# What artificial do you prefer for bottom jigs?



## B Man (Apr 16, 2013)

I've gotten hooked on jigs last season testing my novice skills on BSB & Florida Snapper.  Especially when that lone cobia comes cruising by it unexpectedly!   I stuck with with the traditional bucktail jigs last year but I'm looking to up the arsenal this year for AJ's, red snapper, grouper, bsb, you name it.

Name off your favorite jigs, type, color, weight, depth you prefer for that weight, and species you catch.  Pics are always a bonus for us guys that haven't gotten the chance to take the boat out the slip this year also.

Also don't forget to add how you work a certain jig for each species you target.


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## vonnick52 (Apr 16, 2013)

Diamond jigs catch the heck outta big grouper.


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## d-a (Apr 17, 2013)

Aside from diamond jigs, Grouper like most anything with some sort of glow in it bounced on the bottom. 










And they like big buck tail jigs, but look for ones with quality hooks.




Amberjacks like anything moving fast. I generally catch grouper and Aj's at the same locations. Bounce bottom for groupers and then rip it back for the Aj's







And an old picture of me with my personal best Aj. Notice how long the jig is. 




d-a


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## grouper throat (Apr 17, 2013)

I like the diamonds also. My best AJ came off one (47 lbs). 

bass pro use to make a plug that I liked, it was a bucktail jig that came in 1.5-2 oz that I liked to tip with squid. It came with a decent hook and a trailer hook. Rattle trap had a big saltwater one that was good for casting but the treble hooks were weird and didn't hold up well. They were easily replacable though without affecting the action too much.


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## B Man (Apr 18, 2013)

D-A,  you the man!   Some great pics

I was beginning to wonder if anyone jigged


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## ssiredfish (Apr 18, 2013)

Hook me up with some of those Red jigs brotha!!!!

I have used aliens and Lucanus jigs.  Both are amazingly effectively.  Just get larger ones if depending on your depth.  45-75', 6oz and 75'+ go with an 8oz.  Speed jigs will typically always get hit by something.  I use 6-8oz in those as well.  I work my speed jigs as fast as I can and VERY herky-jerky.  Reel handle goes down, foregrip comes up.  Reel handle comes up, foregrip goes down. Hands workin opposite of one another. Like I said as fast as you can then BAM!!!!


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## biggabuck (Apr 18, 2013)

Brandon when we going. Because you know im ready!!!  Dont jigg just put a Cigar down on 50 braid And hold on!!


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## B Man (Apr 18, 2013)

My boat is still here, waiting for the right conditions to head south for a little fishing and store the boat.  Heck I've already paid two months rent and still have my boat!!!  

June 8th-15th is a definite. I just booked the house!  Praying for good weather and calm seas     is that the same week you planned?


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## d-a (Apr 18, 2013)

B Man said:


> D-A,  you the man!   Some great pics
> 
> I was beginning to wonder if anyone jigged



That's about all I do, the red snapper out of Sgi are not as receptive to jigs as much as from destin west. I think it's due to different diet, but I have started catching a few more each year on jigs. I can remember when we only caught two in one year on jigs but a boat limit every day on bait.  

d-a


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## biggabuck (Apr 19, 2013)

You know it!!  Im planning on going sometime next month also. Just dont know when and then again in july early so i can fish Snapper and Grouper together finally. Im sitting on go just waiting for the weather to get right. Stay in touch.


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## redneck_billcollector (Apr 21, 2013)

d-a, I have had really good luck with the red and gold tune drift jigs for ARS and grouper.  You know how it is, the lure catches the angler more so than anything and the first time I used one I tore the snapper up...so now I am the proud owner of half a dozen in each size of tune drift in that color along with a number of other colors beyond the half a dozen in red and gold. I have done really good with jigs on the ledge out of PCB for cow snapper.

To the OP, any long thin jig fished back fast will catch more AJs than you would ever want to catch (along with the occasional king, spanish, bonita and agressive cow snapper)....I use a lot of imports (smiths, hots, etc...) but the benthos will do......be careful jigging is adictive....my jig bags alone weigh close to 50 or so pounds and it is always funny to see one of my fishing buddies reach down to grab one (they aren't big) and just about throw their shoulder out.....


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## redneck_billcollector (Apr 21, 2013)

biggabuck said:


> Brandon when we going. Because you know im ready!!!  Dont jigg just put a Cigar down on 50 braid And hold on!!



I constantly outfish the people I fish with with jigs while they are using dead and live bait, especially with AJs and cow snapper.  I am typically good for at least half the boat limit when there are 5 or 6 of us fishing and almost the total boat limit for AJs....but I normally release just about every one of the AJs unless they are wanting some. They are meat fishermen.....some are even starting to convert to jigs almost exclusively......they use my tackle though, they can't bring themselves to arm themselves with hots, jigging master, custom JPR and smith rods and stellas and saltigas or trinidad 40ns......I am a tackle ho like most jiggers.....


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## d-a (Apr 21, 2013)

redneck_billcollector said:


> d-a, I have had really good luck with the red and gold tune drift jigs for ARS and grouper.  You know how it is, the lure catches the angler more so than anything and the first time I used one I tore the snapper up...so now I am the proud owner of half a dozen in each size of tune drift in that color along with a number of other colors beyond the half a dozen in red and gold. I have done really good with jigs on the ledge out of PCB for cow snapper.
> 
> To the OP, any long thin jig fished back fast will catch more AJs than you would ever want to catch (along with the occasional king, spanish, bonita and agressive cow snapper)....I use a lot of imports (smiths, hots, etc...) but the benthos will do......be careful jigging is adictive....my jig bags alone weigh close to 50 or so pounds and it is always funny to see one of my fishing buddies reach down to grab one (they aren't big) and just about throw their shoulder out.....



The drift tune is one of my favorite jigs as well as the newer Y2 Jig. 

Most anything gold colored has worked well on groupers, I like pink for snappers. That's why the pink and gold is a good color combo for me anyways. 

One of my biggest snappers came of a 330g pink/gold drift tune. Ofcourse this was a little more west than Fl




d-a


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## redneck_billcollector (Apr 22, 2013)

d-a said:


> The drift tune is one of my favorite jigs as well as the newer Y2 Jig.
> 
> Most anything gold colored has worked well on groupers, I like pink for snappers. That's why the pink and gold is a good color combo for me anyways.
> 
> ...



Ya gots to love those tune drifts......it is ashame they are so hard to find for the non-jig fisherman in this part of the country.  Maybe when I retire I will open a shop specializing in jigging and popping in either Florida or over on the Alabama coast.


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## B Man (Apr 22, 2013)

Well I dropped a mint on some speed jigs, Bucktails, and gulp plastics to tip my Bucktails with and both of you are raving about one I don't have.....  guess I need to hit up tackle direct again


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## d-a (Apr 23, 2013)

B Man said:


> Well I dropped a mint on some speed jigs, Bucktails, and gulp plastics to tip my Bucktails with and both of you are raving about one I don't have.....  guess I need to hit up tackle direct again



You won't find it at tackle direct. For starting out I would recommend cheaper jigs. That way your more likely to fish them more often to gain the confidence to use them and not be concerned with kings cutting them off. 

d-a


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## redneck_billcollector (Apr 23, 2013)

I agree with d-a, what we do ain't cheap at all and is as addictive as crack.....it is a habit that just so happens to be great at catching fish.  It is for people who are tackle junkies.  The rods, the reels, the line are all specialized.  If you get into vertical jigging you start buying specialized rod, reels.....and specialized tackle bags.  I started out with trevally rods by shimano and quickly started to upgrade. (If you want I will give you a trevally, I don't even use them as backup rods now...I think I still have one around)  Not only are the rods high end, you start buying stellas and saltigas (there are some reels cheaper and I own some, but I have destroyed plenty too, high drag settings all the time tend to do that)....the conventional reels are only a wee bit cheaper, the trinny 40Ns are the conventional drag reels with acurate and jigging master reels with lever drags making up the upper end.

Alot of the tackle we buy is from over seas, there are a few specialty shops in the US but all of their stuff comes from overseas.  Jigging and popping is very popular in other parts of the world, it just hasn't really caught on here.

I know a number of people who do it for short periods with mainstream tackle....but you do need braided line and decent leader material tied dirrectly to the braided line, loop to loop is decent, but then you start learning knots, especially the P.E. knot so you start buying tools to tie knots, and that ain't cheap.  The reason I say for a short period is that when you start catching fish, especially AJs on every other drop you are going to need tackle that can hold up, that means high drags and tough LIGHT weight rods and you will find short rods are better....I love a parabolic rod (one that bends down into the handle) it makes the fighting bearable....it gets expensive.  I know I sound like I am try to talk you out of it but I am not....I am just warning you, it is probably the most expensive form of fishing tackle wise other than big game fishing.....and we fish big game this way too.  Tuna, yellowfin, blackfin and bluefin, wahoo and yes, even marlin....check out some of the jigging and popping forums, they have alot of used good tackle for sale and decent prices if you are interested and you can get good deals on jigs from time to time also. 360tuna is a decent site for this.  Check out the videos people post....before long you will be wanting to go to Oman to fish...or at least N.C. and Louisianna. People who jig tend to get into popping also, once again, it ain't cheap.  My favorite AJ jig is a smith nagamasa which runs on up there and on a good AJ trip I will loose a couple....I have lost a couple of hundred dollars in jigs on one trip but caught a mess of nice wahoo who happened to be holding on the structure the AJ were....but because they were there I lost jigs....oh yeah, kings go out of their way for jigs too...kings equal lost jigs. There is a video on youtube of a guy d-a and I know from another site catching an AJ close to 130 lbs in NC jigging....they also caught plenty of 80lb plus AJs on their trip.


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