Alternative “New-Age” Cranking With Football Jigs

Nothing gets the bass fishing pundits going quite like a Bassmaster Elite Series tournament win, especially when it’s done in the most unconventional way.

Legendary US Pro Tommy Biffle, renowned for his flipping and pitching prowess, achieved this feat at the 2010 Bassmaster Elite Series Sooner Run event fished on Lake Fort Gibson, besting his closest competitor by more than 4kg while pioneering a technique termed “Bottom Buggin’”. 

Watching Biffle in action on Bassmaster’s online weigh-in show after the Sooner Run event, it was interesting to note his presentation, a completely unorthodox football style jig head with a pivoting wide gap hook (which a friend had made for him) to which he attached a pivoting wide gap hook and his signature Gambler Biffle Bug creature bait. In reality it’s not much different to what our top local anglers have been doing at rocky dams all over the country since the football jig craze began. Biffle’s primary area for the tournament was an offshore flat in the 4ft range that had become silted up over many years with an irregular bottom composition. The way he presented the Bottom Buggin’ rig is what was really intriguing: instead of casting the bait out and hopping it on the bottom, or slowly dragging it, he was fishing the rig exactly how you would present a crankbait knocking the bottom, almost burning it back to the boat. In an interview after the event with Dan O’Sullivan Biffle noted “I don’t pause the lure, I keep it moving, football jigs hang up, and I want this to keep rooting through the structure, crashing into rock to make bass react. Combined with the trailer I think they see it as a crawdad trying to get away.” His sponsors, Gambler, ecstatic with his win decided to commercially produce the football jig head with a pivoting hook naming it the “Biffle Hardhead”. 

Having seen first hand the effectiveness of a football head jig and Biffle’s new Bottom Buggin technique, it wasn’t until an outing to Zululand’s famed big bass venue -Goedertrow Dam (Lake Phobane) – before it all made perfect sense. The shores of Phobane are littered with shale and chunk rock, and swallow up conventional weighted baits by the thousands. The primary strategy to cover water effectively and not hang up was to throw shaky football head jigs and footballs jigs with craw trailers onto the banks and hop them back- which was okay until the wind picked up.

 Fishing an area known as the “Island” (an offshore table-top the that runs from 30ft and plateau’s at roughly 6-8ft) with the wind gusting, boat control became unmanageable but local knowledge indicated that when the wind picked up it was a prime area. Dropping two marker buoys, one on the shallow side and one on the back end of the island, the boat was positioned upwind and allowed to drift slowly across the target zone between the buoys. Our baits of choice for the exercise were 1/2oz shaky football head jigs combined with large craw-style baits cast off the deep end and then letting the boat drift with the wind over the area. This allowed us to keep the bait in continuous contact with the bottom, knocking into the rock at a constant speed. As the bait started knocking large rocks consecutively was when the bass were picking up the jig. The result was three fish over 3kg in a matter of minutes!

 Revisiting the area the next day, conditions where very different with slick conditions and a mirror-like surface over the entire dam. Fishing the jigs conventionally around isolated rock piles it wasn’t until “dead casts” were retrieved quickly on the bottom that fish began coming out, so realising what was happening casts were now targeted to the edges of the island, although the difference in bait presentation was increasing the weight of the football heads from 1/2oz to a full 1oz to keep the bait in the zone on a quicker retrieve. The bass seemed to be reacting to the presentation in exactly the same manner as the previous day, accounting for more quality bass. Although we experimented with fast moving baits such as crankbaits, the catch ratio was almost 10 to 1 when dredging the bottom with football style jigs.

Bottom Buggin Theory

The key to this technique is not the pivoting action of the hook and trailer, but rather the football style head. When fished slowly football heads tend to dig into crevices and holes in rocky areas, but when sped up on the retrieve they simply can’t be beaten for their snag-free deflection abilities while maintaining constant bottom contact. When most anglers hear the term “jig” it’s associated with a shallow cover or deep-water presentation, but Bottom Buggin’ however is far more versatile than most anglers imagine.

 When Tommy Biffle won his first event using Bottom Buggin’ as his primary technique he was targeting rocky flats in less than 4ft, but the technique is not limited to shallow water. For deep-water presentations, Bottom Buggin excels at dams with sheer cliff faces, ledges, tapering points and offshore flats, but it is important that the bait must be able to maintain contact with the bottom. Using this technique the bait is not meant to be swum, rather consider it as a “destruction derby” going on underneath the water with the jig head deflecting off hard cover to trigger a reaction bite.

Bottom Buggin can be classed as a power fishing technique to cover water quickly, but it can also be used as a great tool to reveal bottom composition and structural features in an area. When looking for areas from above the water search out transition banks where banks change from mud or sand to fine gravel or rock; on areas devoid of any solid targets fan casting is your best bet, taking note of sweet spots on the bottom where you are getting bites from for making repetitive casts to the same spot.        

Bite Detection:

Any angler who has ever fished a jig will testify to the solid thumps bass dish out when biting, but speed a jig up on the bottom and you get a completely different sensation. Detecting a bite when Bottom Buggin’ is all about line watching: as the bait comes crashing across the bottom and knocking into objects, there is often not a solid thump when bass inhale the bait, rather most hits will see the line flicking upward, or there will be a sensation of losing contact with the bait. In most cases, if you can no longer feel the bait, rear back and set the hook!

Depth Selection:

The key to depth presentation is solely based on the weight of the jig head being used, as bottom contact is essential.  

Trailer Selection:

Although Bottom Buggin’ is a crank and wind technique imparting a lot of action through deflection off the bottom, it is after all the bait which bass are attracted to. Being quite a compact bait presentation, you need to carefully consider the style of bait when bottom bugging, based on the mood of the fish rather than the actual size of the bait. All prey species found in our local waters, which relate to and feed in amongst rocky habitat, can be imitated crawfish (such as yabbies) and crabs, and baitfish such as ghielemientjies, dwarf and canary kurper species are the usual suspects. When it comes to colour selection there are no hard and fast rules, but laminated baits with dual colours and large glitter flakes seem to be the key and often imitate an array of prey species.   

Tackle:

One of the first considerations for this technique is rod power and action – a medium heavy powered rod with a fast action similar to spinnerbait and light jig rods will do the job. A soft tip action is however essential with sufficient backbone to set the hook properly. As this is a moving bait presentation, when bass pick the bait up you require a slight amount of “give” to the tip to allow the bass to suck the bait in and surge without pulling the bait out of the fish’s mouth.

Due to the bottom bouncing nature of the technique you can really upscale your line, and fluorocarbons in the 15- 20lb range will be sufficient, without it affecting the action of the bait, or spooking fish. You must however make sure the line you select can withstand high amounts of abrasion as the football head knocks rock and rubble. 

Tips:

Bottom Buggin’ vs Crankbaits

There may be an argument for throwing a crankbait in exactly the same area, but when bass key in on prey on the bottom you can present the bait in a subtle manner that doesn’t spook bass as easily. Controlling the speed of the bait is also a lot more versatile.