Northwest Fishing Reports

I want to give this technique a try in the rivers this season, and am curious what kind of rod you guys use to twitch jigs. I'd team up whatever rod I choose with my Shimano Citica 200e that I had originally bought to bass fish with....but it never really caught on with me. What do you guy use?

I use a 8'6 medium lamiglas norwest special bait caster but I don't twitch that many jigs only in the quilcene.

Cozmo4196 wrote:I want to give this technique a try in the rivers this season, and am curious what kind of rod you guys use to twitch jigs. I'd team up whatever rod I choose with my Shimano Citica 200e that I had originally bought to bass fish with....but it never really caught on with me. What do you guy use?

Jig twitchin' is about the only river fishing technique that I almost exclusively use a spinning setup for. It is just too difficult to cast a 1/4 oz. jig very far with a baitcaster. However, in all fairness, I have never gone out and specifically purchased a rod for the express purpose of twitching jigs, and I am sure if you invested in a lighter casting rod that was designed to toss jigs in the 1/4 to 3/8 oz. size you could probably do okay with it. What price point are you looking at?

I use an Okuma SST ML 10'6" float rod

Brat Bonker wrote:I use a 8'6 medium lamiglas norwest special bait caster but I don't twitch that many jigs only in the quilcene.

You twitch jigs in the Quilcene? I thought I was the only one.

my wife tells me I do everything wrong, so.....

My preferred twitching rod is and old beat-up Fenwick Hooksetter with a modified handle - about 6 feet long - I think any rod with backbone and stiff yet sensitive tip will work for ya - pick the length that is most comfortable for you - you;ll be casting and reeling a lot.... i find it a lot easier to get small hops and have a little more control of my casts with a shorter rod - just my preference. It's real important to have some backbone in your rod - with good feel- "twitching" is 100% fishing by touch, unlike float or drift fishing where you need to see/feel whats happening "out there", you are controlling what is happening at the end of the line- (it's a whole different world) - in my opinion(see opening disclaimer), this is hard to do effectively with a long rod, soft tip, noodle rod, etc....
I use a spinning reel, 20 pound braid with a 3 foot hunk of 10-15 mono tied directly to the end and then 1/4 - 1/2 ounce jig- no swivels or other stuff to get snagged up.. this is about the only time I like to use (I know, this is so wrong....) weedless jigs - if you have old bass gear lying around, use it - no crime there - rubber shirted jigs with a worm (shorten worm to about 4-5 inches) can be absolute magic - all colors are good. Rubber worms rigged Texas style with a bullet weight work great when you have a lot of "twiggy" crap mixed into your target trash pile.
Cast into the nastiest trashiest pile of logs you can find in frog water and let your jig hit the bottom and sit there 3-4 seconds before your first hop..(if rocky bottom, don't linger-unless you really like re-rigging). most strikes seem to come on the fall (lighter, fluffier jigs ie feathers/hair) or within the first couple of hops. Strikes can be anywhere from outright savage to nothing - if you hop your jig and it just goes weightless, strike like you mean it. if nothing happens, fish your jig completely out of the pile before giving up on that cast - you never know whos watching from cover and thinking "it's getting away!"..... be aware that when you first sink the hook into that fish it is going to turn and make a beeline towards the narliest snag around (usually the one you have been so carefully avoided getting tangled up on)- so, just like with a big bass (or any fish in structure), forget the finesse for a couple of seconds....any fish of about 5+ lbs will have the upper hand for the first second or two- you need to move that fish a few feet as quickly as possible and get them out of the pile - this often means up and over or around logs (also, a good pile of trash holds more than one fish so get him outta there before the others catch on to what's happening)- once away from the pile you can lighten up your drag and enjoy the fight. about the only absolute I can throw out there is that if you are not occassionally losing jigs and/or fish to snags, you are not fishing deep enough in the trash and are missing a lot of opportunity.

SRM

NimmunDay wrote:

Brat Bonker wrote:I use a 8'6 medium lamiglas norwest special bait caster but I don't twitch that many jigs only in the quilcene.

You twitch jigs in the Quilcene? I thought I was the only one.

yeah occasionally normally I use eggs and/or beads but I will toss a spinner or jig out every once in a while the fish are moving.