conditions I downsize my offering and try an Outkast Finesse Jig, once I made the switch the bites started to come.

When and Where
Pick up any bass magazine today and you can see we are in the middle of a finesse craze in bass fishing so is this something that the tackle companies created to sell baits or is this craze something that works. I can tell you first hand that going finesse will get you bites when conditions are tough.

Whenever I am faced with fishing in cold front conditions or having to fish heavy pressured fisheries I will always opt to try a finesse jig tactic. Yes I agree there are times that you can power fish your way through a tournament but just as many times that you can use a power tactic there will be just as many times when you will have to downsize your offering and finesse yourself a few bites.

Do not be afraid to drop down in the size of your offering to get bites when the conditions are tough, there will be days this is the only presentation that will get you bites. You may be thinking well I am throwing a smaller bait all that I am going to catch me will be smaller bass. That is not true I have seen just as many big bass caught on smaller bait as I have on bigger baits.

My choice of jig when the bites get extra tough is the Outkast Finesse Jig. The Finesse Jig come is 2 different sized, 3/16oz and 5/16oz.

I will fish the Finesse Jig two different ways. I will either fish it on a baitcaster or I will opt to fish it on a spinning setup. For my baitcaster setup I will use a 7ft medium action rod, teamed with a matching reel, spooled with 10lb Sunline Sniper Fluorocarbon line. I will use this in heavier conditions where the weed may be a little thicker or in the times I may need a little more power.

In open water conditions I will opt to use a spinning setup and go with smaller line to trigger more bites. For this tactic I will use a 7ft medium action spinning setup, teamed with a matching spinning reel, spooled with 8lb Sunline Sniper Fluorocarbon line. If bites are still hard to come by I have in cases if fishing in open water even fished my finesse jig on 6lb test Fluorocarbon line. Some of you may be shaking your head but in real tough conditions this was the only way to get bites and I can tell you this it worked. Where I fished with 8lb I could go back through the same areas and trigger more bites when I switched to 6lb test line.

Tip Your Jigs
For every good jig you can enhance your jig with what you tip it with. Most of the time for my Outkast Finesse Jig I use four different trailers. 4” grub tails, 4” ring worms, 3” craws or 2.5” to 1.5” chunks are my main stays when it comes to trailers. Each will give the finesse jig a different fall rate and will make the jig act in different ways.  

One simple change I will use many times when fishing a finesse jig is to take a chunk and fish it on the jig two different ways. If the bass are semi aggressive I will put the chunk on my hook the regular way, once through the chunk, but if the bass are real finicky and looking for a slow moving bait, I will opt to thread the chunk onto my jig hook. This puts more on the chunk on the hook and will slow the fall of your jig.

This is critical in certain times especially with I am fishing in windy conditions instead of having to drop from a 5/16oz finesse jig to 3/16oz when the bite is tough and loose contact with the bait I can still stay with the 5/16oz finesse jig but change the way the chunk is rigged on the jig.

By threading the chunk onto the jig flat side down I can slow the fall of a 5/16oz jig down to be the same as a 3/16oz jig, but still maintain feel of the jig and trigger more bites. Keep this trick in the back of your minds for the next time you are faced with a tough bite and you are fishing in windy conditions.

So the next time you are faced with hitting the water during tough cold front conditions or you are heading to a body of water that has a lot of angling pressure. You may want to put away your power stick and pull out your finesse rods. This may be your best way to trigger a few bites and put more odds in your favor.

Create some memories please remember to practice CPR (Catch, Photo and Release). The future of fishing is in your hands. For more timely bass tips and tactics and to read more from Scott Petersen, visit his web site Fishing Insider