Deep Jigging

Vertical-jigging for deep panfish is apparently considered a niche activity. Or, people just want to keep doing it wrong. Take your pick. Panfish always go deep at certain points during the year and jigs always catch them when it happens. What we lack is any kind of selection of heavy jigs with small hooks. Jig manufacturers point to hook-makers, explaining that no small hooks are made to accommodate molds for big jigheads. Which is true. But the hook maker blames you. He says there is no demand for tiny hooks with a big, extended elbow that would fit a 1/4-ounce head.

Upon hearing this, most panfish anglers will shrug and crimp on a few more split shot. But some of you will call a custom jig maker and get the right tools, which are 1/8- and 1/4-ounce jigs with size #10 up to size #8 hooks.

A jig is more precise than a rig because the weight and the hook are part of one compact unit; so if you can feel the jig, you know precisely where your bait is. The farther the weight is placed from the hook, the less sensitive the rig is. If sinkers are placed 2 feet up the line, a panfish can move the bait 2 feet toward the sinkers and then 2 feet past them  without you feeling a thing. That’s a 4-foot dead zone. Rigs allow the bait freedom. Jigs allow the angler better control.

Put split shot on the line above a jig and you end up with the worst of both worlds. The bait has no freedom and sensitivity is reduced. When using a light jig below split shot, there’s a dead zone the jig falls through after the sinkers stop falling. And when the jig stops falling, it becomes difficult to feel an up bite, when a panfish bites on the rise and keeps going.

Best to use a TC Tackle Panfish Specialty jig. Tim McFadden of TC Tackle in Dillon, Montana, can make 1/8-ounce jigs with size #10 hooks and 1/4-ounce jigs with size #8 hooks that match up better with small leeches, but also make it possible to fish with slender, delicate baits like maggots without having to add split shot to the line.

Jigging is precise with a heavier jig. It gets back down to a hot bite more quickly. In the past, we substituted small spoons or blades, like the Acme Kastmaster or Reef Runner Cicada, to get straight down quickly, and that still works just fine. But a jig presenting bait or plastic horizontally sometimes works better, and the heavier the better, making tiny swimbaits the most overlooked options for deep panfish today.

The smallest (11⁄2 inches), like the Creme Spoiler Shad (internal head design) and the Northland Mimic Minnow Fry (external head design), work fine with no split shot on a calm day, or in water less than 17 feet deep. The models with a 90-degree eye remain horizontal when the knot is kept right on top of the eye, and it seems important because panfish often strike during a pause. Slightly larger versions, like the Storm Wild-Eye Curl Tail Minnow and the Bobby Garland Swimming Minnow are perfect for slab crappies.

Lift a swimbait 6 inches to 3 feet (depending on the activity level of the fish) and simply let it fall. Repeat and pause. Realism and soft plastic do all the rest.

But the best way to match the perfect hook with the right bait in depths of 18 feet or greater is with a drop-shot rig. Drop-shot rigs are perfect for panfish suspended a foot or two off bottom, because you can determine exactly how far up to present the bait simply by watching the depthfinder screen and adjusting the position of the weight on your line below the hook accordingly.

Using a Palomar knot on 4-pound line, you can make almost any hook with a slightly upturned eye work for panfish with a drop-shot rig. The idea, of course, is to tie up so the hook stands out away from the line with the point up. Take your favorite panfish hook (hopefully one with a short to medium shank and an up eye) and just keep tying Palomar knots until you get it right, leaving at least a 2-foot tag end below it.

In addition to perfectly presenting any kind of livebait, drop-shot rigs present plastics really well. Wacky-rig a Berkley Gulp! Angleworm on a size #10 Owner Mosquito hook, or nose-hook a Bobby Garland Baby Shad on a size #8 Eagle Claw baitholder. The possible combinations of hooks and baits are endless. When the bite gets really hot, bait is unnecessary. In fact, plastics are more efficient because you replace them less often and fish swallow them less. With the weight down below the hook, you can feel bites or see the line twitch, even when allowing the bait to flutter down with the sinker on bottom.

For all these tactics, both rigging and jigging, I use the same rod. It’s a 7-foot light-power fast-action stick. Almost every company makes one these days. Some people prefer a shorter 5-foot model, or even an ice rod, because they want to watch the jig go up and down on the depthfinder. That’s a crutch. Don’t bring that weak stuff up in here. Feel the bottom, feel the strike. Be a jigging Picasso. Paint the bottom lightly at first then pound away at it. I use small reels for vertical-jigging (like the Daiwa Regal RG1000), and moderate reels (like the Daiwa Regal RG 1500) for all other tactics. All reels are spooled with 4- to 6-pound Berkley FireLine, and 4- to 6-pound fluorocarbon leaders are added.

On calm days, it’s nice to hover on the spot with the bowmount trolling motor. On windy days, once you’ve identified the spot-on-the-spot, move the boat upwind and drop anchor, letting the boat drift back over the spot. Anchoring the back of the boat right on the spot is something I seldom do, preferring to allow the boat to swing over the area for better coverage. Dropping an anchor right on the spot isn’t always a good idea, anyway. If the boat is swinging too much, switch to a Thill or BigShot waggler-style float and fish it slipfloat style. The body of the float and the line connection are both underwater, so the wind won’t drag a waggler off the spot.

Few things in the realm of panfishing are more satisfying than finding a deep, isolated rockpile populated with 1-pound bluegills or 2-pound crappies in lakes with a lost reputation, lakes where most people think 9-inchers are big. But keep it to yourself and release everything. Showing off photos or (far worse) livewells full of slabs and bulls will result in followers that watch for your boat. And many of those followers tend to have no regard for the future of the fishery, or the lake’s reputation would never have been lost in the first place.