The above information is good, and will become very useful. I have over the years attempted to teach many how to fish the JIG, but few succeed. You really need to spend some hard learning time with this bait. Most people new to fishing jigs find the most difficult thing to be detecting a bite. Unless your adept at line watching or the bass really thump that bait, I believe a lot of novice jig fishers are getting bit and don't even know it. Time needs to be spent with this bait to learn what everything on the bottom feels like. You'll need to learn what different weeds feel like, tell the difference between rock and wood, and everything else. When you can tell these things, you'll be able to tell when a fish is "breathing" on your bait. When anything feels different from what you've been feeling, it's time to set the hook. So often when fishing weeds, you'll go to pick up your jig to give it a little shake or hop and it's just heavy, kind of like your snagged. Drop the rod tip, get some slack onto the reel, then slam it home, cause 9 times out of 10 a big ol' hog sucked in your jig and is just laying there.
My son who is 13 was telling me last night on how he hated fishing jigs a couple of years ago because he wasn't catching many fish and found it hard to tell a bite from a weed. Now, he says that he's getting into a rut, because that's all he wants to fish.
As the old saying goes, "It comes down to time spent on the water." With jig fishing, this is oh so true. Many can try to explain how to do it, but only time on the water with a jig on the bottom can truly teach you the power of the jig.