"Greatest Lure Ever"

By far the most versitile lure ever invented is the "Good Ole Jig".

Leadhead jigs have been around for a long long time. The best part of fishing with Jigs is depth control. For the most part, you can always find the bottom. A jig with the right weight can easily find bottom. Just throw it out, leave the bail open and when the line goes limp, you have bottom. From there you can work a jig a lot of ways, For wallye fishing you can tip a leadhead jig with a whole variety of plastics including minnow or crawler imitaions like the new Gulp Series from Berkley.
Many guys tip their jig with a trailer hook when fishing with live bait especially when fishing with minnows. Never bury the trailer hook into the back of the minnow. You just let it flow and trail along side, and it works very well.

Many fishermen tip their jigs with live bait. Minnows early in the season, and later when the water warms 1/2 peices of crawlers or a lively leech works real well.
The beauty of jig fishing, is you can cover water while drifting, pitch the jigs to shore or cover, you can anchor and throw light weight jigs, some guys like to work their jigs by "snap jigging". and some guys who really want to do the lazy mans way, use the jig in combination with a slip bobber, this is especially a good way to fish for crappies.

For bass guys and gals, jigs are one of the most deadly ways to fish large mouth and small mouth as well. I have seen more quailty +5lb bass caught on a "Jig and Pig" than any other lure. A Jig and Pig is a pretty simple set-up, variuous shaped jig heads from round to football to bullet shapes, with a plastic, rubber or bucktail skirt, many tip these jigs with plastic trailers such as crawfish, plastic worms, or twisters. This type of fishing usually requires a heavier set-up with medium to MH weight rod and 14-30lb line, since you are fishing heavier cover. Many guys fish with heavier jig all the way up to 1oz to fish the heavy cover such as millfoil. A solid rod in the Med - Med/heavy is recommended along wiht +10lb line.

The Jig Worm is another deadly bass bait. Smaller lighter weight jig head with wide gap hook, used with a plastic worm. Some of the hottest ones out there today are "shaky head jigs", the hook of the jig stands up a little higher and along with it the trailer worm. You can just thro it out to cover, let it sink to the bottom and instead of reeling back on a sterady retreive, just shake the jig a little bit as it lays on the bottom.

Fish with a jig and you'll become hooked on how easy and effective it can be. The only problem with jig fishing is you always seem to collect more and more jigs every year then you probably need, So many colors, shapes, trailers, and now jigs with rattles. Try it you'll like it