
Do Little, Do Nothing… But Do It With Finesse!
By: Mike Pehanich
If April is your favorite month to fish for bass, you are not alone!


Finesse jigs are lighter, thinner and less obtrusive than your standard bass jigs. Think jigs with sparse skirts in the 1/16-, 3/32-. 1/8- and 3/16-ounce range. Fit them with a compact but fairly buoyant trailer. The Uncle Josh Spinning Pork and Mini Pork trailers were my top trailer choices until Uncle Josh shuttered the pork shop. So now I prefer pork chunk lookalikes like the 2.5-inch Berkley PowerBait Power Chunk, 2.75-inch PowerBait
Using tackle scaled to these small baits is critical, too. Maybe you can get the job done with your standard baitcasting jigging rods, but you will likely fare better with a carefully selected spinning outfit. My favorite is a 7-foot, 4-inch medium power, fast action spinning rod with just a bit more backbone than you would expect in a rod of this type. I mate it with a 20 series spinning reel and light 10-pound test braid with the diameter of 4-pound monofilament.


About Mike Pehanich:
Mike Pehanich is a nationally known outdoor writer and owner of Small Waters Outdoors consulting and communications. He is a frequent contributor to Bassmaster magazine and Major League Fishing and has bylines in more than 20 outdoor publications including Fish & Fly, Great Lakes Angler, North American Fisherman, Cabela’s Outfitters Journal, In-Fisherman, Outdoor Life, Game & Fish, Wired2Fish, and Fishing Tackle Retailer among others. He is a former editor of the Redbone Journal and a frequent contributor to outdoor television and radio shows and the You Tube channel.