Lake Guntersville Bass Fishing - Jigging Spoons in the Summer

Jigging for Bass

The heat of the summer can be your friend, if you choose the correct bass fishing presentation. When the bass are looking for oxygen, looking for cooler water or just suspending nothing duplicates the results of a jigging spoon. It is an irresistible bass bait that drops in front of a suspending summertime bass that they just cannot resist. Its back-and-forth movement just entices the biggest of bass and gets them active like nothing else in the heat of the summer. What makes it even better is it is a bait that even the most inexperienced fisherman can use and be successful with? You can present the bait with long casts or just drop it over the edge of the boat and just jig it up and down. Schools of largemouth bass cannot resist it, as it makes them compete and you benefit from their aggressive nature. I have seen it catch two at a time and cause great competition as bass follow it when you are retrieving your catch.

Jigging Spoons

There are a few key things you need to prepare for when bass fishing with jigging spoons. If you use the heavy 1 oz. spoons, they have big hooks and snag everything on the bottom and when you get one stuck into a stump, well it becomes a bottom decoration. The next thing to be prepared for is if you cast it hard and snap your cast it will break your line easily, so hook it up on braided line, so you have enough strength in the line to keep it from snapping off. Braid also gives you a fair chance of being able to pull the spoon off a snag on the bottom and retrieve it from hang-ups. Jigging spoons come in many shapes, sizes and weights, so have a variety of different styles available to use. There are many styles of spoons and picking the presentation that works best for you is just a matter of working through a few different styles until one of them works. They come in long ten-inch styles that drop and move back and forth like a meandering or wounded bass that gets the attention of suspending fish or short two- inch styles that just drop directly to the bottom and entice bottom feeding bass with snaps and quick movements.

Tackle for Jigging

Another key to using a jigging spoon is to fish it with a fast speed reel, like a 7:1:1 reel and rig it on at least a heavy rod where the tip strength aids the hook set when you are fishing it. Catching up to the drop speed of a heavy spoon requires a fast reel to catch up to the drop speed. It also allows you to be in position quickly to set the hook when needed in a retrieve. The key to catching largemouth bass on a jigging spoon is snapping the spoon off the bottom. When you do that the spoon falls quickly back down through the water column, yet meanders side to side to the bottom. This is when you generally get hit. Your reel and rod must support the hook set so rod strength and reel speed is especially important. Line strength can be extremely important to catching largemouth bass, as the spoon needs a sensitive yet strong tip with braided line to feel the bite and have the power to hook the fish quickly. I like to have about a three-foot fluorocarbon leader to hide the line from the bass, as braid can be highly visible in clear water and largemouth bass can be overly sensitive to the line when they are suspending. Remember there are generally two types of largemouth bass in the deep water, the suspending ones and the bottom huggers. I find that the bottom huggers are generally more apt to feed in the heat than the suspending bass. Many times though, suspended bass just cannot resist the sliding side to side movement of a spoon but bottom fish will be more consistent. Which ever presentation you choose or find that catches fish, jigging spoons are a great summertime bait!

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Captain Mike Gerry

Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service

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Email: bassguide@comcast.net

Call: 256 759 2270