"Esoxonthefly" said:
I'm thinking about giving this a try and I am looking for basically a beginner's guide on how to do this. What time of year does this work best? Baits? General how to's.
I'll really try to condense this down, it could be thousands of words…
Vertical jigging is just as simple as it sounds, you get over where you expect the fish to be and present your bait to them. If you’ve never done this for any species I would strongly urge you to do this for walleye in a river to get some confidence. With muskies the feedback can be so infrequent that it can kill confidence in a technique that really works. This is truly structure fishing and an understanding of the teachings of Buck Perry are imperative to your success with this technique.
95% of this technique is being able to read structure and identifying the best area to jig. When vertical jigging on a lake I will jump from small spot to small spot picking away at every inch on key areas. In a river situation it can be very similar, sure you’re constantly moving but over time you’ll find there are very specific areas that will produce.
This can work anytime but is most productive in cool water 72 and below with the best fishing generally in the fall then the water goes below 55. There are many baits that can work for this but they'll usually tangle when fished vertically or they're terrible hooking baits. The fuzzy and the bondy are the best for this presentation. The guys out east use tubes but they use a dragging technique and it's really not what I would call vertical jigging.
Presentation can vary from day to day as with any bait. Some days they want it ripped up 3’ and dropped slowly, other days they want it lifted only a couple feet and dropped quickly and yet other days they seem to take a look but only eat it when you stop it at the top of the lift and jiggle it. You need to keep it in your head that there is a fish looking at your bait all of the time, you just need to make it eat.
I’ve caught fish vertical jigging as shallow as 12’ and as deep as 35’. There seems to be a “sweet spot” on a given day though and you need to find that as quickly as possible. In general I start at the weedline and work to deeper water when weeds are present. If no weeds are present you’ll be keying on specific structure that you have identified. For whatever reason, the key depth range seems to be from 16-26’ in all waters. Of course they can be shallower or deeper, let the clarity and light levels be your driving factor.
JT – I have never caught a fish jigging, (hooked, but never landed) although I have put in probably around 25-30 hrs doing it. But I still wanted to add a couple things that I have heard from Will or other jiggers.
– Always use a steel leader. When jigging, the fish hit it at the head 90% of the time.
– If using a Bondy Bait, take another treble, and cut off one of the points. Take the remainder and attach it to the eye. Since they normally eat at the head, this will really up the hooking %.
– Always be prepared, as it seems a fish will usually eat the the most unexpected times! (According to Will & Bondy).
– Make sure you have a long rod. If the fish eats at the top of the presentation, you will want to make sure you still have plenty of stick left to get a good hookset.
– Keep pressure on the fish. The first hookset probably didn't even get the barb all the way in. This is a lure that is hit when it's moving very slow compared to say, a bucktail, so there isn't as much opposite momentum when the fish strikes. Keeping pressure on the fish will drive the hook in deeper. (Just learned this part at Bondy's seminar at the MI show!) 
– And the last tip is — DON'T buy any Bondy baits just yet!! There will be a good selection at the Banquet! 😀
Very effective way to fish but also can be very boring…. Especially without any strikes. When they do hit, it can be one of the most bone jarring strikes I've ever felt. There still needs to be a better jig for Muskie applications. I've seen or heard just as many fish lost on Bondy Baits as caught. I've also seen more fish foul hooked on Bondy Baits than gliders. Someone needs to design a deep water jig that has a higher hooking percentage.. If you can fully commit to sticking to the jig the rewards are there. The problem is sticking to it while being fully focused at all times…
"detroithardcore" said:
Very effective way to fish but also can be very boring…. Especially without any strikes. When they do hit, it can be one of the most bone jarring strikes I've ever felt.There still needs to be a better jig for Muskie applications. I've seen or heard just as many fish lost on Bondy Baits as caught. I've also seen more fish foul hooked on Bondy Baits than gliders. Someone needs to design a deep water jig that has a higher hooking percentage.. If you can fully commit to sticking to the jig the rewards are there. The problem is sticking to it while being fully focused at all times…
Patience, my friend. Patience. I can't give away too many details, but I will tell you that one will be ready by next fall. Where there's a will, there's a way. [smilie=biggrin.gif]
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