Jigging...

[Crm7290]

When you are jigging, what are some tips for getting the fish to bite? How do you know what to do and when?

Im using a flasher, and I have just started ice fishing. I can get the fish to come in, but when I try to get them to bite, well thats another story. The other day I was fishing with a friend of mine and he caught many fish 10 feet away with the same spoon. We were marking the same amount of fish, but something with his jigging was doing the trick.

What do you guys do when jigging?

[mr.z 1972]

Great question!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Less is more once you have the fish in.. Try holding still, if that doesnt work slowly start to move the fish higher in the water. Slow jigs or fast very small jigs may also trigger the bite.. Once you get a fish to hit, try to copy what you did to get that fish to bite.. Each day will be different, so there is no real tried and true..

[Crm7290]

Say Im jigging a good bit getting the fishes attention. They come in and are marking red (on a Hummingbird). You would just hold the jig still until they bite it with slow jigs every now and then?

I just assumed I should keep doing what I was doing getting them in once they are actually there, but I just jigging is showing a presentation of dying and the lure sitting there means biting time.

I know that jigging is different every day, and have gotten a good number of fish just with dumb luck, but I hate seeing a friend slaying them while I get one or two every now and then. I guess it just comes to experience.

[WalleyeChaser]

Like Dietz said, small jigging/twitches while slightly raising the fish up in the water column will increase the chance of a strike!

[fishersofmen]

This can go alot of different ways......in the end I think it comes down to the mood the fish are in or how aggressive they are behaving. The other night I was having a hard time with this. They would come up to my jig as I was shaking it quite hard and some times I would have to remain doing that and other times it would scare them off and would have to slow it down to almost nothing. Best thing to do is watch how they react on the flasher. If you are jigging somewhat aggressively and you see them bolt slow it down. If you slow it down or stop and they are loosing interest turn it up a notch.

[bobbymalone]

What do you fish for? I usually fish for crappie 75% of the time and walleye the rest.

I have rarely felt a hit while lifting the lure up but aggressive fish will hit it on the flutter down. If I lift it too fast or too far it sometimes spooks fish. The majority of strikes for me happen while it's sitting still for a few seconds after jigging it or even more likely, a second or two after twitching it. Of course it's a lot easier to detect bites when it's sitting still than when it is fluttering down with slack in the line so that probably has something to do with it.

After I started using spring bobbers for jigging crappie lures i realized that I couldn't feel A LOT of bites through the rod and my success went waaaay up.

[Crm7290]

I took off my spring bobbers because they freeze up pretty bad outside. I might try the spray it with pam trick (roommate wont notice missing PAM will he? )

I fish for crappies and gills, tried the walleye thing at Mille Lacs and caught my first ever but dont see myself doing that around Winona, sometimes bass but those are usually by-catch anyway.

On the flasher the other day was I could get them to follow the lure up and down the water column, but they woudn't bite my lure at all. It may have been possible that they were just dink bluegills with eyes bigger than their stomachs, but I'm not sure. I also kept hooking them under the lip, which made me think that they were hitting the lure itself and not getting the hooks? I dont know if they do that but it seemed to me what was happening.

[whitebassman]

if you can, use an underwater camera. bluegills will bite real lite, and what i've noticed is they will hit either on the fall down, so let it drift down, or hold it still, with small jigging action.

if nothing works, try switching colors, jig size, etc. waxies are a favorite for pannies.

[Jim Almquist]

The fish will tell you what they want by watching your flasher. If they come in hard and fast to your jigging method and bite just keep doing it the same way. If you notice that they are not even getting close try to be less aggressive and you may have to down size your presentation until till you can get them to bite. If you see them come in and get right on your lure while you are jigging but you can not detect a bite you may want to lift a little bit and see if they are sucking on the lure. If that is the case you need to set the hook. I have seen it happen a lot with walleyes were they come in and will try to suck in the minnow head but never really "bite" but you can tell there is something wrong with the way your lure is jigging and its time to set the hook. All this will happen in just a couple of seconds so you need to be aware and trust your electronics. A real high lift of your lure is a great way to attract fish in and a slow drop is a great way to get them to hit whether its panfish or walleyes but you have to pay attention to line and your flasher in case it hits and your line has now gone slack.

[herefish101]

Or it's just hot hole syndrome. Last weekend I found a great crappie spot, we were marking fish left and right, my old lady could catch them at will she actually would get board and go talk to her friends, then come back, pick up her rod drop it down and boom! another fish. All the while I was using the same exact jig with the same plastic tail, and I might have caught 6 fish, to her 2 dozen, and no we did not keep all of them. My point being, she was fishing four feet away, I had alot of marks in my hole but she had more. Some times "luck" plays a bigger role than most fisherman want to admit. Good luck and big fish.

[DTro]

One thing I've noticed while sight fishing is that it takes very little motion to twitch your bait. A lot of times less is more. You don't realize how much the bait is moving until you can actually see it while sight fishing or on a camera.

Also the higher you raise the fish, the more likely they are to bite.

Sometimes raising your bait quickly will also trigger the most aggressive fish in the school.

[swampbuck]

I have learned a lot with a camera and flasher

They will often come charging in and stop, With the camera its easy to see what they like and what can spook them.

Tough part is it changes almost every day!

My best results are to stop moving the jig when they show up on the flasher, after watching on the camera they usually ease up to the bait and just nip at it.

I have also had a lot of them nose the spoon with their mouths closed?

Not sure why, but they do it a alot.

Sometimes they will come in, chase the spoon up and smack it, when they are on a bite like that its fun! doesnt happen often enough though

[rodmoen]

I'm sure many others are aware of this too, but i've found that some fish will come in to a vertical bait just fine but won't bite unless its hanging very horizontal, you might already be doing this but if you're not you should try making your jig,bait whatever hang as horizontal as you can when jigging, that makes the waxie or plastic tail or whatever really twitch with out barely moving your rod, deadly tactic!! If you are using jigging spoons or something vertical try and apply your bait so the tail is horizontal and pointing straight into the fishes face.. Good luck

[Tom Buckles]

I totally agree with what everyone is saying. Let the fish tell you what they want. The fish will dictate what they want and this will change constantly. Experiment with different techniques until you find one that works. When you do find one that works, be ready to change it up, because it is only a matter of time before their mood changes. Pay attention to your electronics. They will help you to develop a pattern on how the fish are feeding. I view jigging as a two step process. The first step is getting the attention of the fish. The second step is getting the fish to bite. With that in mind, a lot of times once you draw the fish in, you have to change up your technique to get them to bite. Hope this helps.

[FishLocker]

I am in total agreement with what is said above. I have found sometimes all that is needed is to take my spring bobber and bend it half an inch sideways and let go...it give is a small short kick to the waxie or twitch your rod tip back and forth (not up and down) a half inch or inch wide to get a small wiggle to the bait...many times when they come in and dont bite, samller quivers are better than a jig.

And most definately, use a spring bobber. If yours freezes up, get one of the straight wire numbers with a large eye at the end. The light bite is very difficult to detect without them.

I am going to try my new venom bobber on Sat with the guys at Ice Crushers...excited to try neutral boyancy at its best for the light bite.

[irishwalleye]

1) If the fish move in quickly, I try to keep the bait away from them. Picture prey trying to escape. Nothing too agressive, play a little hard to get. (BTW, this is what I think the secret of the darters is)

2) If they just come in slow, I use the shiver and pause method. Fidget your hand enough to barely get the rod tip to move, then pause.

If they still are not interested, then change color/size as others have said above.

[Crm7290]

I was out again today, didnt get much as far as marks, but when i did I couldn't get them to bite. I didnt have too much oppurtunity to see what they were liking. Only 4 fish came through the ice today by everyone I was with.

I did get the skunk but it was nice to be out we were too cold to fish any more.

What depths have been good for crappie lately? The only fish today that were caught were some pretty large crappie in 10-14 feet of water.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Quote:

What depths have been good for crappie lately? The only fish today that were caught were some pretty large crappie in 10-14 feet of water.

crappie are odd ducks.. really depends on each day and each lake. For instance. Within 7 miles of my house I have 3 lakes.. One, the best crappie fishing is in 6-8 feet of water. If you can find hard water around weeds, your golden. lake #2, if you can find 15 feet or so, in a bit of a drop off, with hard bottom near, but not needed. You are golden. You just need more of a flat off of a food shelf.. Lake #3, the best bite is in a deep hole, they suspend 30 foot down over 60 feet of water.

SO.. my point is.. I got no point. You need to learn each and every body of water. Try stuff. Fail.. its the only way to learn. I have far more days that I fail and drill a ton of holes.. then I do where I fill a bucket. Every day on the water is fun.. I learn every day i am out there. But do not for one second think you can figure a crappie out every day of the week.

[md7]

I'm just guessing that your fishing lake winona I was out there for most of the day and the bite was real slow today for me also. i've been getting crappies anywhere from 10 to 20 fow depending on where i'm fishing out there

[Crm7290]

md7 I am out on lake Winona. The bite monday was awesome. my friend pulled out a 21.5 inch largemouth. It was a fat bass. Probably one of the best bass lakes in the state if you look hard enough.

I think there was a front coming through that turned them off, or they make have just moved somewhere else.

Deitz, we were fishing a weed edge with deep water nearby. This was hot for us in the past. Maybe next time we will try the deep part of it.

[FishLocker]

Taken out of context...quite profound Deitz! =)