Willow Grass Technique No. 1:
Coosa River Jig Swimming
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You might consider the technique of casting a jig and
winding it back to be “swimming a jig,” but canterbury
would disagree with you. to him and the rest of the coosa
River locals, that’s called “reeling a jig.”
swimming a jig requires a little more effort, but it’s his
no. 1 technique when fishing willow grass.
“When we swim a jig through willow grass on the coosa or
Kentucky lake or eufaula, we’re popping our rod and giving the
jig action as it comes through. it’ll sort of hang up on a stalk as
you reel it, and you can kind of shake it through. a lot of times
that shaking is what draws the majority of your strikes anyway.”
canterbury swims a jig with a 6.5:1 ardent apex Grand
reel and a 7-3 or 7-6 medium-heavy rod with a tip soft
enough that it doesn’t rip the hooks away from a fish when
using no-stretch 50- to 65-pound-test braided line.
he likes a flat trailer with “flapping” appendages, rather
than a swimbait or a big craw trailer with broad pincers. the
flapping action adds to the presentation.
“What you do is keep your left elbow [rod-hand side]
against your rib cage with your rod up at the 11 o’clock posi-
tion,” canterbury says. “You’re popping your rod and throw-
ing slack in your line as the bait is hopping through the water.
You want the nose of the bait hopping and darting up.”
concentrate on throwing slack to the bait, then reeling
up the slack to create the proper action. the jig should stay
within the top 6 inches of the water column, a nice benefit
being that you can see most of the bites.
canterbury casts at about a 30-degree angle to the
shoreline so he can keep the jig in the strike zone on the
outer edge of the grass.
“When you pull it up over some of that grass that’s laid
over sideways, about 70 percent of the time that’s when
you get your bites,” he adds.
Gear
The Jig: 1/4- or 3/8-ounce dirty Jigs swim Jig
Jig Colors: white, alabama bream, bluegill and
black/blue
Go-To Trailer: netBait Mini Kickin B or netBait
Kickin B chunk
Trailer Colors: white, green pumpkin, black/blue
Dirty Jigs Swim Jig
NetBait Kickin B Chunk
Dirty Jigs Swim Jig
NetBait Mini Kickin B
FLWFISHING.COM I JULY 2018