new to fishing- how to jig

[newtofishing]

I have only used lindy rigs to fish for walleyes- I'm new to fishing. Any suggestions on jigging. I assume you find the right weight and keep bouncing the jig off the bottom? any suggestions will be appreciated.

thanks

[hhguide]

Go as light as you can without losing to much bottom contact. Second pop it, and let it sit, pop it, and let it sit.

[BobT]

There are many ways to work a jig. It is by far the most vesatile lure you can own and probably one of the most productive.

Drag it along the bottom, swim it at various levels, snap it as hhguide suggests, snap it slowly, rapidly, or combination, hang it from a bobber, and mix and match all of these. Sometimes heavy jigs work better than light especially in mid or late summer when the fish are more active. The fast fall might trigger strikes that a slow one doesn't.

[newtofishing]

is it best to anchor or a slow troll?

thanks again for the replies

[PerchJerker]

is it best to anchor or a slow troll?

Early in the season I will pitch (ie. cast) jigs in shallow water, usually while drifting along a break or shoreline, or using the electric motor to position the point. Sometimes anchored if I am on a concentration of fish or a small structure that I want to work. Another good option early in the season is dragging and hopping jigs, which you could also call a slow troll (but to me is really not trolling, it's jigging or dragging).

In midsummer when the fish are on midlake structures vertical jigging works great. Use your motor to hover over the fish and the structure, use your electronics to make sure you're on top of the fish, and vertically jig right above the bottom. Use your motor and the wind to slip back and forth and cover the area.

[fishermatt]

As far as jigging technique the best thing to do can be different every day. One day just holding the jig still a few inches off bottom as you go along works, some days lifting/snapping it 5-6 feet off bottom and letting if free fall back works, or other days it's something in between. Rule of thumb is almost always to know exactly where the bottom is. I generally fish jigs aggressively, and have someone else in the boat go subtle (holding still or small hops) til we figure out what's working best.

As far as trolling or anchoring, When there's some wind you can just drift using a drift sock to cover flats in 8-14 feet or so. If you catch a fish, throw a marker, then go a ways further, motor back upwind past the marker, then drift again. This can be very productive. Sometimes a 2-300 yard stretch can have fish all over it. If you get fish or bites in a small area, then anchor upwind (use 2 anchors and 100 feet of line out on anchor if very windy) and cast jigs back or slip bobber them.

[Farley]

jigging is the easy part, keeping your line vertical in 20mph winds is the hard part. Unless you anchor, but I hate dealing with an anchor. Boat control is the key.

[fishermatt]

Good point about boat control Farley, and that is the reason I find myself anchoring a lot more than I used to on really windy days, as long as I know there at least a few fish present via electronics. Once you get good at it, anchoring is the ultimate in Boat Control. It took me about 3-4 years to get good at it once I started doing it more regularly.

When winds are 20mph about the only thing you can do is anchor. I use 2 20lb anchors (adding a 3rd this year just in case) and 100' of rope on each. You can do anything from an anchored position: cast jigs/cranks, slip bobber, lindy rig, but I guess the Planer Boards wouldn't work too good... ; - )

[newtofishing]

when anchoring do you have the nose of the boat pointed into the wind?

how do you lindy when anchored?

[Farley]

That's the safest way especially in a smaller boat on big water. You definetly dont want to be sideways to the wind especially if it's a strong wind. You dont want waves breaking over the back of the boat either. You will need to tie off the anchor rope to the front of the boat to keep it into the wind.

[fishermatt]

When it's really windy, put 1 anchor off the nose with 100 feet of rope out, then put another one off the back to keep the boat from going side to side. With 100 feet of line off the nose, you are going to shift from side to side a lot, and 2 anchors make it so you can stay exactly where you want to be.

You can cast out a lindy rig while anchored and slowly reel it back to the boat, or just let it sit and wait for a bite. sometimes that works better than jigging or slip bobbering.