VIDEO NOTES: Hair Jig Where - Shallower water situations, I typically focus 12ft or less. Best around shallow flats with rock where bass are cruising early season prespawn through the postspawn. Look for spawning flats and areas where bass can pull up to feed with sporadic isolated cover When - 53-70* late prespawn through postspawn. This is a relatively limited presentation for me. Some people utilize in cold water situations (ice out through spring) but I have other confidence techniques that I prefer. Also a big player for me around the mayfly hatch How - 2 approaches 1. Fan Casting - Cast and very slowly reel this bait with little rod movement or reel twitches. Useful when covering shallow flats or covering water where fish may be spawning or cruising 2. Specific target casts and bed fishing - Cast to visual targets or beds. Start by swimming the bait and then slowly drag/fish the bait through the area and pick it apart as needed Gear - Rod - 7’ - 7’6” ML Rod with Fast or Mod Fast Action You want a rod that will cast the hair jig well and load up, but is not too “whippy.” Also when setting the hook on baits with light hooks and line, softer power and action will let you keep fish pinned and manage the fish to the boat Reel - 5 or 6 speed gear ratio big 3000 or 4000 size spinning reel with 8-10lb braid to 5-8lb fluoro. Small diameter line casts better and comes off spool better. Run a top shot 30’ leader Bait - 1/16-1/8oz Hair jig (3/32oz is best). Favorite color is black but I’ll mix in brown during mayfly hatch. I have other colors but those are my favorite. Add a small piece of senko or soft plastic to hook to add weight to the bait for better castability. It doesn’t add action but helps with some bulk for casting
Ben these extended video notes are AWESOME and very beneficial. BTW this is how Matt and Tim write the video comments for Tactical Bassin. For SUPER SMART anglers such as you three extensive comments help encapsulate all of the great data that you share!
Good stuff. Story time. When I first moved to Mi from Ohio in 1979, I joined the local bass club. Our first tournament was in Indiana. I had a small aluminum home made bass boat. Using a black hair jig, I caught a huge smallie that took big fish and I finished 2nd in the tournament. The power of the bait transcends generations.
That’s so awesome man! Honestly until a few years ago, I didn’t know of a hair jig. It’s really interesting to see the power of an old school bait like that come back into the limelight like it did
Dude please do a video on how to rig a 3.5 inch salty solid keitech tube, I didn’t mean to buy solid ones but I did and I can’t find a ewg hook small enough to Texas rig it..
Great info, just watched again, could you please provide a link to that specific rod, sounds like exactly what I want....I also walleye fish some, so there’s another purpose for it...Thanks!
Can you use this during the end of summer-start of the fall when smallmouth are moving up into those shallow areas? Im out west where summer water temps are mid 80s and the fish are down deep; sometimes beyond 40'. water is currently dropping to about 74ish and will continue to drop
Yes, this is actually one of my favorite times of year to throw this approach because those fish get into that funk as they move shallow, but this is a great approach on those slick calm, tough days when the fish don't want to bite anything else
I love fishing hair jigs,and tying my own. No smallies yet on them, don’t have many places for smallies. But largemouth love them! I’ve done very well with them 1/8 and 1/4 ounce damiki, ball head, and ned head. I’ve caught them when the pond was 90% frozen. The largemouth were chewing a 1/4 ounce green pumpkin ball head with olive green marabou jig, slow reel on bottom over the green weeds. Also fishing it like a jig crawled on bottom works well.
This video covered a lot of the basics, but here is a deep dive on hair jigs that I recently did - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lM9lcbj-G8w.html
Ben thank you for the video. I make one change when tying these. take one extra bait keeper, clip off one end like you did at top. tie this to the bottom af shank near hook bend. this is a perfect keeper to prevent small soft plastic from coming off. I noticed on the jig you held up it had a small piece of senko for added weight under the maribou.
The hair jig huh?? Well if Ben says it works then it works, I'll give it a shot, thx again brother. hope things improve for you and your family, stay safe!
Couldn't have asked for a better presentation, Thanks so much. Is your hair jig fishing confined mostly to prespawn because of the higher certainty in where to find them, coupled with the relatively shallow water you intercept them at prior to them actually getting onto the beds? In certain smallmouth fisheries it seems dragging the hairigs slowly over areas known to hold them seems to be more the approach, rather than swimming the jig. I know the steady retrieve is more the norm in Great Lakes fisheries. Can't see why both wouldn't have good results in most smallmouth waters. Great Job, Ben! I've subscribed and will be looking through you other videos to help me learn more about tying the hair, as I am interested in tying my own jigs.
Hi Bruce. This can be an all year approach depending on retrieve, especially in moderate to shallow water areas when you want to cover high percentage areas. It also works great dragged slowly on the bottom but that’s something I really don’t talk too much about, but it’s deadly. The biggest key is having a high percentage area where you know they’re at or should be and using the hair to pick some out of there
Man I tried throwing these a day early spring and didnt have much luck on them. Now they are more aggressively feeding will have to give it a try again. I did use a piece of Berkley flat worm on the back like I seen in a previous vid. Hope all is well we have not talked in awhile . I know you guys are going through some tough times there so didnt want to bother you .Glad to hear every one is ok though.
awesome video, will be trying this out in my local creek here in south east Missouri. water is always crystal clear, 6 foot plus vis, has some nice small mouth bass in it but not monsters like you got up north, but loads of fun.
@@brnowak_fishing ok bc I have a friend who I thought tired marabou but he ties bucktail jigs he ties them rlly well how long would they last im guessing a while since there a lot stronger?
@@brnowak_fishing hey Ben getting close on the kayak just waiting on the Dakota lithium battery to get her been eyeballing that To walleye spinning rod you were talking about and really liked that goby bait you showed on instagram!
I’m going toTawas bay they’re usually spawning around this time of year up there should I be concerned with the floods I don’t fish smallmouth all that much I’m down near Utica Michigan any tips would be a helpful
Very timely Ben! I just caught two 5 lb smallies on my favorite lake in two different spawning pockets. They pretty much ignored everything BUT a black 1/4 ounce hair jig. 5.20 lbs and 5.71 lbs. SO MUCH FUN!!! I fished mine with some action mimic the insects in the water they were chasing/eating. Black was the only color they would pay attention to. They were eating emerging insects just below the water surface and feeding like crazy. Deadly bait!! Never fished a hair jig until this trip to my favorite lake. Now I will never leave home without one.
@@northstarcustombaits8803 I was "popping" the rod tip, never letting the hair jig touch bottom. I was fishing in less than 5 feet of water and in all weather conditions (flat calm and 10 mph winds with chop). The fish were not interested in a straight slow retrieve, I needed to impact some "action" to get them to react/bite, and when they did, hold on!! I was using your Hair Jig in Black 1/4 ounce and was absolutely hammering huge smallies!!
@@brnowak_fishing Ben, there were a ton of emerging insects on this body of water. It's a primary cold water fishery with a lot of salmon and lake trout and brook trout in it, but for some reason somewhere along the way smallmouth got introduced and they've taken off. It's a really deep clear cold water lake with a ton of smelts and crawfish as forage for the smallmouth. I honestly just think I happen to match the hatch And as a result I probably caught 40 fish Just fishing a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening for the last four or five days. The bugs have been insane with respect to almost driving you off the water as no insect repellent will touch them. I think our mosquitoes and black flies in Maine are taking some sort of steroid because they're absolutely ferocious and almost completely unfazed by insect repellent. Honestly it's these situations and these times of year where your channel is so helpful to my fishing success. The lakes and waters around me are so well suited for smallmouth, that that's predominantly what we chase from a fishing standpoint so to have a channel dedicated to the fish that we prefer to chase is just so very helpful. Thanks for all you do and And I look forward to future content.
@@northstarcustombaits8803 I think it's worth noting, that I don't believe these fish have ever seen a hair jig before. I used it as a follow-up bait to several fish that chased a swimbait or a spinnerbait towards the boat and then flipped the hair jig out past where they had turned off and I bet I caught nine out of the 10 fish that I saw chasing / following my bait. So I think part of the success that I had with the hair jig was that it's just not a bait they've seen much of and they attacked it anytime they could see it.
I agree with Big Mike, you should do a how to video on making them. I have the mold and I've made a few but would like to get your take on how it's done. Great video, thanks and know that the Michigan community is in our prayers. Go Blue & God bless
Thank you all! I used to tie them with the spine still on the feather, but I had issues with them not always swimming right - so now I pull the hair off and stack and tie. I’ve found you can be far more precise and really customize not only the way the jig looks, but how full or thin it is
Yeah, a marabou hair jig is a smaller jig as shown vs a bucktail which is typicall 4-5” of white hair on a 3/8-3/4 oz jig that you fish on/near bottom in deeper water