Stan Fagerstrom
12-04-2001, 02:01 PM
Winning Oregon Bass Pro Shares
His Thoughts On Jig Fishing
By Stan Fagerstrom
I watched the big guy in the bow of the boat unpin his jig from the mug of the 4-pound largemouth he had just boated.
He held the fish up for me to get a better look. “Just like I told you,” he grinned, “get your jig in there where it needs to be properly and you’re going to catch fish.”
My friend Rick Bozman, of Florence, Oregon, is a man of strong opinions. I enjoy debating some of the stands he takes with him. How to fish a jig isn’t one of them. If you’ve been involved much in Pacific Northwest professional bass fishing, you know why I won’t. Rick is a consistent winner in tournament competition in the Pacific Northwest. The jig is one of his primary weapons. Few anglers in the Northwest United States do a better job with it than he does.
Rick and I spent a couple of days fishing bass in Central Oregon earlier this year. Being together for a couple of days gave me opportunity to probe his thinking with regard to jig fishing. I’d like to share some of his thoughts with readers of this column.
“Jigs have figured more in the tournament success I’ve had than any other lure,” Rick says. “That doesn’t surprise me because the primary food base in the waters I fish is the crawdad. No bass lure does a better job of representing a crawdad than a jig. This is especially true in the first four months of the year where there is no shade-based fishery.”
I think most bass fishermen would agree with this summation where jigs are concerned.
Yes, they are among the most effective of lures, but they are also among the most difficult to learn how to handle. I asked Rick to detail for me how he has been able to so consistently put fish in the boat with them.
“The first and most important consideration is presentation,” he says. “You’ve got to be able to put your jig where they are and that’s often right in the middle of the nastiest stuff around. You’ve got to get it in there under docks, trees, etc. And you’ve got to get it in there right.”
This much-experienced Oregon angler has an important tip to anyone wanting to polish their jig fishing. “Practice with the darn things,” he says, “it’s the key to learning how to handle them properly.”
Bozman says the very best bet for practice sessions is a swimming pool. “If you practice in a pool,” he says, “you’re able to work on achieving a quiet entry and then, and it’s even more important, you can observe what a jig does on the fall.”
The reason Rick stresses the importance of knowing what the jig is doing as it drops is because that’s where most hits come in jig fishing. “I get about 85 per cent of my hits as the jig falls,” he says. “You’ve got to really stay alert as the jig goes down. You need to develop your sense of feel and also learn to watch your line. I’ve seen lots of fishermen who had hits as their jig fell, but they didn’t recognize it in time. The fish was gone before they got around to setting the hook.”
Bozman doesn’t stick with any one technique for his jig presentation. He might flip, cast or pitch. “I’ll do whatever I have to do,” he says, “to get my lure in there where it has to be and in a fashion that gives me a chance to catch fish.”
Rick, a cracking good mechanic as well as an expert angler, makes his own jigs. “I like a jig where the eye comes out of the front as opposed to the top,” he says. “A jig so designed doesn’t pick up nearly as much crap as it’s worked in heavy cover.”
Rick is one of those fortunate guys who have the ability to build darn near anything. He began constructing his own jigs three decades ago. “I guess you could say I used the trial and error method in finally coming up with the right ones,” he laughs. “It’s a time consuming process to build them as I do, but it has paid off.”
Among other things, Rick gives his jigs a two-part epoxy finish. That way they don’t chips regardless of where he fishes them. “I don’t want my jigs to chip and expose the chrome metal beneath the paint,” he says. “A crawdad in its natural state sure doesn’t come with shades of chrome and I don’t want my jigs looking that way either. If they did it would destroy my confidence.”
Bozman maintains it’s the pulsation in the jig skirt and action of its trailer that entices bass to grab it. He trims the skirts he uses on his jigs at the head end down to about a half inch or less. He doesn’t favor a long skirt. He trims his skirts to the bend of the hook. He prefers having the trailer he is using out where the fish can see it instead of covered by the long skirt many jigs have. As far as skirt material is concerned, he much prefers rubber because he’s convinced it has better action and also does a better job of holding scent.
This well organized Oregon pro favors Number 3/0 and 4/0 hook sizes for jigs he uses in concert with pork rind trailers. He goes with a 5/0 hook if his trailer is a plastic grub. He builds his jigs on hooks with a standard gap.
It’s one thing to know the type of jig this Oregon expert favors, but another to know exactly how he puts it to work. Here’s his procedure: “Once I find appropriate cover,” he says, “I get my jig into it with the least possible surface disturbance. Then I let the jig fall straight down. If I don’t get bit on the way down, I let the jig settle for about 10 seconds. Then I give bounce it up 5 to 7-inches with a flip of my rod tip. If I still haven’t had a hit, I hop it forward along the bottom about 5 to 7-inches. I do this twice. If I still haven’t had a bump, I pick it up and make another cast to a different spot.”
As I’ve already mentioned, Rick will tell you he expects to get about 85 per cent of his hits as the lure drops. The next most likely time is after that first hop up from the bottom.
Rick grew up in California and has fished on a lot of water in the Golden State. In recent years most of his fishing has been in the Pacific Northwest. He lives smack on the shore of Siltcoos Lake on the central Oregon Coast. He can fish about 50 feet from his front porch. That probably helps him experience-wise, but wherever he’s hung his fishing hat over the years, he has caught more than his share of fish.
As I said in the beginning, ask Rick Bozman for an opinion and you’re going to get it with no ifs, ands, yes or buts. But when he talks about jigs---I shut up and listen. As a whole lot of largemouth have discovered to their dismay, here’s a man who really knows what to do with one of those bass busting baits.
http://www.ifish.net/sfrb.jpg
Rick Bozman took this dandy bass out of Oregon's Tenmile Lake.
Bozman credits his use of jigs for the
success he has enjoyed in Pacific Northwest professional bass fishing competition.
http://www.ifish.net/sfrb1.jpg
Here's a close up of one of the jigs
Rick Bozman uses so effectively
for largemouth bass.
His Thoughts On Jig Fishing
By Stan Fagerstrom
I watched the big guy in the bow of the boat unpin his jig from the mug of the 4-pound largemouth he had just boated.
He held the fish up for me to get a better look. “Just like I told you,” he grinned, “get your jig in there where it needs to be properly and you’re going to catch fish.”
My friend Rick Bozman, of Florence, Oregon, is a man of strong opinions. I enjoy debating some of the stands he takes with him. How to fish a jig isn’t one of them. If you’ve been involved much in Pacific Northwest professional bass fishing, you know why I won’t. Rick is a consistent winner in tournament competition in the Pacific Northwest. The jig is one of his primary weapons. Few anglers in the Northwest United States do a better job with it than he does.
Rick and I spent a couple of days fishing bass in Central Oregon earlier this year. Being together for a couple of days gave me opportunity to probe his thinking with regard to jig fishing. I’d like to share some of his thoughts with readers of this column.
“Jigs have figured more in the tournament success I’ve had than any other lure,” Rick says. “That doesn’t surprise me because the primary food base in the waters I fish is the crawdad. No bass lure does a better job of representing a crawdad than a jig. This is especially true in the first four months of the year where there is no shade-based fishery.”
I think most bass fishermen would agree with this summation where jigs are concerned.
Yes, they are among the most effective of lures, but they are also among the most difficult to learn how to handle. I asked Rick to detail for me how he has been able to so consistently put fish in the boat with them.
“The first and most important consideration is presentation,” he says. “You’ve got to be able to put your jig where they are and that’s often right in the middle of the nastiest stuff around. You’ve got to get it in there under docks, trees, etc. And you’ve got to get it in there right.”
This much-experienced Oregon angler has an important tip to anyone wanting to polish their jig fishing. “Practice with the darn things,” he says, “it’s the key to learning how to handle them properly.”
Bozman says the very best bet for practice sessions is a swimming pool. “If you practice in a pool,” he says, “you’re able to work on achieving a quiet entry and then, and it’s even more important, you can observe what a jig does on the fall.”
The reason Rick stresses the importance of knowing what the jig is doing as it drops is because that’s where most hits come in jig fishing. “I get about 85 per cent of my hits as the jig falls,” he says. “You’ve got to really stay alert as the jig goes down. You need to develop your sense of feel and also learn to watch your line. I’ve seen lots of fishermen who had hits as their jig fell, but they didn’t recognize it in time. The fish was gone before they got around to setting the hook.”
Bozman doesn’t stick with any one technique for his jig presentation. He might flip, cast or pitch. “I’ll do whatever I have to do,” he says, “to get my lure in there where it has to be and in a fashion that gives me a chance to catch fish.”
Rick, a cracking good mechanic as well as an expert angler, makes his own jigs. “I like a jig where the eye comes out of the front as opposed to the top,” he says. “A jig so designed doesn’t pick up nearly as much crap as it’s worked in heavy cover.”
Rick is one of those fortunate guys who have the ability to build darn near anything. He began constructing his own jigs three decades ago. “I guess you could say I used the trial and error method in finally coming up with the right ones,” he laughs. “It’s a time consuming process to build them as I do, but it has paid off.”
Among other things, Rick gives his jigs a two-part epoxy finish. That way they don’t chips regardless of where he fishes them. “I don’t want my jigs to chip and expose the chrome metal beneath the paint,” he says. “A crawdad in its natural state sure doesn’t come with shades of chrome and I don’t want my jigs looking that way either. If they did it would destroy my confidence.”
Bozman maintains it’s the pulsation in the jig skirt and action of its trailer that entices bass to grab it. He trims the skirts he uses on his jigs at the head end down to about a half inch or less. He doesn’t favor a long skirt. He trims his skirts to the bend of the hook. He prefers having the trailer he is using out where the fish can see it instead of covered by the long skirt many jigs have. As far as skirt material is concerned, he much prefers rubber because he’s convinced it has better action and also does a better job of holding scent.
This well organized Oregon pro favors Number 3/0 and 4/0 hook sizes for jigs he uses in concert with pork rind trailers. He goes with a 5/0 hook if his trailer is a plastic grub. He builds his jigs on hooks with a standard gap.
It’s one thing to know the type of jig this Oregon expert favors, but another to know exactly how he puts it to work. Here’s his procedure: “Once I find appropriate cover,” he says, “I get my jig into it with the least possible surface disturbance. Then I let the jig fall straight down. If I don’t get bit on the way down, I let the jig settle for about 10 seconds. Then I give bounce it up 5 to 7-inches with a flip of my rod tip. If I still haven’t had a hit, I hop it forward along the bottom about 5 to 7-inches. I do this twice. If I still haven’t had a bump, I pick it up and make another cast to a different spot.”
As I’ve already mentioned, Rick will tell you he expects to get about 85 per cent of his hits as the lure drops. The next most likely time is after that first hop up from the bottom.
Rick grew up in California and has fished on a lot of water in the Golden State. In recent years most of his fishing has been in the Pacific Northwest. He lives smack on the shore of Siltcoos Lake on the central Oregon Coast. He can fish about 50 feet from his front porch. That probably helps him experience-wise, but wherever he’s hung his fishing hat over the years, he has caught more than his share of fish.
As I said in the beginning, ask Rick Bozman for an opinion and you’re going to get it with no ifs, ands, yes or buts. But when he talks about jigs---I shut up and listen. As a whole lot of largemouth have discovered to their dismay, here’s a man who really knows what to do with one of those bass busting baits.
http://www.ifish.net/sfrb.jpg
Rick Bozman took this dandy bass out of Oregon's Tenmile Lake.
Bozman credits his use of jigs for the
success he has enjoyed in Pacific Northwest professional bass fishing competition.
http://www.ifish.net/sfrb1.jpg
Here's a close up of one of the jigs
Rick Bozman uses so effectively
for largemouth bass.