Deep Water jigging?

[RandyFish]

Deep water jigging, discussed elsewhere on this page, seems like a possible solution to my annual mid-summer slump (and a good way for me to finally learn jig fishing.

I am guessing the technique would work like this:

1) Mid summer. Locate rock piles, weedy humps, etc. Anything element that shows "up from bottom" structure.

Focus on 10-20 feet?

2) Then jig fish. Use either black/blue or craw colors...1/4 to 1 oz ...use a trailer

What size jig?

Is this a bottom-only technique or are you lifting the jig a foot or more trying to coax a hit?

I am guessing that I fish jigs too quickly....Do you drag bottom here? Reeling very slowly, with just a light jig motion?

Thanks for the help...I need it..Promise to catch and release.

[Guest]

Banger is right on the money. Two of the key things are patience and confidence. Alot of people give up to soon. As far as what to do with the retrieve: Most of the time shaking and short 6-10" jerks work best for me. It's hard to explain about confidence. Over time you develop a certain feel for jigging and before you know it nothing else will produce like it. Banger also hit it on the head about sticking around in deeper water when you catch one. I have never seen a school of quality bass in shallow water that were willing to bite. Many, many times you can catch 2,3,4 or more quality fish off one spot in deeper water. Fishing depth (in my opinion) depends largely on the water clarity. Everthing grows deeper when the water is clear. Stained or dirty water can be a little tricky. Rock piles/deeper vegetation should produce. Hope this helps.

[MedicineMan]

I always fish for bass in 10+ feet of water. I average 4-8 fish when I go out, with a average weight of 5-6 pounds. One day in July a few years ago my father and I were drifting across a sunken island and we just hammered the bass. Between 12 and 3:30 we caught 36 bass, we missed a good dozen. The smallest bass we caught weighed 3 pounds, the largest bass weighed 8 pounds 4 onces. My dad had one on that made the 8 pounder look small. He get it 15 feet from the boat and it spit the hook. He was madder than He11! Talk about the one that got away....geez.

[Banger]

Jig fishing the depths of midsummer can be painstakenly slow on some days, especially when you are just learning the technique. For starting I would target mainlake structure like points and turns just off of flats. I have found that these places hold fish year round. Once you start to get confidence in your abilities I would try some to find some humps and structure out in the middle of the lake if possible sometimes these spots can hold numbers of fish and quality ones at that. As for fishing speed of the jig. I determine how fast or slow to fish based on trial and error. Once you catch a few fish you will find out have agressive they are for the day and then follow with your fishing speed. Another thing when you find some fish out in the deep weedlines stick to the area because most of the time the fish will school together. Hopefully this helps you out alittle bit. Pray for the soft water!

[ChrisR71]

This is something I need to learn this year. I think the deepest jig fish I ever caught was maybe 8-9 feet. I bought some football jig heads this winter and would like to give it a try.

Do you guys have more success jig worming or fishing with regular jigs in deep water?

[MedicineMan]

Exudedude, believe it or not. I'm actually fishing a Twin Cities lake. I'm no pro, no doubt about that. Bass aren't even my favorite fish to catch. I'd much rather catch Northerns and Walleyes. I know this lake like the back of my hand though, I spend 10 hours of studying this lake to every hour I fish it. The bass in this lake are very picky. There's a small window of time where you can just hammer the bass, after that you can't buy a bite. I've actually made a time table for this lake. One island will be hot from 9-11 then completely shut down, then another spot will turn on. They're not big in length, but they're some of the chunkiest bass you'll ever catch!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Med man- I would love to see pictures of these chunks!!!!

[MedicineMan]

Here are some pics. I can't find some of pics I have of the bigger ones. I've got two big rubbermaid buckets full of fishin' pics. I think the other bucket is up at my cabin 'cause I can't find it anywhere here.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?show_all=1&start=1&id=4288662171

Name is: Melor1917

Password is: Derrick

[Ray Esboldt]

Randy,

A Texas rig could serve the same purpose as a jigworm. It doesn't fish the same though. I like fishing weedlines with a jigworm because it does get hung up. I like the fact that it hangs on a cabbage leaf or a coontail stalk on the initial drop. I know fish just sit there waiting for that jigworm to make a break for it. And, light wire hooks make a clean break possible.

I also like the way a jigworm tumbles over rocks. You loose a few to the rocks, but it takes on a action not repeated by a Texas rig or skirted jig.

10" worm? Nah. Too big. One of the beauties of a jigworm (4" to 7" worms) is the reaction strikes it draws. A fish comes flying up out of a school and inhales the entire bait before his buddies. I don't reel down and let the fish take it or snug up on the line to feel him. If I see the line twitch, I simultaneously reel and slam the rod back with all I've got. And, set the hook hard, jump out of your boots if you have to. I think that I'd miss a few with 10" worms because of the size. You won't draw bigger fish, so don't use them for that reason.

------------------
Ray Esboldt
MarCum
Stone Legacy

[Deitz Dittrich]

Med Man-fun pictures.. expecially like the undewater photos.. you must have had a Aqua Vu hooked up to a VCR or something? How did you do that?

[MedicineMan]

Well Exudedude, All I did was hook up a converter to the back battery. Plugged one of our VCR's into the converter. Ran a Video cable from the Aqua-Vu to the VCR and pressed record. I'm gonna get try to get out right after ice out and do some more filming.
Oh yeah, if you haven't figured out what lake I fish all the time. My username is a dead give away.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Sorry to have hijacked this thread...

Med Man-How did you get the immage from VCR to disk or film.. did you just take a picture of the TV screen at home?

Ive filmed off a Aqua VU before but not gotten stills before...

[MedicineMan]

I have a WinTV card and it had a video plug in on it. So I ran the VCR video cable into the WinTV. The WinTV proram let me take pictures from the video. I've been trying like he11 to capture video vlips from it. But for some reason the card won't let me. 90% of the video I can't take pictures because the fish are moving so fast all you see is a blur. There's one part where within 2 minutes you see 20 bass. And they're BIG bass too. I made a copy of the video for Moby1 and Joe Harty. They were amazed when they watched it.

[Ray Esboldt]

Fishing a skirted jig in water deeper than flippin' territory is an acquired art. As it was said before, it can a painfully slow technique for finding fish. If I find fish, I love to comb through the school one more time with a jig-n-craw. It's a great bait to stick a couple nice ones.

It is a horrible bait to locate fish!

I turn to crankbaits and jigworms (1/8 to 1/4 ounce depending on depth) to hunt down active fish in deeper water. For some reason those two baits do a better job of exposing the school. One dumby in a school always seems willing to grab a jigworm on the initial drop or a crank on the third turn of the handle. Boom! Throw a marker and start hammering the school.

One thing to highlight in the above paragraph, "the initial drop" or "third turn of the handle." Key phrases there. If and when that occurs, 9 times out of 10, you're on a school of fish. Pick off all the active ones you can immediately with whatever bait you came to town with. Extract the resistors with jig-n-craw or Carolina rig.

MedicineMan, you should take me and all the rest of fishing. You average between 4 and 8 5lb.+ fish a trip! Wow! Why are you not fishing big time tournaments? If you have those abilities for sniffing fish, you're doing yourself a disservice by not fishing for a living.

------------------
Ray Esboldt
MarCum
Stone Legacy

[Deitz Dittrich]

Well put Ray.. you are the man!

Med man-You must be fishing private waters or not MN waters... Or as Ray said.. quit your job and make a mill on the tounaments scene. The MN state record is only 8lbs 12oz. The only lake I have ever Averaged a 5-6 lb fish was Toho in FL....

[RandyFish]

Regarding jig worms...I planned to switched to larger worms (10") for deep fish, but can a jig worm simply be a Texas rig...or a texas rig with the weight pegged in front, so it stays tight to the hook.

Does a larger size worm help?

I thought the catches quoted earlier seemed large for around Minnesota, but hey, there's always new records to catch.

[RandyFish]

Ray,

Any particular jig head you like?

I asked about the texas rig because the hook size on most jig heads seems small...I am used to 3s and 4s for fluke fishing...also, don't the jig heads with exposed hook foul in milfoil?

Do you recommend clear or lo-vis mono over hi-tech braids for this type of fishing?

By the way, thanks for the help. It is great..

[MedicineMan]

Sounds good to me baswacker! I was just out driving around Medicine Lake. 90% of the lake shore is open water now. I saw someone out ice fishing right infront of West Medicine Lake Park. I'm curious how he got out there. I have a feeling the ice will be gone by the 10th this year. I'm hoping it will be earlier than that!

[baswacker]

Medicine man
I live 5 min. from the lake would ya like ta hook up and fish some time? let me know
OK .I started a couple of techs. this last summer and I think we could swap some if your willing. Always nice ta go fishin and make new freinds
you can reach me at 612 589-7519. it's my digital pager put your # in after the beep and I will call ya right back.
Tight lines all
Basswacker

[Chris Haley]

ttt