Jigging is the practice of

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

with a jig, a type of weighted

fishing lure A fishing lure is any of a broad category of inedible, artificial fishing baits designed to be " fake food" that mimic the appearances of prey and thus attract the attention of predatory fish when angling. Lures come in many shapes and designs t ...

. A jig consists of a heavy metal (typically

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

) sinker with an attached

fish hook A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called an angle (from Old English ''angol'' and Proto-Germanic ''*angulaz''), is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by i ...

that is usually obscured inside a soft lure or feather-like decorations. Jigs are intended to create a jerky, vertical "jumping" motion to attract fish, as opposed to other common lures like

swimbait Swimbaits or swimmers are a loosely defined class of fishing lures that are designed to primarily imitate the underwater swimming motions of baitfishes. History Swimbaits originated in the late 1980s as lures designed to imitate rainbow tr ...

spoon A spoon (, ) is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a table setting, place setting, it ...

s and

spinnerbait A spinnerbait or spinner is any one of a family of hybrid fishing lures that combines the designs of a swimbait with one or more spoon lure blades. Spinnerbaits get the name from the action of the metallic blades, which passively revolve around ...

s, which move through the water more or less horizontally. The jig is very versatile and can be used in both salt and fresh water. Many deeper water fish species are attracted to the lure, which has made it popular among anglers for years. The jigging technique mainly involves rapid lifting motions of a

fishing rod A fishing rod or fishing pole is a long, thin rod used by angling, anglers to fishing, catch fish by manipulating a fishing line, line ending in a fish hook, hook (formerly known as an ''angle'', hence the term "angling"). At its most basic ...

, which jerk the line exert a temporarily upward pull upon the sinking lure. When the target fish is enticed to swallow the lure, the angler then sets the hook to pierce and tether the fish in the mouth. Because the jigs are weighted, a harder-than-usual hookset is often needed to overcome the added weight and provide sufficient momentum to pierce the hook point into the fish mouth. Jigging gears are often involved with the luring of slow moving fish, most commonly during spawning periods. For successful jigging, the jigger needs to use a sensitive rod that is good for feeling a strike, and needs to stay in contact with the lure and get it to where the fish are. Most fish caught by jigs are on or near the bottom.

Advantages and disadvantages

Jigging is a low-cost, low-energy technique that does not necessarily require a bait and its catch can be captured live and hauled into the fishing vessel. This method of fishing can be applied locally as well as at commercial levels. However, this technique of fishing is labour intensive and time consuming. Jigging also requires technical knowledge of an area so as to determine when and where it can be used, and some jigging machines are relatively expensive for the average person to purchase.

Jighead

The weighted "head" of a jig, or jighead, can consist of many different shapes and colors along with different features. The simplest and most common is a round head, but others include fish head-shaped, coned-shaped, cylinder-shaped and hybrid varieties that resemble

s or

s. Most jigheads are integral to a large

, and are most commonly used with

soft plastic bait Soft plastic bait, commonly known as soft lure, soft plastics, plastic bait, worm lure or just worm, is any of a range of elastomer-based fishing lures termed so because of their flexible, flesh-like texture. Soft lures are available in a large r ...

s. The three most popular jighead shapes in

bass fishing Bass fishing is the recreational fishing activity, typically via rod-based angling, for various North American freshwater game fishes known collectively as '' black bass''.Henshall, James A. (Dr.), ''Book of the Black Bass'', Cincinnati, OH: R ...

are the flipping jighead, the football jighead, and the grass jighead. These come in many different weights usually ranging from for small freshwater

panfish The word panfish, also spelled pan-fish or pan fish, is an American English term describing any food fish, edible freshwater fish that usually do not outgrow the size of an average frying pan. It is also commonly used by recreational fishing, re ...

es (e.g. aji) to nearly for large saltwater

groundfish Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They oc ...

es, and can also be found in a wide array of colors and patterns. The jig hooks also vary, with variances on the hook type, color, angle or build material. Some jigheads even offer a spring

latch A latch or catch (called sneck in Northern England and Scotland) is a type of mechanical fastener that joins two or more objects or surfaces while allowing for their regular separation. A latch typically engages another piece of hardware on the ...

known as a ''weed guard'' to prevent unwanted snagging on

aquatic plant Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and Non-vascular plant, non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic ecosystem, aquatic environments (marine ecosystem, saltwater or freshwater ecosystem, freshwater ...

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. Pla ...

s and underwater structures by the hook point.

Jig body

There is a wide array of bodies for jigs. The most common is made out of

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Types of polyisoprene ...

silicone In Organosilicon chemistry, organosilicon and polymer chemistry, a silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer composed of repeating units of siloxane (, where R = Organyl group, organic group). They are typically colorless oils or elastomer, rubber ...

. These come in many shapes and can resemble a grub, frog, fish, paddle tail, lizard, or different insects. The colors of these can range from bright yellow to a transparent brown with silver and red flakes. Also, during summer months look at colors for the heat such as browns, or blue with black hair. Many others catch fish like smallmouth bass and largemouth bass. Bait such as minnows, leeches or night crawlers can also be used as jig bodies. Other, more traditional types use dyed or natural whitetail deer tail hair on the outside. Called a bucktail jig, they are widely used in the northern and midwestern United States, where many are still hand tied by anglers. Other types of materials are also used in constructing jig bodies, such as a Chenille wrap on the hook shaft, various feather hackle, hairs or other fur, marabou, Flashabou, and other materials. Construction is often similar to the process of

Fly tying Fly tying (also historically referred to in England as dressing flies) is the process of producing an artificial fly used by fly fishing Angling, anglers to catch fish. Fly tying is a manual process done by a single individual using hand tools an ...

. Some jigs are constructed identically to their artificial fly counterparts, one example a "

Wooly Bugger The Woolly Bugger is an artificial fly commonly categorized as a wet fly or streamer and is fished under the water surface. It is a popular and widely used pattern for both freshwater and saltwater game fish and is generally listed as one of the ...

" fly but tied on a jig head. Bodies can be either brightly colored or subdued. They are often designed to mimic local

prey fish Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish that feed on planktons (i.e. planktivores) and other small aquatic organisms (e.g. krill). They are in turn preyed upon by various predators including larger fish, seabird ...

or large local insects.

Notes

References

* Bjarnason, B A (1992)
Handlining and squid jigging.''

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition ...

training series, No 23. * Gabriel, Otto; Lange, Klaus; von Brandt, Andres; Dahm, Erdmann and Wendt, Thomas (2005)
''Fish Catching Methods of the World.''
Page 178. Blackwell Publishing. * Gilbert, Daniel L; Adelman, William J and Arnold, John M (1990)
''Squid as experimental animals.''
Page 21. Springer. * Gruenwald, Tom (1999)
''Salt Water Fishing Tactics.''
Page 21–23. Creative Publishing. * Sternberg, Dick
''The Ultimate Guide to Freshwater Fishing.''
Publishing Solutions, Page 82–84. * Sternberg, Dick
''The Ultimate Guide to Freshwater Fishing.''
Publishing Solutions, Page 258. * Oberrecht, Kenn . ''Angler's Guide to Jigs and Jigging'' Tulsa, OK: Winchester Press. .

External links