I love feeling responsible for triggering fish strikes with jigging lures. The culmination of selecting the best lure for the conditions and performing specific jigging action, based on how I think fish are responding to the bait, often tempts fish strikes—which keeps me craving much more of the same action.

Flash and swimming lures are two popular baits for vertical jigging. Flash lures are quite easy to use and can produce lots of fish every season. Swimming lures also fool lots of fish—however, it takes a bit more practice to master certain moves and to know when it’s best to use them. Properly jigged in a timely manner, both excel in certain situations.

Flash Lures—Jigging a flash lure is pretty straightforward. A basic lift-fall-hold jigging action creates lots of vibration and flash on the upstroke and free-fall, and a timed pause gives fish the opportunity to strike. The key is to keep it simple and try to get a rhythm going that seems to trigger the most strikes.

Drop the bait to bottom, raise it 3 to 6 inches, and hold for about 5 seconds. (I’ve lost count of the times fish bit before I ever started jigging.) Next, lift the rod tip up 10 to 12 inches to send the lure darting up and away, flashing and vibrating. Instantly drop the rod tip back to the starting point and let the lure free-fall, fluttering and flashing like an injured baitfish, back into place.

The pausing, or hold, is the final and often most important aspect of the lift-fall-hold jigging sequence. Holding the bait motionless gives fish the opportunity to time their attack—and it’s often when they inhale the bait. Count if you must, and let the bait rest for 5 seconds or longer. During the pause, one trick is twitching the spoon lightly to get the bait tipped on the lower treble to sway back and forth, keeping the spoon stationary. The slight action of the swinging lower treble seems to add enough motion to the lure to entice fussy fish.

Rip jigging is another variation, but the basic jigging motion remains a lift-fall-hold. The aggressive technique seems to call fish in for a look and the intense action can trigger reaction strikes. (See the illustration.)

In open water, fish slam flash lures that aren’t tipped with bait. But in winter, tipping the lower treble with a minnow, minnow-head, or grub is part of the flash lure package.

Let the fish determine what type of bait to use and how to tip it on the hook. In most cases, a minnow-head works great. The head stays fairly secure on the hook and adds enough scent to trigger strikes. But I’ve also experienced a half minnow triggering more strikes. Using a whole minnow isn’t out of the question, either, even though the complete package (lure and minnow) may measure 5 to 6 inches. Sometimes packing the treble with 14 grubs is what fish want; other times, adding one maggot to each hook produces better than any other method. Whatever fish want, give it to them.

The best way to tip a minnow or minnow-head on your hook is to drive the hook point down through the top of the skull and jaw, rather than starting the hook point under the jaw and then up through the skull. When tipping with grubs or maggots, center-hooked grubs stay on better.

Swimming Lures—In the hands of an expert puppeteer, string-activated puppets can be made to move, dance, and prance in lifelike fashion. Anglers can develop similar skills with their ice rod and line, making swimming lures appear lifelike, too.

Swimming lures have a baitfish profile resembling a minnow, chub, shiner, shad, or young-of-the-year panfish. Properly timed, every lift, drop, hop, bounce, shake, and hold are ways anglers can manipulate the lure to duplicate the moves real baitfish make that cause fish to strike.

I start my jigging sequence with a basic lift-fall-hold. Start by lifting the rod tip up between 12 to 16 inches; let the bait free-fall and settle back into place, then hold for a few seconds. It’s the most unrealistic jigging move, considering that baitfish rarely repeatedly dart up and away and then back down to the same spot, but it’s one of the best moves to attract fish. Once you spot a fish below (often visible on electronics), a variety of other, more realistic jigging moves can make your bait appear lifelike.

My favorite move is mimicking a minnow trying to escape. A minnow that spots a fish getting too close instinctively tries to swim away. Likewise, a fish that recognizes its prey trying to escape often ambushes before the opportunity is gone. It’s why purposely moving a swimming lure up and away often triggers the fish to rush and crush the bait. (See the illustration.)

A nervous jiggle is another move that best imitates the movement a baitfish makes before it gets ready to take off. Just before a baitfish darts off, it begins to move and quiver, coiling its body, fins flailing and rippling, preparing to flee. Predators anticipate this movement and often react by biting before the baitfish gets away.

It’s a fast maneuver yet is barely a movement up and down. Concentrate on shaking the bait, just moving your hand up-down. Don’t try to move the rod tip; that moves the lure too much. Concentrate on your wrist or your hand to make the lure roll or flip left-right, left-right on its axis, mimicking a baitfish preparing to flee.

A stunned or unsuspecting baitfish totally unaware of any danger is an easy meal for fish. A baitfish in such a state is often motionless, so it makes sense that fish would strike a stationary lure.

Holding a lure steady for 30 to 90 seconds (or longer) is the challenge. If you can’t hold it still that long, put your rod on a bucket or in a rod holder and deadstick the bait a few feet from bottom. When a fish moves in, resist the temptation of trying to tease a strike via jigging—not jigging is probably the reason the fish is interested. Wait and watch for a strike.

No takers? Drop the bait to bottom and let it sit there for 5 to 10 seconds. Having used my underwater camera for several seasons, I’ve watched lots of fish **** spoons and flash lures right off bottom. On the other hand, bottom crashing (see illustration) can also be used in this situation.

Ideally, specific jigging moves cause your lure to respond and fish to react—a simple formula that keeps anglers connected to fish. Use the best lure for the conditions, learn specific moves that make your baits perform, and select the best move based on fish behavior. After that, it’s up to the fish.