jigging technique

[Spearing Machine]

I spent the day yesterday up on URL catching Walleyes, or I should say missing or loosing walleyes. I am using a 28 inch medium action Genz True blue series ice rod and I was having A LOT of difficulty hooking and keeping fish attached to my flyer spoon (1/8 oz). The lure was brand new, so yes, the hooks were sharp. Most fish would come flying in and I wouldn't get a chance to mark them on the vex so I was just jigging blindly for much of the day (from the bottom and up 6 inches) and the fish would hit on the upstroke and I would feel them then try to jerk harder than a normal jig and most would let loose or I had a few stick and then fall off at the bottom of the ice. Last year I had the same problem using a 28 inch ML premier St. Croix rod and I figured using a stiffer rod would help, I was wrong. Please help! I would guess I actually touched 1/3 of all the bites I had. When the fish cooperated with me and hit when I would hold still for 10 seconds I never missed one....

[laportian]

On Red I bring em up fast. Real fast. I was farting around with my flasher yeaterday and would lose fish when I would reach down to pull the transducer out of the hole. It would give them just a sec of slack line and they'd come off. Ive been fishing with the rattlin flyer and the trebles are a confidence thing with me. i just started fishing with the slick jig last week and feel I'm losing some on the strike as I am used to trebles. But anyway I stand by a medium action jigging rod for up there. The shortest length I used is 28 inches. I have a frabill bro rod in that length and medium action with a fast tip that kicks butt. It is my main jigging rod.

[dishman]

I had the same problem on Mille Lacs last week. I lost three nice fish, one that I think was 28" plus. I caught a lot of other fish, so I wasn't too upset about the three. But if those would have been my only three I would have been kicking myself.

For the last few years, prior to this year I was using braided line tied to Fluorocarbon and it seems to me that I had a lot better hook sets with this arangement. I switched to P-line Flouroclear this year and I do like it. Now I'm not sure if my problem is that I am not setting the hook as hard as I should be since I'm use to using braided line while jigging. Or it could have been just bad luck. Also, I have gotten so sick of dealing with my tranducer when pulling fish in that I make a seperate hole right next to my jigging hole when I fish in my clam.