Best Jig Trailer for Fall Bass Fishing
The jig is potentially the best year-round bass lure of all time. And one reason for this is that you can slightly alter your jig to optimize it during each season of the year.
And the best way to optimize your jig is to rig it up with the correct trailer. Now I prefer to keep my trailers very simple, so let me break down the why and what of the best jig trailer for fall bass fishing.
Best Style Jig Trailer for the Fall
When it comes to the style or type of jig trailer that works best in the fall season, I believe that it is a chunk style trailer.
The classic chunk trailers have a couple characteristics that give them a slight advantage over the other trailers when fishing in the fall.
Compact Profile
First, the chunk style of trailer will give your jigs a bit more compact and slightly downsized profile.
During the fall months, bass usually get very keyed in on eating smaller baitfish and crawfish. The baitfish and crawfish that were just born during the summer months and are still young and vulnerable prey.
So the compact profile that the chunk trailers have a bit closer to what the bass are focusing on eating.
Natural Action
For the most part, a jig primarily imitates crawfish. And when you look at how crawfish swim, they don’t flap that claws around in the water.
Real crawfish have a very streamline profile and swimming action. So a chunk style of trailer is much more realistic at imitating crawfish than a flapping or grub style of trailer.
Why is this so important for fall bass fishing? Well for the majority of the fall season, once the turnover ends, the water gets very clear.
And bass can see very, very well. So it is very important that you make your baits look as natural as possible when fishing the clear, fall waters.
Cold Water
This applies more the the end of the fall season and into the winter, once the water temperatures start getting really cold. In the colder water, less is almost always more.
The crawfish, baitfish, and even the bass start to get sluggish, stiff, and don’t move very aggressively.
So the flapping or swimming jig trailers just have a bit too much action and vitality that isn’t very natural once the water temps get cold.
But the chunk trailers have a very natural, minimalistic action in the water as they just glide and undulate.
Best Chunk Style Trailer:
Zoom Super Chunk Jr.
Over the years, I have used a bunch of different chunk trailers. And the one I have found catches the most bass is the Zoom Super Chunk Jr..
There is just something about Zoom soft plastic baits that seems to get tons of bites. I don’t know if it is the scent in them or the classic designs, but Zoom baits just flat out catch bass.
I also like how the claws of the Super Chunk Jr. are very thin and streamline, which I think looks amazing in the water.
And at a very good price point, I just haven’t found a chunk trailer that I think works better than the Zoom Super Chunk Jr..
Chunk Trailer Rigging Tip
The old school way of rigging a chunk bait was to just “hang” the chunk on your hook by sticking the hook straight up through the bait.
But in my experience, and amongst modern anglers, you get a lot more bites and miss less bass if you actually thread the chunk bait on the jig just like you would any other type of trailer.
Threading the bait on gives your jig a much more natural profile and helps ensure that the bass eat the whole jig instead of just nipping at the back half.
Reeling this In
Whether you are using a flipping jig, football jig, or finesse jig, by choosing a chunk style trailer for your jig, specifically a compact option like the Zoom Super Chunk Jr., you can effectively optimize your presentation for fall bass fishing.
The compact profile closely mimics the smaller, vulnerable prey bass target in the fall, and the natural, minimalistic action is ideal for imitating realistic crawfish in clear water.
This streamlined approach becomes even more critical as water temperatures drop late in the season. Remember to thread the trailer onto the hook for the best profile and hook-up ratio, ensuring your jig remains a top year-round performer.
