Vertical jigging minimizes line length to your lure and water resistance, which maximizes control and allows you to position a lure in precise spots. It’s an ideal way to present jigs, spoons, or bladebaits naturally and slowly along potential walleye holding areas like deep structure, current breaks, heavy cover such as stumps and brush, or among walleyes suspended in open water.

Factors that affect lure control are boat control, wind, and depth. Boat control is critical, but not complicated. The key is to use a boat-control method that will allow you to present your lure in the right spot at the right speed. Most vertical presentations simply require slow to sometimes motionless boat movement over key spots.

Using a tiller electric motor to slowly backtroll along the edge of structure is a common method. So is forward trolling along a contour edge with your bowmount electric trolling motor. In heavy current or in key spots, anchoring may be one of the best ways to keep your presentation vertical. Often the best speed is as slow as you can go.

Keep the boat positioned over key spots. Pay close attention to sonar and adjust your trolling motor left or right to hold your position. Landmarks on shore—a point, tree, or tower—provide a visual aid to help you stay on course. On a midlake reef, however, visual reference points may be lacking. Tossing markers on the reef provides visual reference points to keep your position. Markers, however, are some of the best angler decoys—attracting others to investigate the spot you’ve marked.

GPS owners should consider trolling the perimeter of a structure with the “path” option on. The Federal government lifted the Selective Availability (SA) from GPS signals, which means GPS units are potentially up to ten times more accurate. You may be able to follow the path you’ve created and actually pinpoint exact turns and bends along structure that seem to attract and hold more walleyes.

Jigging

Jigs are ideal for vertical presentations. In essence, jigs anchor and deliver bait. To stay vertical, the jig must weigh enough to sink the package fairly quickly. Typical jig sizes range from as light as 1/8 ounce in shallow water, up to 1 ounce or more out deep, in fast current or on windy days.

For most vertical jigging situations, a ballhead works just fine. I use the lightest jig possible, just heavy enough to keep it vertical to semivertical below the boat at the speed I want to move. A small 1/8-ounce flat-sided jig can be delivered down to 20 feet or more and stay vertical in the absence of wind and current. Below 30 feet, however, a 1/4-ounce jig seems to work better. If the wind picks up, a 3/8-ounce jig may be necessary.

Again, when conditions allow, downsize to the smallest size possible, but don’t fail to consider heavier jigs. For deep jigging, 3/8- to 1/2-ounce roundhead jigs work for most situations, but using an ounce or more may be necessary in current or at depths exceeding 40 feet. Jigging vertically in deep rivers, for instance, works better with heavier jigs. Jigs with a narrow profile, like Jack’s Vertical Jig, which is flat on the sides and deep top to bottom, cuts through current and stays vertical.

Match the jig to the bait. In order to get a good hookset with bigger minnows, a larger hook gap is required to compensate for the bulk of the bait. Jigs with wide-gap hooks, like a Northland Fire-ball or Bait Rigs Odd’ball, deliver a powerful hookset with bigger baits. Hook a minnow up through the lips, rather than through the skull, to keep it livelier longer. Lip-hooked minnows struggle and wiggle against the weight of the jig, creating vibration and flash. Try hooking a minnow through the tail, too, which causes it to try to swim away from the jig during pauses. Leeches or half-crawlers also produce. Thread half-crawlers onto the jig through the torn end. A leech hooked through the sucker allows it to stretch out and swim.

Consider fine-tuning your jig combos. A jig pretied with bucktail, feathers, or dressed with a plastic tail changes the profile and action of your presentation and adds color. Jigs with added dressing have more water resistance, though, especially when tipped with a minnow, which makes them fall slower, and they’re difficult to feel. An easy solution is to use a heavier jig to compensate for the bulk of the dressing. Small plastic bodies with marabou dressing, like a Lindy-Little Joe Fuzz-E-Grub tipped with 21⁄2- to 31⁄2-inch minnow, increase the profile of your jig, yet maintain a good sense of feel.

Jig Moves

Walleyes holding tight to the edges of structure are ideal candidates for vertical tactics. Use electronics to look for fish at the bases of drop-offs, like where a hard bottom meets a softer bottom. Fish located on or near breaks, or suspended off bottom or in open water, can be caught on vertical tactics, too.

Drop the jig to bottom, and once the line goes slack, reel up so a lift-drop of the rod tip makes the jig rise on and off bottom. Different motions to the rod tip create different actions at the opposite end. Some days, expect hits with minimal rod motion. Other days, try an added snap to the lift-drop, making the jig scoot up before free-falling to bottom.

Lifting slightly off bottom during pauses, letting the jig hang almost vertically on a tight line, works too—especially a lively minnow struggling against the weight of a jighead. Most days, however, a lift-drop of about 6 inches to a foot may be all that’s needed to trigger strikes. Gently lift the rod tip, then drop, but avoid excess slack. Fish generally strike the jig as it falls or rests on the bottom.

When walleyes are right on bottom, slower presentations may be the best option. Dragging the jig right on bottom can stir up some action. Tension on the line causes a dragged jig to pivot back and forth on its nose, raising the tail of the jig upward each time the jighead grabs bottom. When the jig momentarily catches on a rock, stick, or other mini-obstruction, it eventually pops forward and up before slowly returning to bottom, which seems to trigger strikes.

Pay close attention to detect light strikes. Fish that hit your jig on the fall, or a fish that inhaled your jig off bottom, can be hard to detect. Try to retain just enough line tension as the jig falls to detect a subtle strike. If you feel weight, set the hook.

With light jigs, walleyes generally inhale your entire bait. In most cases, I set the hook as soon as I feel a strike. With heavier jigs, or if I’m using bigger livebait and I’m setting the hook and missing, I often try waiting before setting. A big jig and minnow combo may be difficult for walleyes (especially smaller walleyes) to inhale. Sometimes, even big lethargic walleyes get only half the bait on the first strike. Wait and they may engulf the entire bait. Keep constant pressure on the fish until you feel it reposition the bait (tick-tick goes your tip; chomp-chomp goes the bait). Walleyes, though, sometimes spit jigs if they sense they’ve put something in their mouths that’s not edible. Adding a stinger hook is another option if you’re missing fish, which allows for setting the hook immediately.

To catch walleyes suspended off bottom or in open water, drop the jig to the bottom until the line goes slack, and reel up to the level where you marked the suspended fish. A line-counter reel (or a clip-on line-counter) allows you to reel up to nearly the exact spot where you marked the fish. A flasher sonar not only allows you to see and position your lure at precise depths, but also indicates fish—much like using flasher units for ice fishing.

Whichever method you use, try to position the jig near or slightly above the depth where you marked fish. Walleyes suspended a few feet from bottom generally are aggressive and won’t hesitate to swim over or up to investigate. But rarely will walleyes swim down to eat your bait—they’re not looking that way.

Again, a lift-drop of about 6 inches will do—just enough to create some motion for nearby walleyes to spot your bait. Lift-drop; bounce-bounce; hold-hold. A walleye that swims upward to strike your lure often hits from the bottom up, which may momentarily cause your line to go slack. Depending on the weight of your lure, the sudden loss of weight—after the fish inhales and continues to glide upward—may also cause your rod tip to pop up. It’s an abnormal feeling, but no less a strike. Slowly remove slack between the tip and the walleye before setting the hook. Sometimes, it’s better to wait until the fish turns to swim back down before setting, in order to get a good hookset in the corner of the mouth.

Medium spinning gear works best. Consider a 6-foot medium-light to medium-power fast-action spinning rod and spinning reel spooled with 6- to 8-pound mono. In deep water, I like a 6- to 61⁄2-foot medium to medium-heavy spinning rod so I can get a good hookset. Thin-diameter line cuts through water better than thicker, heavier line, so 6- to 8-pound mono will suffice. In deep water (40 to 50 feet), superlines like 15-pound Berkley FireLine cut through the water and offer good sensitivity. When fishing wood or rock snags, 10-pound test enables you to straighten most light-wire hooks to get your jig back.

Spoons And Blades

Vertical jigging spoons and blades are more aggressive tactics. Spoons and blades work anytime walleyes are holding on the edge of deep structure, like points, suspended in open water or off the tips edge of structure, or in current like tailraces below dams. Walleyes staging along river channel ledges can be caught on blades and spoons. In reservoirs, where silver-sided baitfish like ciscoes, shad, smelt, and alewives are present, walleyes often suspend near large schools of baitfish and can be caught on silver spoons and blades—fine representations of an injured coldwater baitfish. Even working them above submerged wood can attract walleyes out of snag-infested cover to investigate a potential meal.

Most predators attack when they spot prey showing any sign of weakness. Eagles, for instance, follow waterfowl migrations in spring and fall, primarily waiting to spot birds that have been injured or that show signs of weakness. Predators expend less energy by keying on injured prey that are easier to catch and just as filling.

Predator fish, like walleyes, that follow large schools of baitfish also seem to key on loner baitfish that wander away from the main school or are injured and unable to maintain a position within the school. This is likely the reason a vibrating bladebait or a fluttering spoon works so well in waters where walleyes feed on injured silvery-sided baitfish—smelt, shad, or ciscoes.

Used correctly, spoons and blades produce flash and vibration. Bladebaits like a Heddon Sonar or Reef Runner Cicada provide vibration and action on the rise. Spoons like a Luhr-Jensen Crippled Herring or a Hopkins Smoothie provide flash and flutter on the drop. Spoons like Bass ‘N Bait’s Rattle Snakie, Northland’s Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon, Lindy-Little Joe’s new Rattl’r, or bladebaits like Heddon’s Rattling Sonar, have enclosed rattles that further enhance their attracting power.

Use electronics to locate walleyes holding on the edge of structure. Drop a spoon to the bottom, then engage the reel, taking up slack until the line is tight and the spoon is just off bottom. Beginning with your rod tip pointed down at an angle (about 8 o’clock) toward the water, lift your forearm slightly while modestly snapping your wrist upward to about 11 o’clock. Use aggressive lift-drops of perhaps 12 to 18 inches. As the lure begins to descend, follow it downward with the rod tip. Keep slight tension, concentrate, and be prepared to set the hook the instant you feel any resistance. If you wait, a walleye likely will spit the metal bait.

Walleyes may suspend off the edge of structure or near schools of baitfish. On a liquid crystal graph, for instance, large schools of shad appear on the screen as a large gray mass. Fish hooks near or below baitfish schools may indeed be walleyes. Again, lower your lure near the depth where you marked the baitfish or fish. Simply snap the lure to create vibration and flash, then lower the lure back down.

Present blades and spoons on about 10-pound test with either spinning or casting gear. Use a 6- to 7-foot medium-heavy casting or spinning rod spooled with 10-pound test to work 1/2-ounce bladebaits.

A slow-as-possible vertical jigging presentation produces most days. Start with slower jigging tactics and experiment with different actions, slow or fast, to pinpoint which jigging method or action triggers more strikes. When you spot suspended fish that seem to be responding better to more aggressive tactics, try snapping a jig and minnow or blades or spoons. At times, aggressive tactics are a good way to trigger neutral and negative walleyes. Blades and spoons are an excellent option for getting the attention of walleye suspended off the edge of structure or in open water. Sometimes they work better than jigs if a crowd of fishermen are using jigs—a different look.