Jig and minnow presentation

[shiltsy]

Heading out for the opener on the St. Croix this weekend. I primarily target bass all summer and 'eyes on hard water. I'm planning to keep it simple with jig/minnow and possible some cranks this weekend. What kind of presentation options should I be thinking about? Slip bobber? Cast and retrieve? Cast and hop off bottom? All of the above and see what works?

Just looking for any obvious land mines, so I'm not well versed in the walleye world.

Thanks!

[tunrevir]

I think your moving in the right direction with your thoughts. Jig and minnow is a river mainstay and can produce well in very cold water. You can certainly cast jigs to shoreline rip rap and rocky areas, I would think with the colder temps and water temps you are going to want to use a dragging technique versus a more aggressive style of jigging. The vertical jigging may be a drop/pound lift hold versus a constant jigging motion but experiment with your technique until the fish show you what they want. If you go to cranks your going to be looking for something like a husky jerk or thunderstick trolled very slowly. Shad raps will get the nod if fish seem to be aggressive but with the cold front and temps predicted I'd lean towards a stick bait over a shad bodied bait. Live bait rigging with small shiners and larger fatheads can also be a good way to go if you want to drift and cover water. Go with the presentation you feel most confident in first and if that isn't working then try others. Plastics fished on a jig head right now can be really good depending on the action you impart to them. Sometimes a slow straight retrieve will get them going, sometimes a bottom drag with some twitches and an occasional pop will set them off. Kind of have to experiment until you start getting hit by the fish your after.

Tunrevir~

[shiltsy]

Thanks Tunrevir... that gives me just enough to get out there and be dangerous. For plastics on the jig are you thinking grub style or gulp minnow type stuff?

Maybe it's just my experience but seems like walleye presentations will catch bass, but the inverse not so much. When's the last time anyone had a walleye destroy a buzzbait in 3 feet of water? hah!

[Nhamm]

I think the big key will be speed no matter what presentation you use. This cold water will require more of a dragging presentation as stated above or a controlled vertical with the trolling motor doing some work. Got to see what the fish want but for myself will be looking for slack water and whatever I use will be slow. I am a fuzzy grub kind of guy with a gulp emerald shiner attached, very effective.

[B-man715]

Some good advice here so far

I will usually start out vertical (barely holding the jig off the bottom, with minimal or no vertical movement) and just go with the flow. If that doesn't work go a little slower than the current, or a little faster than the current.

If the fish still aren't fully cooperating I will switch over to dragging. For whatever reason, dragging way behind the boat always outproduces dragging right behind the boat for me. Even if I'm in 20' of dirty water.... If the bottom isn't too snaggy, give it a try by making a long cast upstream with a 1/4 oz jig and minnow and go downstream varying your speed until you find out what they want.

Then when you want to motor back up for another pass, toss a couple cranks out and see what happens. Pull them upstream starting out around 2mph and work from there.

By jigging/dragging downstream and cranking upstream you have wet lines 99% of the time and get the most out of your day on the water.

This works well for me, so I hope it can help you out too