Learning how to fish Lake George: How do you fish a hair jig?

Hair jig fishing has been around for decades, but has grown more recently in popularity especially because of people like Seth Feider. When I talk about a hair jig, I’m referring to a small marabou hair jig - usually something between 1/8oz and 1/4oz. I started to fish with a hair jig a couple of summers ago and the summer of 2019 really dialed in the bite on Lake George with this incredible presentation. I’m going to give you some of my secrets as it relates to how I use this presentation to light ‘em up on the Queen of American lakes. Here are my top 7 hair jig details:

  1. Size matters. The profile of these offerings is typically pretty compact. We are talking about a jig that uses a 1/0 mustad hook (I buy all of my jigheads from oldfartlures.com). The entire presentation is between 2 and 2.5”.

  2. Cadence matters. Most of the jigging technique with this presentation is subtle. I catch a lot of fish simply dead sticking the bait vertical. Other presentations involve a long cast and a very slow subtle retrieve. I don’t make big hops or aggressive moves with the jig. I do often try and quiver the bait in place by simply wiggling the tip of the rod.

  3. Rod and reel choice matters. Seth Feider helped design a rod with Daiwa that is off the charts for this presentation. It is a 7’6” ML (TAEL761MLMFS-AGS) and the length not only helps cast these tiny jigs a mile, but the rod is so sensitive that you can literally feel the fish breathe on it. You need a light sensitive tip because often the bite from a smallie on a hair jig is super subtle. I always tell my clients that if they feel anything out of the ordinary to set the hook - more on that…

  4. Electronics are key. I rely heavily on my Garmin 7610’s to mark fish. This past summer we also added the Panoptix Livescope into the mix and found this technology to be huge in our success. The reason high end electronics are important is because often we are targeting fish that are suspended. We like to keep the hair jigs slightly above them and again not overwork the baits. More often than not, if we spot a fish, we can get that fish to bite and there’s nothing more fun than catching the fish we’re marking on our electronics. With the Livescope, we often could play the video game because we are seeing things in real time. My son would work the fish up off the bottom, often getting them to come up 15 feet to hit a bait.

  5. Hair jigs work when the fish are fussy. When the bite is tough, the hair jig shines. It also works really well when the fish are active.

  6. The best colors to fish on Lake George are brown and brown. Seriously, I’ve tried other colors and my best color by far is brown. Why? I think when we are fishing a hair jig we are imitating sculpin and crawfish. Both of these forage tend to be more brown. Both tend to hover close to the bottom.

  7. When in doubt, rip it out! I mentioned earlier that the bite is subtle. At times it feels like a bluegill peeks your bait, often there is just an absence of weight. Your line goes slack or looks like it gets pushed up. Sometimes it’s even more strange than that - you just think something changed. Every one of those scenarios gets a major hook set and then you reel as fast as possible because almost every time the fish screams up off the bottom and jumps right in your face.

If you want to learn more about how the hair jig works, we’d be happy to show you! Book a trip with us for the summer of 2020 and experience this phenomenon for yourself.