How To Skip A Jig [Guide To Dock Skipping]

Start With Calm Conditions And “Keep It Simple Silly”

If you’re serious about learning skipping lures, then you need to start in calm, windless conditions. 

The flatter the water (meaning no waves or ripples) the better because it gives you the best chances of skipping your lure.

Waves will cause your lure to deflect off the water at an odd angle and will most likely end a failed cast.  

Wind will also affect your cast. If you have a strong cross wind it will cause your lure to blow off target and it will also cause ripples and waves.

“The key to skipping jigs is hand-eye coordination and lots of practice.”

– Gerald Swindle BASSMASTER Elite Pro

This Is The Best Way To Skip Any Bait, And Science Proves It…

Physicists at both Brigham Young University in Utah and Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Rhode Island have identified the perfect way for skipping an object across the water. 

In their experiment they were using hard round objects, they were not jigs, but the science is exactly the same…

In an interview Dr Tadd Truscott, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the university and one of the researchers said, ““Throw them hard with a lot of linear and angular momentum. Throw at about a 20 degree velocity angle with about a 20 degree angle of attack!”

What the heck does that mean?!…

You want to cast your jig nearly parallel to the water at a 20 degree angle and it will give you the best chances of your jig to skip.  Cool right! 

It’s All In The Wrist…

Reel the bait nearly to the tip of the rod, leaving 6-inches to a couple of feet to let it dangle.

Without releasing your bait, start with some slow practice casts movements… 

You simply roll your wrist half a rod tip nearly parallel to the water like if you are skipping a rock, and throw the bait under.

In addition, you want to keep the tip of the rod as close to the water as possible.

One last thing to keep in mind… as you are casting you want to finish the skip cast (or follow through) with your rod heading in an upward direction.

You never want you finish you cast with the tip of your rod pointing to the water.  

Your First Skip Cast…

Once you feel comfortable, start with your first official skip cast…

Go easy at first, don’t cast too hard. Consider trying to skip in open water off the bank just to practice at first or you can learn how you can practice skipping baits from home.

The harder you throw the bait the less accurate it will be and the more prone to getting a backlash… 

You don’t want to baseball swing your cast because it will never end up at the target location.

If you cast that jig a zillion miles an hour it’s not going to end up where you want.

Read more: How To Practice Skipping Docks At Home?

If You’re Just Beginning Avoid My Mistake Of Choosing The Wrong Bait…

When I first started to learn to skip jigs, I thought I could use almost any type of jig… Boy was I wrong!

On a whim, I decided I was going to learn how to skip a jig, I grabbed a small box of ball head jigs and went to the local pond…

I was out there for HOURS!  Cast after cast, backlash after backlash, all my casts were unsuccessful.  I had the right rod, reel and line.  I had the correct trailer…  I went home defeated, but determined…

After reading multiple articles and watching videos and interviews I learned one of the the best types lures to skip was the good ol’ casting jig! 

I thought to myself, “are you serious?!”  

I learned the shape of the jig head can either help or hinder your effort to learn how to skip a bass jig.

The casting jig has a unique style head design.  Its head is flat yet rounded contour is perfect for skipping docks and overhanging structure. 

Lastly, I found out that if you don’t have any casting jigs, then are a TON of other baits you can use to skip! 

Choosing The Right Bait for Skipping Docks…

Like when you’re choosing a rock to skip you would need a bait that is relatively flat and compact.

Baits like jigs, flukes, senkos are just some of the lures you can use. And don’t think that you can only skip soft plastics and jigs. You can easily skip certain hard baits as well!

But you’re using a jig and the first thing you need to do is to shorten your soft plastic craw trailer. 

Don’t stop to measure the length, just cut off the lower-third to half of the body! Doing this instantly makes your jig more compact and easier to skip docks.

Also the wider the body of craw the easier it is to skip.

In summary, don’t solely rely on the jig to skip. Just remember the ‘skipping a rock’ analogy… if you were to choose a rock to skip on a lake, you want one that is wide and flat. And there are so many other baits you can skip that match that profile.

Read more: Top 10 Best Skipping Baits You Need To Try

What Type of Rod Is Best For Skipping Lures? … It depends…

The best type of rod for skipping depends on what type of bait you’re using and how tall you are.

Most anglers agree that the most popular rods for skipping docks are casting rods. But, spinning rods are the easiest to start skipping with and they’re preference for light weight baits.

Casting rods will give you more accuracy and more control when you catch a fish.

I spoke with a Shimano rep and he says, if you’re a taller guy (say over 6-feet) you’ll want to use a rod that is over 7-feet long, but if you a little shorter you’ll want to use a rod that is around 6’8” long.

Also he emphasized that you’ll need a moderate-heavy action rod with an “extra fast” tip. 

This way you’ll be able to “sling” the bait incredibly far under the dock or overhanging tree. Then when you get a bite that rod will have a strong backbone built in, so you’ll have the confidence to set the hook without thinking twice. 

Read more: Best Spinning Rods For Skipping (Our Top Picks)

Read more: Best Casting Rods For Skipping: Our Top Picks

What Type of Reel Is Best For Skipping Lures?

The rod and reel work as a team…

You’ll want a quality reel that reduces wrist fatigue and has a quality braking system.  

Lower profile baitcasting reels will feel more natural in your hands. On top of that, the higher quality reels will be made of machined aluminum and titanium which reduces the stress and joint fatigue after a long day of fishing. 

Some the cheaper quality reels will skimp on the type of magnets that are built into the reel. Cheap magnets give you less control on the spin speed… if you have less control of the spool spin speed it will create backlashes (or an ultra-frustrating buildup of loose line at the spool that can cause unwanted knots or tangles to form). 

Having a reel that has a great braking system and smooth casting is just as important as the rod. 

What Is The Best Line For Skipping Docks?

Most professional anglers will prefer to use either fluorocarbon or braided line.

Fluorocarbon is very strong, has very little stretch (unlike monofilament fishing line) and has very little “memory”… That means it does not have as much wrapping or twisting effect like a monofilament line will have. 

Fluorocarbon fishing line comes off the spool well went you cast the lure.  Plus, because of how it’s made, it’s nearly invisible to the fish!

If you’re fishing in relatively clearwater with little surrounding structure… say like floating docks then using a fluorocarbon line that is 12-to-15-pound test is the way to go. 

Braided line is also a popular choice of line for skipping dock and skipping lures in general. 

Braided line is made from tiny interwoven strands of manmade fiber such as Dacron, Spectra or micro-dyneema. This makes it very flexible, has nearly zero memory, and has zero stretch. This makes setting the hook with braided lines very easy. . 

Braided lines often have ⅓-to-¼ – diameter mono or fluorocarbon fishing lines!  Thinner lines will have less drag and resistance when you cast… meaning your lure will cast further and will dive deeper faster!  Cool right!

Unfortunately braided lines are very visible to the fish. So that’s way if you’re fishing a traditional dock or something like an overhanging tree that also has a lot of submerged structure nearby, that braided line will blend into the background 

If you’re going to choose a braided line for your dock skipping endeavors, then a 20-to-30-pound test line should work great.

Pointers To Keep In Mind….

Skip casting is all about the wrist and hand-eye coordination.  Your bait is going to land where your eyes are looking. 

Your bait is always going to travel in the same direction where your rod tip is pointing when you finish your cast.

For example, if you pull up to a dock and you’re looking at a specific location or target, don’t ever take your eyes off that target.

Fundamentally, you want each cast to be second nature. If you want to succeed if you have low body movements and you let your eyes do most of the work.

“I don’t care how good you are or how good you think you are, it’s impossible to skip jigs and be accurate when it’s windy or when there is chop on the water. It’s that you’re a bad skipper is just you’re fishing in bad conditions.”

The Three Skipping Techniques You Need To Master…

The three skipping techniques you need to master is the underhand roll, backhand roll, and the straight/vertical roll. 

If your practice those three ways and you’ll quickly gain a skill most other anglers we’ll never have.

The Underhand Roll – Using your normal/dominant side skip the jig using any underhand roll, like if you were skipping a rock.  Note: This is NOT a baseball swing! Its more of a finesse casting technique.

The Backhand Roll – This cast is many from your weak side using your backhand. It’s kinda like a backhand tennis swing, but less swing and more wrist roll.

Straight/Vertical Roll – Finally, this casting technique is used when the lane you’re casting to is very narrow and pointing right at you. You almost have to raise the reel and of the rod almost vertical so you can get your jig in the small lane.  Having tried all three techniques, this by far is the most difficult in my opinion.

As a result, learning all three techniques from one position and not having to move your boat means you can cover the ENTIRE dock from one location!

Most noteworthy, start with a straightforward cast, then target an outside corner using an underhand roll cast and then target the opposite side corner using a backhand roll cast and if there is a narrow lane right in front of you, use the a vertical roll cast to cover that entire piece of structure from one single spot.

Moving your boat into different positions makes a lot of commotion, turbulence, noise.  It will spook the bass and you’ll miss out on bites.  If you avoid the urge to preposition you’ll stay quiet like a ninja!

Making Yourself Versatile…

Gerald Swindle once told a story when he was at a tournament he pulled up to a large series of docks.  Since he is right handed and his fishing partner was also right-handed it made skipping docks difficult because his partner wanted to come to the front of the boat to fish the docks with him. 

So in order for it to work his partner had to learn how to skip jigs backhanded. Luckily for him, his partner did know to skip jigs backhanded and they did great that tournament.

He goes on to point out that even if you’re not a co-angler, it’s still very important to learn how to skip jigs in a variety of different ways.

For example, he explained when he was starting out as a new pro he witnessed anglers come up to a dock and they may not be at an optimal angle to skip at (due to their boat angle) and so they’ll just leave 90% of the dock alone.  He says after a while he noticed this to be more and more common, so he forced himself to skip jigs backhanded. 

As a result, he his new ability gave his team the advantage, because now they could skip their jigs into a variety of different places where other teams would be hesitant to skip to.

If You Just Can’t Get The Hang Of Skipping Do This…

Even after I thought I got the right equipment I still struggled for some time.

It was when I was teaching my kids to skip rocks into a lake where I had my epiphany.

They kept picking up really small rocks at first.  They were the right shape, but were really small. 

I instinctively replaced it with a little bit larger rock because I knew I had more surface area to skip.  

Like a freight train it hit me… I need to upsize my lure until I get the hand of skipping lures!

So I did. But,  I needed something large with a little bit more weight with flat sides…

After about 20 minutes I settled on a big soft plastic swimbait with a weighted swimbait hook. 

Later that day I was off to the local pond…

Sure enough, by adding that extra size and weight really helped me learn how to skip a lure and gain a ton of confidence.

After I felt comfortable skipping that swimbait I took the lessons I learned and honed it down to the smaller, more compact jig.