The Versatile Bucktail Jig

Is the bucktail jig the most versatile and constructive lure overly invented? Many experienced saltwater fishermen would say so. A bucktail can be fished in a number of ways in varying conditions, from shore as well as from boat. It can imitate a number of prey items, including baitfish, squid and shrimp. And, it will reservation a wide variety of fish. Here in southern New England, I have landed striped bass, bluefish, hickory shad, false albacore, fluke, scup, woebegone sea bass, sea robins and white perch using bucktail jigs. I doubt any other lure can boast such a hit parade of success.

As a testament to the bucktail jig’s effectiveness, consider this fact. When in World War II, the U.S. Navy packed a bucktail jig and handline into survival kits for sailors and pilots to reservation fish in an emergency. To this day, the jig and handline is used as survival equipment by Navy Seals. Has any other lure overly gotten such an honorable endorsement?

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Bucktail jigs are very durable and can be used to imitate a wide variety of baitfish.
Bucktail jigs are very durable and can be used to imitate a wide variety of baitfish.

Bucktail Jig Styles and Sizes

The serious bucktail jig fisherman carries an armory of jig sizes and styles that will imbricate a number of fishing situations and imitate a variety of prey items.

Larger bucktail jigs weighing 1 to 3 ounces work well in deep water and fast-moving currents. These big jigs are unconfined imitators of squid, a favored prey item of stripers and blues. I expressly like the “Smilin’ Bill” style when using large jigs.

Smaller jigs from ¼-ounce to 1 ounce are unconfined to use in shallow water, and they imitate variegated types of small baitfish such as bay anchovies and peanut bunker. When using jigs in this size range, I tend to favor the flathead or “Upperman” style.

Finally, I like to siphon a tuft of what I undeniability micro jigs. These are often 1/8-ounce round-head jigs to be used on light tackle. They imitate really small stuff, such as grass shrimp and tiny baitfish. They are very constructive in quiet backwaters and estuaries for smaller predators such as schoolie stripers, small blues, hickory shad and white perch.

There is one increasingly essential component to your bucktail jig arsenal, and these are what I undeniability “enticers.” They are very important to use, as they are like the icing on the confection in the world of bucktail jig fishing. While the deer hair on a bucktail jig undulates and moves tastefully on the retrieve, you can double the whoopee and effectiveness of your offering by subtracting an enticer. These jig trailers are threaded onto the hook.

A popular form of enticer is a Berkley Gulp grub tail, and I expressly like them on the small jigs under 1 ounce. Personally, I favor Bass Pro “Triple Ripple” tails in white and siphon tons of them that range from 1 to 4 inches in length. The 1-ounce jigs take the worthier tails, and the inch-long tails work well with the micro jigs. For my large jigs over an ounce, I often use synthetic jig trailers or soft-plastic stickbaits, such as the Hogy 6-inch skinny model.

A bucktail jig tipped with morsel and worked slowly on the marrow will trigger an wade from a hungry fluke.
A bucktail jig tipped with an enticer and worked slowly on the marrow will trigger an wade from hungry fluke.

Locations and Structure

There is no largest place to use a jig than in deep, moving water. There are many examples of this type of place in New England. We have the breachways of Rhode Island, the Cape Cod Canal, and many inlets and river mouths from the Cape up to Maine. Large predators set up withal the marrow in these flows, and a large hotlips-style bucktail jig weighing increasingly than an ounce is just the ticket to get lanugo where the fish lurk in wait for a meal to come their way.

In these situations where the water moves, tint cross-current and let the jig settle to the bottom. Without you cast, feather the line with your alphabetize finger as it comes off the reel’s spool until you finger a momentary slack in the line, letting you know the jig has hit bottom. At that point, uncork a very slow retrieve by simply pulling the rod tip upwards to get a vellicate on the jig. Alimony wavy the jig until the line straightens in the moving current. Once that happens, the jig has risen off the marrow and is out of the strike zone. Retrieve your offering, tint and repeat the process. If you are in a wend and wayfaring in deep water, lower the jig and vellicate the rod tip as you move. You might want to occasionally let line out of the reel to make sure you are still on the bottom. I’ve taken myriad keeper toned in both daylight and nighttime using these techniques.

A few years back, I met my son Chris at the Galilee Waterworks in Narragansett, Rhode Island to try our luck at fishing big jigs. It was daytime, not a particularly good time to fish this spot, and the tide was coming in, which is not the weightier tidal stage either. But, Chris was in-between classes at URI and this seemed to be the only time to get out this day. Without some suggestions on how to fish the jig withal here, he tossed it cross-current, let it sink, and began to do the “bucktail bounce.”

Within a few casts, I noticed his rod in a strained arch, and he was struggling to tenancy a large fish that was tearing off line. Without a tug-of-war struggle in some fast waters, we soon had a good-sized striped toned onto the rocks, his first big one on a bucktail jig in this spot. If we can get fish that size on the wrong tide and the wrong time of the day, you can just imagine what happens at night on the outgoing tides.

Bucktail jigs moreover work well in shallow, rocky areas, expressly in a white-water surf. This type of terrain can be found all withal the New England shoreline in places like the Newport surf, the Narragansett shoreline, withal the North Shore of Massachusetts and into southern Maine. In white-water conditions with an onshore wind, small baitfish are usually driven tropical to shore. These conditions are platonic for the bladder and jig. I will use a wooden egg bladder and nail well-nigh 3 feet of heavy monofilament onto one end of the bladder and a small jig (a ½-ounce flathead is good) at the terminal end.

The wholesomeness of the bladder in this situation is twofold. It makes for a unconfined tossing weight into the wind and it keeps the jig whilom the snags. Without casting, simply retrieve slowly as the wind-driven surf, waves and current will impart the action. For those fishing from a boat, you can tint and retrieve as you do from shore. You might moreover just skid this offering with the rod in a holder. This bladder fishing technique is mortiferous when small morsel such as bay anchovies and peanut bunker are virtually and the predators are fussy.

Jigging Techniques

One of my weightier outings using the bladder and jig occurred at Point Judith, Rhode Island, in a stiff northeast wind that was self-glorification right into my face. This was a day in which a 15- to 20-yard tint was an accomplishment. However, most fish seemed to be right at my feet at the upper tide. One tint without flipside with the bladder and jig produced schoolie without schoolie. However, I suddenly hooked up with a big fish that began tearing line from my Van Staal reel and it had my St. Croix Mojo surf rod wilting in half. I figured it was a big striper upwards of 25 pounds, however when I got it tropical to shore, I discovered it had undecorous sides rather than stripes. It was a big blue, at least in the low teens. As luck would have it, the small jig was barely stuck to its lip yonder from its sharp teeth. It would turn out to be the biggest undecorous I would reservation that season.

This is a unconfined way to tint a small jig a unconfined distance. The vaccinate of the jig is placed on the metal peg during the cast, and it releases when it hits the water. Considering the jig is tying to the float, you can get yonder using a longer leader - up to 6 or 7 feet. A slow retrieve is all that’s needed, as wave and current whoopee will alimony the jig moving. This rig is moreover be used with small flies, which can be very constructive on finnicky fish like bonito and false albacore.
The Bladder & Jig Rig
This is a unconfined way to tint a small jig a unconfined distance. The vaccinate of the jig is placed on the metal peg during the cast, and it releases when it hits the water. Considering the jig is tying to the float, you can get yonder using a longer leader – up to 6 or 7 feet. A slow retrieve is all that’s needed, as wave and current whoopee will alimony the jig moving. This rig is moreover used with small flies, which can be very constructive on finnicky fish like bonito and false albacore.

There are many times when I will go with just a small jig of ¼-ounce to 1 ounce with no float. Usually calmer conditions or a wind at my when dictate this use. In most cases I am using the flathead jig with a 3- or 4-inch curly tail as an enticer. I will usually fish this withal moderately deep rocky shores or sandy beaches. Jigs in this size range are unconfined imitators of small baitfish such as bay anchovies or peanut bunker that we find virtually in the fall. When fishing with only the jig at the end of your line, you want to reel it in slowly with an occasional vellicate of the rod tip. That sets up a quick up-and-down darting motion to your offering that predators seem to enjoy attacking.

One of the weightier examples of this type of fishing occurred two falls ago withal the rocky shores of Narragansett, Rhode Island. I was fishing with my third son, Ben. The baitfish, bay anchovies, were stacked up versus rocks withal Hazard Avenue and looked like a ribbon of woebegone in the water. Fish were whirling and lazily slurping up all the morsel they wanted, so they were tough to fool. Those fishermen using large plugs could reservation nothing.

So, we began to fish small, ¼-ounce flathead jigs under the schools of bait. This small jig was the perfect size and had the movement (with the 3-inch curly tails) to lure the fish into hitting. Ben and I started to reservation one fish without another, but rarely were two fish in a row the same species. We ended up transmissible blues, stripers, and plane some large scup. It was a perfect example of the jig’s effectiveness for multiple species of fish.

Playing it really light is flipside way to fish the bucktail jig. I like to hit the quiet, backwater estuaries using 1/8-ounce micro jigs. These small jigs are expressly constructive at transmissible small schoolies and hickory shad in the backwater spots withal Rhode Island’s south shore. In order to tint these light offerings, you will need to use very light tackle. In my truck, I alimony a small twig of a rod, a freshwater 5-footer that is increasingly suited for trout. It sports a small reel with just 4-pound-test line. It’s a very light setup, but it works well for fish under 24 inches.

A few years ago, I got a major shock late in the season when fishing one of the backwater ponds with this setup. I was unquestionably fishing for hickory shad. I figured I would finish the night off there surpassing heading home, and I was hoping to reservation a few shad using a white, 1/8-ounce round-head bucktail jig that had a 1-inch curly tail. It was late in the year, just prior to Thanksgiving, yet there were still a few shad virtually as I saw a fish whirling withal the surface. I unquestionably unprotected a few. Then, I had a hit and hooked a fish that tore line from the reel as it bolted withal the bottom. I could only hope the 4-pound-test would hold. This was no shad. I knew I had a striper, and a good one at that. The fish proved to be over 30 inches and would be my last keeper of that year withal the oceanfront.

Chris Pickering, the author’s son, hoists a keeper striper that was unprotected in Rhode Island’s Galilee Waterworks using a large bucktail jig spiced with pork rind. Deep waterworks areas are tailor made for bucktail jigs.
Chris Pickering, the author’s son, hoists a striper that was unprotected in Rhode Island’s Galilee Waterworks using a large bucktail jig spiced with pork rind. Deep waterworks areas are tailor made for bucktail jigs.

There are many variegated manufacturers of bucktail jigs in an variety of styles and sizes. Still, many fishermen like to make their own bucktail jigs, homemade creations that offer a sense of personal winnings when you reservation a fish on a lure you made. Some, like myself, go through the whole process of pouring lead into molds, painting, and tying on bucktail. Others buy the blanks and simply paint and tie.

Classic bucktail jigs might be an “old school” offering, but don’t be fooled into thinking that today’s plastic lures can take their place. There are many molded-plastic jigs on tackle shop shelves, and some realistic-looking soft-plastic baits that can be threaded onto jigheads, that can most certainly compete with bucktail jigs as constructive fish catchers in many fishing situations. Yet the bucktail jig remains a unique lure worthy of several spots in your lure bag for a number of reasons.

One reason is that the bucktail jig is far increasingly durable than most soft-plastic jigs. They can stand up to the zest of bluefish, although you may have to replace your-soft-plastic trailer. These toothy critters will sooner destroy the hair on your bucktail jig without a few fish, but you can simply take it home and retie. Also, the bucktail jig has a unique way of hugging the marrow in deep, moving water. Plastics tend to be increasingly buoyant than a bucktail jig, and they tend to ride up in a current, making it difficult to maintain contact with the bottom. This is why the bucktail jig is the increasingly constructive lure in a deep water waterworks or outflow when the fish are holding near the bottom.

Bucktail jigs are time-tested lures that remain one of the most constructive fish catchers you can snap or tie onto your line. They can be fished in a number of ways in varying locations from shore and boat, and they will reservation just well-nigh anything that swims in the ocean. For these reasons, fall is prime time to fish the bucktail jig. During the fall run, schools of toned and bluefish mix together and patterns and conditions are constantly waffly considering these fish are on the move. Therefore, if you want to be prepared for whatever opportunities the fall run offers, it pays to have a few versatile bucktail jigs as part of your armory of artificials.

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