Thread: Flatlining?

Flatlining jigs....would somebody describe and explain this method please?

Long lining not flat lining. There are some on here that do it , I am not one . Someone will explain it in a while, but it is just another method of jig fishing with light jigs witha lot of line out to get jigs away from boat.

Basically, as I understand it...take your crankbaits off and tie on jigs, then slow way down and you're flatlining/long lining basically. Spose to be deadly at times......matter of fact, wasn't the guy that whipped us all at the first FJ last year? Can't remember his name at the moment. Might be wrong about the FJ, but he and his partner took a bunch of money from folks with the method last year.


Wannabe...

No weights....just jigs,pulled way behind the boat...is that right? What weight jigs do they normally use for this.

G3 , go to top of page under search topic and type in Long Lineing and there will be numerous threads on the subject>

When I move from one spot to another in a small lake and drag my jig along behind me I'll catch an occasional fish. Always wondered what they called that, besides catchin fish.

Long Lining for Crappie
For those of you that are not familiar with this way of fishing it is fun and you can cover a lot of water.
I start out with 1- 1/16 teezur jig heads on each rod I tie them with a loop knot about 12 to 14 inches apart I place a southern pro hot grub on road runner jig head using different colors until I find what the fish want if it is cloudy start with a dark color if it is sunny use a light color. Now I use a 14’, 12’, and 10’ bnm pro staff placed in rod holders out the right side of the front and the same on the left. If I have client’s in the back they have 10’ bnm pro staff placed in rod holders pretty much straight out. I use a gps to watch my speed and I start out at 0.5mph when I start moving I begin to get the baits in the water. Start with your 10’ first then the 12’ and last the 14’ this will keep from getting the bait tangled together in the back of boat work from the inside out. Throw the baits about 20 to 30’ behind the boat. Now that we have our baits in the water I am going to start in the channel in about 14’ of water and watch my speed and sonar. I will work the deeper water first and move into more shallow water until I find the fish. Once I find fish I pay close attention to my speed where I can go back over them again. If I am not catching fish I change my speed a little at a time this will adjust the depth of your bait. Now you cannot turn your boat to quick so you have to plan ahead to turn the boat around because you have to make a wide sweeping turn or real up and then turn if you don’t have room to make the wide turn. I will pull jigs anywhere from 16’ of water to 3’. When you first try this you will get tangled up some and even after you have done it awhile you will still tangle up some but it is a great way to locate some fish and this will work all thru spring until the fish go back deep for the summer. I like the road runner jig heads because they add flash and vibration southern pro has many colors to choose from. I use a hi Vis 6# test line this helps me see if my lines do get crossed up.

Originally Posted by satdoc1

Long Lining for Crappie
For those of you that are not familiar with this way of fishing it is fun and you can cover a lot of water.
I start out with 1- 1/16 teezur jig heads on each rod I tie them with a loop knot about 12 to 14 inches apart I place a southern pro hot grub on road runner jig head using different colors until I find what the fish want if it is cloudy start with a dark color if it is sunny use a light color. Now I use a 14’, 12’, and 10’ bnm pro staff placed in rod holders out the right side of the front and the same on the left. If I have client’s in the back they have 10’ bnm pro staff placed in rod holders pretty much straight out. I use a gps to watch my speed and I start out at 0.5mph when I start moving I begin to get the baits in the water. Start with your 10’ first then the 12’ and last the 14’ this will keep from getting the bait tangled together in the back of boat work from the inside out. Throw the baits about 20 to 30’ behind the boat. Now that we have our baits in the water I am going to start in the channel in about 14’ of water and watch my speed and sonar. I will work the deeper water first and move into more shallow water until I find the fish. Once I find fish I pay close attention to my speed where I can go back over them again. If I am not catching fish I change my speed a little at a time this will adjust the depth of your bait. Now you cannot turn your boat to quick so you have to plan ahead to turn the boat around because you have to make a wide sweeping turn or real up and then turn if you don’t have room to make the wide turn. I will pull jigs anywhere from 16’ of water to 3’. When you first try this you will get tangled up some and even after you have done it awhile you will still tangle up some but it is a great way to locate some fish and this will work all thru spring until the fish go back deep for the summer. I like the road runner jig heads because they add flash and vibration southern pro has many colors to choose from. I use a hi Vis 6# test line this helps me see if my lines do get crossed up.

I was going to respond but I think he covered it above. We usualy longline at speeds between .7 mph to 1.1 mph. I know some folks that will "speed troll" around 1.4 mph to 1.6 mph. Great method when the crappie are schooling in open water.

Well, I talked to one of the Crappie Master's guy for a while and that was his prefered method. From what he told me, it's kind of an art to get the jigs to the depth you want. Lot of trial an error calculating line size, weight, boat speed wind, how far back and current if any. He said generally he's pulling 1/16 of 1/32, some heavier if pulling road runners because the resitance of the blade can make it rise in the water column.

When you say "way behind" the boat, that's subjective. He had all small spinning reels and even if he had 4 lb line, max line count would only be about 150 ft. I'm guessing distance varies, but probably between 50 and 100 depending.

I said I was gonna try it this past year, but never really got off the cranks long enough to give it a shot. Hard to incorporate a lot of new stuff as little as I actually get to fish.

Wannabe...

I use 1/16-1/24/or1/32. Usually do it when schools of shad are out in open water, any curly tail jig will work , i like to use this method in water less than 10ftw. Its deadly on butla.