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Gary Parsons
A Walleye Tactic That's Big For Bass: Shallow Jigging Spoons

Tuesday, February 19, 2008



Professional walleye angler Gary Parsons has performed well on the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Tour (PWT), having just won 2007 PWT Angler of the Year (the only person to have won that title three times). But he also knows a thing or two about catching bass.

After all, walleye tactics like live bait and trolling – legal in walleye tournaments – will catch bass too, when presented in the right places under the right conditions.

Those techniques aren't allowed in professional bass tournaments, but other approaches developed for walleye can, with the proper adjustments, be used to target bass with good success.

Here he shares one of those tactics: working jigging spoons in shallow water.

Where to Use It

The slab jigging spoon is a heavy chunk of metal with a treble hook on the business end that's awesome for vertical jigging over suspended fish or specific deep isolated targets. Both bass fishermen and walleye anglers mine the depths this way when conditions are right. Usually that's going to be at least 10 to 20 feet deep, and sometimes as deep as 55 feet.

But Parsons has discovered an application for shallower water in the 5- to 10-foot range that employs a jigging spoon. "This is an especially deadly tactic on lakes and reservoirs where walleyes and bass have plenty of shallow water cover and structure like rocks, sparse weeds or a combination of the two," he said. "They can often be in shallow water chasing schools of small minnows. That’s when this presentation excels."

He says it works from early summer through fall in that kind of scattered cover.

"One other area that this technique works well on is when (the fish) relate to the edge of a flat just before it drops to deeper water," he added. "Work the spoon parallel to the edges, concentrating on any areas where there are irregularities such as small points, cups or any change that might hold fish."

How to Work It

"There’s a big difference between using jigging spoons for deep-water (fish) and the jigging spoon techniques used to target shallow-water fish," he noted. "When targeting shallow-water (fish), think horizontal, not vertical. This is a casting or pitching technique, where short accurate casts are used rather than vertical jigging actions.

"Make short casts with a jigging spoon and work the spoon back to the boat with a series of fairly aggressive hops, allowing the spoon to flutter down each time. Typical spoon sizes will range from 1/4- to 1/2-ounce. The heavier the spoon you use, the more aggressive the retrieve can be.

"Sometimes they want a subtle retrieve," he added, "but occasionally you’ll find the most aggressive biters by using a heavier spoon which has a faster fall on the hops."

If the bottom is loaded with snags or covered with vegetation, you can start twitching and jerking the spoon without letting it settle all the way to the bottom, to avoid fouling it.

Tackle Tips

Bass anglers might be most comfortable with a casting rod and reel, which will work for this technique, but Parsons likes his spinning gear. "I prefer a 7-foot, high-modulus graphite, medium-action spinning rod and a quality reel spooled with 10-pound test Berkley Trilene XT," he said. "This line is ideal for (shallow jigging), because it’s abrasion resistant and has excellent knot strength. That's important because you’re typically fishing (the spoon) in and around cover, and the action you’re putting on it can wear a knot down in a hurry."

Spoons are notorious for twisting line, and using a spinning rod can magnify the problem. You can use a snap-swivel combination to reduce twist, but sometimes that provides too much freedom of movement for the spoon and it can actually flip around and hook on your line when you work it vigorously.

"I like to connect my line to the spoon using a Berkley Ball Bearing Cross-Lok Snap in either a size #1 or #3, sized to match the spoon," he noted. "This allows the spoon (the right amount of) freedom of movement to get the best action."

Jigging spoons are available in a number of styles, sizes, and materials. The more expensive ones like the Hopkins Shorty are stainless steel or tungsten, while the mid-range ones are plated brass and the cheaper ones are plated lead. You can bend a lead one, like a Cordell CC Spoon, with your hands to get different actions from it. The tiny tungsten spoons can be deadly when you need a somewhat heavy spoon but are trying to match smaller forage.

Notable:

> Here's another tip he offers: When using a jig with a weedguard, he recommends "conditioning" the weedguard to improve your hooking percentage. By this he means to flex it several times before making your first cast, so it's a little less stiff.

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