|
01/19/2021 09:18PM |
1) A proper rod
2) Proper line
1) Back in the mid-90s, I was fishing with a buddy in a super-remote lake in Quetico, about as far from an access point as you can get. We were anchored - he was fishing in the back of the canoe and I in the front. He was fishing with a Loomis GL3 or IMX, and I was fishing with a basic Shimano Aero. He was out-fishing me three or more to one! Needless to say, I was frustrated.
"Dude, your rod is crap."
"Nonsense," I insisted. "I paid 90 bucks for this rod at the Sportman's Show!"
"It's junk. Here, try mine." We switched rods. Can you guess what happened? It was unbelievable. Now I was outfishing the master. As soon as I got home, I went out and brought a proper 6-foot Loomis jigging rod. Life changed forever.
2) Use 10-lb moss green PowerPro spectra fishing line when jigging for walleyes. You'll need to put backing on your reel first. Save a lot of heartache, and take it to a fishing store and have them spool it for you.
Use a 12-lb fluorocarbon leader - about 2 to 4 feet long as you prefer - and learn how to tie an Alberto knot to tie the leader to the PowerPro. OR do like me, and save these photos to your cell phone so when you're out in the canoe trying to figure out how the heck to tie that insanely complex knot, you can follow these pictures.
With a proper rod and line, you can feel it when a fish *breathes* on your jig....
What everyone else says is good. Fish the windy shore, look for mid-lake structure and humps. All the big walleyes we caught last July in Quetico, except for the 10-pounder in my profile photo, were caught trolling J11 and J13 jointed Rapalas with no sinkers along the windy shorelines, and the windier the better! Even in mid-July and mid-day, the walleyes where whacking these body baits! Best colours are fire tiger and northern pike, and you bet your ass I just bought a bunch of new J13's in all the other colours!
Oh yeah, we were talking about jigging, sheesh. I shall add one gratuitious 10-lb walleye photo as proof of success. Holy frig - that's, like, one BFW, eh?
|
01/22/2021 12:47PM |
Original Road Runner Jig head
They do make a maribou hair jig version, too, which is super effective for panfish.
|
01/26/2021 11:19AM |
casualbriday: "Also, if you lower the tip and don't feel contact where you think you should, give it a crank and set."
Oh geez ... like, that's a beauty idea! Cuz, like, there might be a fish on, eh?
|
06/18/2020 03:36AM |
lundojam: "A drift sock tied to either the bow or stern will slow you right down. If you tie to the side somewhere the boat catches too much wind.
So, as vertical as possible (usually), as light a jig as you can get away with, light line (4 or 6), live bait, and a higher-end rod. Oh, and make sure you are on fish."
I go back and forth in my mind on the 'light jig and light line' school of thought. Right now I've landed on prioritizing more the 'as heavy a jig as it takes to be relatively vertical and in touch with the bottom'. Sort of the same thing as you are saying, but putting priority on the vertical, and not worrying so much that a heavier jig is a deterrent. I'll fish up to 1/2 oz if needed. Also, I'm always fishing with 8 lb line (mono or Fireline). Jig is tipped with half a crawler, or a leech.
This technique has worked great on stained lakes, 15-25 feet deep. But I will confess I've wondered how much better I might do if I opted for the more finesse oriented approach you describe (lighter jigs and lighter line). Just my experience, but I get humbled/outfished often enough that I freely admit I may be wrong.
|
01/20/2021 03:43PM |
|
01/20/2021 03:58PM |
|
06/18/2020 10:51AM |
Currents, drop offs, weed edges, rock reefs, etc. are all targets for drifting through. I constantly ensure jig is within 1ft of bottom. If the spot produced zero action I'll try it again with a different jig and if still no action then I move to the next spot. I'm no master walleye fisherman but I can't think of a time I was ever skunked.
|
01/20/2021 04:31PM |
Savage Voyageur: "Once you find a spot put out two anchors. One in front and one in the back. Then the canoe won’t spin around in the wind causing you to get out of the zone or one guy in in deep water. We normally just use a minnow, leech or crawler on a spinner. Then pull it back to the canoe. "
Or... If you haven't found the exact spot, use a single anchor with a fairly long rope. You will stay in the same general area but you will move around and cover more water... Once you find "the spot", drop the second anchor.
|
01/26/2021 02:35PM |
|
06/22/2020 02:55PM |
I may also be too attached to watching the fish take the bait on my fish finder....
|
06/22/2020 03:05PM |
ponddigger: "I found that jigging for lake trout in deeper water is pretty frustrating any time there is even a light wind. Anything over 50 feet is pretty much out of the question for me. ..."
Have you tried a drift net?
I've tried one but didn't have much success. I wonder if I just need to use it more to learn the hang of it.
|
06/16/2020 08:54PM |
I’m looking for ways to up my game when fishing in the BWCA with this technique. How have you found success? What kind of equipment do you use? Water depth? Casting or vertical? Preferred jig weights and trailers? Live bait/plastics? Anchored, drifting or trolling?
Thanks in advance for your input!
|
06/16/2020 10:07PM |
|
06/22/2020 04:12PM |
|
06/22/2020 04:58PM |
I have always been hesitant to try a drift sock because it’s just one more thing to manage in a canoe (anchor, leeches, depth finder, stringer) but it sounds like it might be the way to go.
|
01/22/2021 04:40PM |
|
01/22/2021 08:32PM |
casualbriday: "For vertical or slow drift jigging, visualize your line as a piece of mechanical pencil lead that extends from the tip of your rod to the bottom. The goal is to make marks on the bottom of the lake without breaking the lead. "
Holy geez.... that is, like, a perfect analogy! I will remember that one...
|
06/18/2020 08:28AM |
We're in Quetico so we fish sans live bait, using almost exclusively 3" or 4" Twister Tails, Gulp or some similar product, and we generally cast and retrieve. Very seldom do we vertical jig. I guess it's more about covering ground to find fish. It's funny, however, that sometimes we can cast 50-75' away from the boat and the fish hits right off the bow.
|
06/18/2020 09:53AM |
Jackfish: "We're in Quetico so we fish sans live bait, using almost exclusively 3" or 4" Twister Tails, Gulp or some similar product, and we generally cast and retrieve. Very seldom do we vertical jig. I guess it's more about covering ground to find fish. It's funny, however, that sometimes we can cast 50-75' away from the boat and the fish hits right off the bow. "
Thanks for the reminder/notation that jigging is a different game in Quetico because of live bait prohibition. My suggestions re jigging are predicated on the assumption that I can tip my bait with crawlers or leeches (or minnows). Should I ever do a Quetico trip, I'm sure I'd have a real learning curve.
|
01/23/2021 07:47AM |
Also, if you lower the tip and don't feel contact where you think you should, give it a crank and set.
On the blade jig topic, I picked up some 3/8oz ball head ones with a blade from fleet farm (this was prior to a trip where we'd likely be jigging for walleye in 35'+ and they only had road runners up to 1/8oz). They have a long shank, a wire keeper, and the blades are nickel on the back and the same color as the head (the ones I picked up were glow) on the front.
|
06/17/2020 07:42AM |
Vertical jig below the canoe. The long rope will move the canoe around over the good spot.
Pick up anchor and move slightly when the bite slows...
|
06/17/2020 07:45AM |
I say theoretically because I haven't had the right conditions to get this to work for me yet. I have bought and brought a drift net. But the wind was too strong for the drift net to slow me enough.
|
06/17/2020 09:43AM |
As for line, braid is great for jigging as it has basically no stretch so you can get responsive hooksets without needing to really yank on the rod. Braid will also grant you superior sensitivity for when a fish barely picks up your bait, for telling the difference between rocks, logs, and fish. Braid is also more behaved on spinning reels due to a lack of memory which can cause guide wraps. Braid can still wrap around guides when wind blows it around, but I don't have many issues with it on spinning reels. If you are going to use braid with a fluoro/mono leader (which I recommend), you might as well use some high-vis line like Super8SlickV2 that lets you watch your line a lot easier. With a 6-10ft leader, I don't think line visibility is something to be concerned about, and the bright line makes watching for slack (when you hop the bait and it doesn't sink all the way on the fall) so much easier. This is also advantageous when using some topwater baits, the Zulu rig, and worms/leeches (regardless of a bobber) where they might pick it up from the side and start running with it (obviously not jigging but helpful when using a single rod/reel for multiple types of presentations).
Note that my thoughts are all surrounding "vertical" jigging (or trying to get as close to vertical as possible). I don't cast jigs for bass in the BWCA (or haven't as of right now) as there are a lot of places to snag and I have an abbreviated tackle selection that makes me less inclined to play with fire when it comes to snag potential. But, fish are on the cover, so if your canoe casting game is on point and you're good at avoiding snags (by using the right head shape or keeping it right off bottom or whatever) then I think jigs in the BWCA could produce some giants. I end up using mostly moving baits and topwater.
|
06/17/2020 09:15PM |
So, as vertical as possible (usually), as light a jig as you can get away with, light line (4 or 6), live bait, and a higher-end rod. Oh, and make sure you are on fish.