Bass Jigs - What's More Critical? (Color, Presentation, Or Size)

[Mitch f]

After doing a lot of diving in the lakes, i have noticed that the bottom of the lake is pretty much covered with algea and what not, if you touch the bottom or a log it creates a big ca-motion and visibility goes to zero, so i think a bass sees that more than actual color, just a big disturbance in the water that gets them curious. And as far as rattles, i know a crawdad or a shad doesnt rattle but we like to take rocks and tap our aluminum tanks and the bass just come flying in to see what its all about,

Crawfish actually do rattle when they are in the back peddling mode, their claws clang together...tickling the lateral lines of the predators.

As for rattles, I tend to NOT use rattles, partly because so many anglers use them. I'd rather be a little less "in your face". The more stuff you have going on, sound, scent, wild colors, etc., the more likely that SOMETHING in all that stuff will turn a fish off instead of on. I like to keep it simple and limit the variables.

We had this discussion a while back about the Okeechobee bass being conditioned to lures. FishingWrench brought up a study conducted by the late great

Doug Hannon I think. The study showed the bass could remember a lure by an "acoustic footprint" and equate that lure to danger. Don't know how long their memory lasted but it adds credence to your statement about some variable turning off the fish. But I've also heard from more than one person about watching smallmouth while diving that when a lure bounces off the bottom it produces a debris cloud or a big "ca-motion" as aarchdale says. The divers witnessed smallmouth coming down to within a couple of inches of the lure and flaring their gills to taste the debris cloud without touching the lure at all. I can't imagine the fish would be turned off by a crawfish scent at that point. This behavior to me would indicate they are in a neutral feeding mode. So, having said that, I think scents will work more than not.

[Quillback]

I'm still not convinced scent makes any difference most of the time on jigs. Fished with folks who are using scent and never saw any significant difference in catch numbers. Except for catfish. I wish I could find a scent that caught more bass for me, I do try some out every once in a while, but still haven't found one that makes a difference. And how much scent does a craw put out? Compare that to the strong smell of the scents that are out there. I think most of the commercial scents out there are marketed for the human nose rather than the fish.

[Seth]

I throw a 1/4 or 5/16oz green lumpkin finesse jig most of the time. If the water is dingy, I will go to a 3/8oz jig with a bulkier skirt and trailer in black and chartreuse. I only like to use rattles when the water is dingy.

[Mitch f]

I'm still not convinced scent makes any difference most of the time on jigs. Fished with folks who are using scent and never saw any significant difference in catch numbers. Except for catfish. I wish I could find a scent that caught more bass for me, I do try some out every once in a while, but still haven't found one that makes a difference. And how much scent does a craw put out? Compare that to the strong smell of the scents that are out there. I think most of the commercial scents out there are marketed for the human nose rather than the fish.

I don't doubt that masking scent is just as important or even more important. Just take any jig out of the package and smell it.

Yesterday I was at Bullseye bait and tackle talking with the owner John. He said he was walleye fishing in Canada and sitting so close to another fisherman in the boat that they were almost bumping elbows. They were using live leeches for bait. The other guy was catching one after the other. John wasn't getting bit. John finally asked the guy to bait his leech on his hook for him and he started immediately catching walleyes. Then he noticed that the guy was using a cover scent on his hands, where Johns hands smelled like aftershave. Guess it made all the difference.

[Quillback]

Yeah but what if you don't use aftershave? I can see masking a scent, but it would seem to be smarter to not go fishing covered with some kind of aftershave. And you're talking live bait in your example also. And catching walleyes. I'm referring to jigs for bass. I want to believe adding scent to jigs can make a difference, but I just haven't seen it. There are trailers with built in scent, Strike King uses that coffee scent, I've used them and they work, so do Paca chunks with pork scent. So do Zoom Speed Craws with no scent, or I guess you could call them plastic scented. I am open minded on this and I'll undoubtedly try scents in my future bass fishing endeavors. But I just haven't seen a scent that makes a jig fish better. On a consistent basis.

[Mitch f]

Yeah but what if you don't use aftershave? I can see masking a scent, but it would seem to be smarter to not go fishing covered with some kind of aftershave. And you're talking live bait in your example also. And catching walleyes. I'm referring to jigs for bass. I want to believe adding scent to jigs can make a difference, but I just haven't seen it. There are trailers with built in scent, Strike King uses that coffee scent, I've used them and they work, so do Paca chunks with pork scent. So do Zoom Speed Craws with no scent, or I guess you could call them plastic scented. I am open minded on this and I'll undoubtedly try scents in my future bass fishing endeavors. But I just haven't seen a scent that makes a jig fish better. On a consistent basis.

I like the YUM scent or the Yamamoto Mega Strike Gel, although the YUM as trophy fisher pointed out seems to stain your baits red. But IMO , they will improve the number of bites you'll get in a day. Especially when fish are in a neutral or negative feeding mode. When they are aggressively feeding, almost anything works!

[Quillback]

I've got a tube of Megastrike, I fish a Megabug, which is a great bait for LM's at times. I've used the Megastrike gel to "refresh" a Megabug after I've fished it for a while, I don't know if it made a difference, but what the heck, I had the tube of gel. I've tried it on some other plastics, just didn't see a difference. I did recently buy a jar of smelly jelly craw scent, I'm going to try it, might go out tomorrow as a matter of fact and try it during the course of the day.

And to your point about trying it for neutral or lockjawed fish - I have tried scent in those conditions - out of desperation - haven't seen it make a difference. But those are my personal observations. I'm probably dead wrong.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I voted size and profile. In my opinion, color isn't all that important, and matching the supposed colors of the crawdads in the water you're fishing isn't all that important, either. Any piece of bass water in the Ozarks will have several species of crawdads, of different colors, year-round. I don't believe bass are turned off by the "wrong" color. As I've said here before, what I do, IF I'm trying to imitate something real that the bass will eat, is look at the color of the bottom where I'm fishing and pick out a color that comes close to matching it, since most bottom organisms, crawdads included, are colored to match their habitat.

I knew you were a politician!

[J-Doc]

I went to a power plant lake today and tested the scent factor. Must have thrown the fish off. I used a cover scent on a plastic worm and drop shot to active fish. No bites. Later in a completely different spot, the fish bite the same worm with the cover scent. Those fish were highly active.

More testing to come but I did t get a bite on the jig (again) using a craw cover scent. It's the KVD stick that you wipe on the baits, not a spray. Smells like leather conditioner to me, not a craw. Lol

[ollie]

I voted presentation. Considering all things equal if two guys are fishing the same rig normally one will out fish the other. Or at least that is what I have seen. I see that no one has voted color yet. That somewhat surprises me. All three things in the poll I thought had an overall effect on jig fishing. All three in my mind are important, but I think the overall presentation is what makes the difference.