Winter selection – pick the right jig

One of my favourite lures to fish with is a jig. I will fish with a jig whenever I can, from spring all the way through the season to the next spring. But, there is a secret to fishing successfully with a jig throughout the year. You need to pick the right jig to suit the season, and dress it accordingly.
When it is cold and the water temperature is in the low teens, bass are not very active, their metabolism is slow and they only need to eat occasionally, perhaps once or twice every 14 days. The same goes for their prey. This means that a fast moving bait, with lots of
action, will seem a little odd in the water at this time of the year.  You need to fish SLOWLY, dragging your bait on the bottom, SLOWLY, in natural colours, SLOWLY, with a trailer with little or no action, again, SLOWLY being the key word.
Bass like vertical breaks during the winter.  What is a vertical break, you may ask? Any kind of structure that rises or drops steeply in relation to the bottom of the water, i.e. ledges, bluff/cliff walls, river channel edges, bridge pilings, standing timber, etc.
Jigs are ideal to use when fishing vertical structure.  I like to use a 3/4-ounce football head jig in deep, open water, where it can easily be fished 30- to 50-foot (9 – 15 m) deep, and a lighter 3/8-ounce jig around brush or rock, up to 20-foot (6 m). Fish these jigs around the steepest ledges and drop-offs you can find.  Bass will often bite the jig at the top of the ledge, but sometimes they will suspend somewhere along the vertical break, and bite the jig as it falls to the bottom of the ledge.
When the water is cold, the fall-rate of the jig is critical.  When bass are in-active you want that jig to fall down slower past the strike-zone, but you also need a jig that is heavy enough to get down deep without wasting too much time. The best way to influence the fall-rate is to experiment with different sized trailers. The larger the trailer on the back of the jig, the slower it will fall. However, if the trailer is too large, and you are fishing in 20- to 40-foot water, it may take too long to get the jig to the crucial depth. The key is to get the balance right and have a jig that will cut through the water but still have an enticing wiggle.
Do not bother to select a trailer with a lot of action. You do not need a trailer that will flap around and go all crazy because at this time of the year most of the bait will still be living a sedentary life, close to the bottom of the water column. Select something simple, like a YUM Wooly Bug or a Craw Papi.
My favourite jig skirt colours are brown and/or green pumpkin, with trailers that vary between black/blue, green pumpkin, peanut butter and jelly or watermelonseed, depending on the depth and water clarity at the time.
Most of the time I will also tip the very end of the trailer with either chartreuse or orange Spike-It dye to accentuate or give a little contrast to the end of the trailer. However, do not overdo it with the dye! Never dip more than 5mm of the tip of the trailer!
Enjoy your winter jig fishing!