Tactics...pounding or lifting

[palisade1kid]

While working pannies I notice some guys are pounders and some guys are lifters.

How do you work them?

Does this change with water depth or species like between gills and crappies?

Also does it change with meat over artificials?

Also...does it change with verticle presentations vs. horizontal presentations?

For me....I'm mostly fishing deeper water and I'm mostly targeting crappies.I'm almost always using my hair jig so that's a horizontal presentation and it's artificial. I find lifting those crappies to the ceiling produces well.

When targeting gills I'll lift but not much...maybe a foot to two at the most.

[south_metro_fish]

I know pounding works great for bluegills with a horizontal jig tipped with a waxy. I have watched them on my cam and they cant resist a gold horizontal jig with the tail twitching right in front of them, a lot of times just tapping your rod with your other hand gives a horizontal jig a wicked twitch. Perch seem to like both lifting and pounding with both horizontal and vertical jigs. I usually fish crappies with a vertical jig with a live minnow so I dont jig for them much. I think lifting and pounding really depends on the presentation, horizontal jigs really work great with pounding because you get the twitching action going on on the end. Vertical jigs get some twitching with pounding but get a little more fluttering action with lifting and dropping.

[Jack Peterson]

I lift my jig, with a slight shake at the tip of my rod. 60% of the time, it works every time

[Jack Peterson]

When I can't catch fish by lifting my jigs, I usually can't catch fish. Pounding my jig will attract fish, but typically unless I lift it, they'll just keep on cruisin' by.

With crappie minnows, I like to lift the minnow and let it fall. Seems like that will entice the crappies to bite.

I really rely on my Vexilar while lifting jigs, because then I know if the fish are following or not.

I wouldn't say I only do one thing, and I'd like to think that my "jigging/lifting" technique is a combination of everything.

[south_metro_fish]

Thinking about it a little more after I got my vex last year it was fun watching the crappies chase your minnow and nail it when you bring it up a few feet.

[GatorBait]

I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a pounder, my jig is always, stress "always" moving. So let's say I'm a twitcher jacked up on Mt.Dew that likes to work up and down the strike zone. Ever since switching to this presentation, my bite success has increased dramatically. One other presentation I use which works good on finicky fish is this. Start from the bottom, twitch up through the zone slowly, at the top of the zone, let the jig free fall back to the bottom. First time I used this, it took me 2hrs of different presentations to get these fish to bite, after using that they went from finicky to deadly strikes on the free falling jig. But, it's just experimenting to figure out what works best for that time. Nothing always works, just the matter of knowing different presentations and going through them all to see what works. It could simply just be jig color, bait type, horz/vert, the list goes on.

[Gissert]

Crappies tend to follow a lifted jig more so than bluegills as mentioned above.

Sometimes, often during the same day, they will change how they react. Watching how fish react on a camera will give a great education on how to change your presentation to match the mood.

Better yet, fish in a dark house with a big hole. You can see how a fish approaches a bait from a distance and how it reacts. Its amazing how a fish out of camera range will depart if it does not like what it sees.

When they get like that (more often tan not its bluegills), a technique that works sometimes is to put the rod on a deadstick holder to stop as much movement as possible. The fish approach super slow, sometimes eyeballing the jig for minutes before gently inhaling the jig. Sometimes the rod tip won't move at all unless you have a good spring bobber.

[motley man]

When fishing flats with no weeds it helps to pound the bottom and lift. That sound and disturbance draws the fish. Perch & walleye eat blood worms and they're looking for that lift off bottom.

[shizzy]

I cant say I have one techinque. I rarley "pound" its usually some form of lift and twitch. sometimes its a big "lift lift twitch" sometimes I just tickle the line with my finger just to make the hair or legs on my jig wiggle.

[deadeye]

I never really have any luck pounding the jig on the bottom for crappies. However the lakes I fish they typically are suspended anywhere from 5-15 feet off the bottom.

When I am after perch it seems like it can trigger a reaction strike. If they are looking at it and not taking it slamming the jig on the bottom sometimes gets them going.

[slipperybob]

I'll pound the bottom if I don't mark any fish. When I mark fish, it goes with various jigging techniques that will involve lifting as part of it.

[jwhjr]

I mainly target crappies and lifting has always worked best for me.

[McGurk]

Both. Depends on reaction and hookups.

[panfishpounder00]

i'm with mcgurk on this one, all depends on the mood of the fish, an underwater camera will quikly clue you in on what is working at that givin time

[herefish101]

I'll pound the bottom if I don't mark any fish. When I mark fish, it goes with various jigging techniques that will involve lifting as part of it.

Perfectly said. Draw them in with the pounding, then jiggle and lift to get them to bite.

[Cyberfish]

"60% of the time, it works every time "

Haha I love it!!!

[palisade1kid]

good one guys...