Twitching Jigs - Back To The Basics You Never Knew

Twitchin’ for Salmon is one of the most exciting, addictive, and effective techniques for catching these elusive fish. Matter of fact, this is the only technique I’m aware of that you can catch every fish in a particular hole. The more frenzied the fish become the easier they are to catch. Reason being, the lifelike action of these jigs as they are twitched represent escaping prey which is irresistible to fish. Without question this is our favorite way to target salmon!

COHO TWITCHING JIGS VS SALMON TWITCHING JIGS - As recently as 2020, if you told someone you were “Twitching for Chinook” people would assume you lost your mind or had a lot of time to kill because you were never going to catch anything. After all, these are Coho Twitching Jigs….right? Wrong!

Twitching jigs are deadly on Chinook, Coho, and even Chum salmon and Humpy. To avoid confusion, depending on the company you keep, Coho Twitching Jigs, Salmon Twitching Jigs, Chinook Twitchers, Twitch Jigs, Twitchers…. To be clear - These are all different names for the same jig. 

WHAT MAKES A GREAT TWITCHING JIG? Choosing the right twitching jig can be overwhelming for anyone new to this style of fishing. With countless options available from Facebook tiers to the latest sparkly, shockingly bright synthetic options at your local retailer, the choices are limitless. So leave the “Fishermen” catching jig styles and color combinations on the shelf and read on. 

TWITCHING JIG COLORS - DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE!

With over a million twitching jigs under our belt, there is one thing we know. Darker jig patterns dominate this arena. The rule-of-thumb for selecting twitching jig colors for salmon - “Any color will work as long as it’s purple.”  Adding to that, any combination of purple: purple and black, purple and blue, purple and pink, black…. are you noticing a trend? 

 Last month we were filming a TV show while Pro Trolling the lower Cowlitz river. An Ol’-Timer puttered into the hole we were fishing and anchored up 30 yards above the tail-out. Careful not to interfere with the troll lanes and bothering no one, he rigged up a purple and black twitching jig and commenced to putting on a clinic. In 4 hours, this guy hooked over 18 Chinook and Coho leaving the troll fleet awestruck and scratching their heads. We caught up with this gentleman at the ramp and struck up a conversation on the topic. Turns out this was a morning ritual for this guy going on 7 days in a row. His jig of choice? You guessed it, all purple Aero Twitching Jigs, along with purple and cerise, purple and black as his go-to patterns. But he did have some brighter Aero-Twitcher patterns for situations when the fish needed to see something different.

BEST TWITCHING JIG MONEY CAN BUY!

For 15 years, Hawken Fishing Aero-Twitchers have been the go-to for twitching jigs throughout the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Canada.  There isn’t a better built, stronger, more productive jig on the market.  The custom Gamakatsu 4x strong Beak Point twitching jig hooks, made exclusively for Hawken Fishing, are sticky sharp and WILL NOT bend out! The Grade #1 bunny fur is hand selected and dyed to our exact specs to ensure pure deep color and fur that come alive in the water. And no twitching jig would be complete without silicone legs. Our super soft customs printed silicone legs flutter in the water adding to the lifelike appearance of these amazing salmon twitching jigs. 

 Our next blog posts will cover Choosing The Right Twitch Rods, Line Options for Twitching, Techniques for Twitching Jigs,  and Best Places to Target and Catch Salmon.