You Better Learn To Dance A Jig More About Stan

Stan's Archives

By Stan Fagerstrom

Part 5

Sometimes Jason Brooks does a little “swinging” along with his jigging.

I’m not writing about some dancing contest that you’ll find on national television next week. The swinging I have in mind is the name given to a procedure one of Washington State’s top steelhead anglers uses to put the Evergreen State’s fighting steelhead on the shore or in his boat.

If you’ve been reading this current column series you know the man I have in mind is Jason Brooks, of Puyallup. I wrote about Jason and his use of Mack’s Lure Rock Dancers several years ago. If you missed the details of the approach Jason calls swinging last time here’s another chance to learn.

Mack's Lure beautiful Rock Dancer jigs come in a variety of sizes and colors.

The swinging tactic Jason employs is when he’s using a jig with a float. He uses it mainly when he encounters the turbulent water often found in a river’s short runs or tailouts. “For swinging,” Jason says, “I use only 1/8th- ounce jigs. I also use a very long ‘noodle style’ rod for this purpose. My noodle rod is 10½-feet long. It’s rated for use with 2 to 6-pound test line.”

Jason says you can either tie your jig straight to your main line or do as he does for turbulent water. If he’s fishing that kind of water he attaches an Auquateko Invisaswivel to the end of his main line. After he does that he then attaches a clear 2-foot leader to the bottom of the swivel and ties his jig to the other end.

“I favor using a clear leader like Izorline’s XXX in 6-pound test,” Jason says.

Jason Brooks, an expert Washington State steelhead and salmon angler, uses a techinque he calls "Swinging" with his Rock Dancer jigs on some of the rivers he fishes.

It’s easy to see why Jason favors using that long noodle rod when he details what he does with it. “The long spinning rod allows me,” he says, “to cast light jigs out to the current seams and also lets me lift my jig off the bottom or from around bottom structure like boulders. This is a great way to fish a jig in rivers where you can actually see the fish you are after.”

If you’ve sat in on one or another of the seminars Jason has done on steelhead fishing you’ve probably heard him name a couple of Pacific Northwest Rivers that are ideal for this swinging technique. “The Wenatchee and Methow Rivers are both primary spots for this type of jig fishing,” he says.

Brooks says his swinging procedure is basically a modified technique patterned after the way fly fishermen use weighted flies or streamers. “The idea,” he says, “is to cast out to the current seam or deep run slot either straight out in front of you or slightly upstream depending on the current and then letting the jig get down almost to the bottom.”

Once he’s got his jig down where he wants it he lifts his rod tip up so he can control the jig’s position above the river bottom as it drifts downstream. “As the jig swings down with the current,” he explains, “you need to lower your rod tip and hold the rod so it points down river. This allows your jig to swing across where the fish are holding.”

Jason says this special procedure that he has worked out for jig fishing will likely be familiar to anglers who’ve done much steelheading with spoons. He says the two procedures are basically much the same.

Jason Brooks selects a lengthy noodle spinning rod and 6-pound leader while employing the "Swinging" technique he often uses for steelhead and salmon.

Like every other expert regardless of what kind of fishing is involved, this talented steelheader has his favorite colors in the Mack’s Lure Rock Dancers he uses. He says he favors a black & red jig because those shades tend to imitate some of the insects that are being flushed down river. He also uses a pink and white color with good results.

Should you use a bait of one kind or another along with the swinging style of jig fishing? Jason says no. “I don’t use bait when using this technique because I don’t want anything to interfere with the jig’s action. However, if it’s legal to do so I will put a lot of scent on the lure.”

Jason’s mention of scent brings up something that has surfaced from time to time all the way through these last few columns I’ve devoted to how the experts fish Rock Dancers.

“The reason I favor Rock Dancers over marabou style jigs,” he says, “is because you can add scent such as oils, jellies, etc., without hindering the jig’s action. Marabou dressed jigs get all stuck and gummed up if you apply scent and you can’t really clean it off once it’s on. You just can’t continue to fish with them when that happens.” This doesn’t happen, of course, where these beautiful Rock Dancer Jigs are concerned. Brooks says you can sock the scent to them all you want but it’s not going to hinder their fish-catching action.

I remember something else Jason told me he does with his Rock Dancers when his fishing is done for the day. “At the end of the day,” he says, “I toss my jigs into a plastic container I fill with river water and a small amount of Lemon Joy dish soap. This breaks down the oils in the scents I’ve used. When I get home the jigs are fairly free of scents I had put on but I go ahead and rinse them again in another bottle of river water.”

Few fishermen have spent more time on Pacific Northwest waters than the man pictured here. Bobby Loomis, the director of sales and marketing for Mack's Lure, maintains a jig has always been and still is one of the most effective lures you can use to catch predatory sports fish. Here he displays proof of what he's talking about.

Finally, Jason shared one other thought regarding jigs that many, including yours truly, had never thought about. It’s to never use tap water to wash your lures. “Tap water,” he says, “is treated with a small amount of chlorine and sometimes fluoride. Fish can smell in parts per billion and chorine in any amount will turn them off.”

There you have it. In these recent columns I’ve detailed what one of the Pacific Northwest’s top steelhead and salmon anglers does to catch fish with his Mack’s Lure Rock Dancer jigs. I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing what they’ve had to say as much as I have had in sharing it with you.

There’s no doubt about it. As the men who call the shots at Mack’s Lure have been saying since they added bucktail dressed Rock Dancer Jigs to their lure line---get one in front of darn near any predatory fish that swims and you just might have a rod bending fight on your hands before you get it back.

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