Controlling jig depth

I guess this is another newbie question that will be obvious to most, but I'm having a little trouble with it. The question is how much line to let out when I'm tight-lining. If I mark the fish at a depth of, say, 12 feet and am trolling around 1 mph, how much line do I need to let out so that my jig will wind up at the 12 ft. mark. Even with the slow trolling speed, I know that my line is going to be pushed back some, so I've got to allow for that by letting out a little more line, right? So far I've just been estimating, but I'd like to get a little more accurate if I can. Thanks fellas for your help.

I'm sure some of the more knowledgeable guys we have on here have some type of mathematical formula for doing this, but I do it the redneck way... make a good cast out and put it in the rod holder. I control my jig depth with speed I usually troll .8 to 1.1...I must be doing something right as I manged to put a few fish in the boat from time to time.

Dutch, it'll have to be a good redneck answer for me as well. I flunked math....twice, so no formulas for me please. I'm just trying to figure out a way to save some of my jigs.

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Originally Posted by doodlebug

Dutch, it'll have to be a good redneck answer for me as well. I flunked math....twice, so no formulas for me please. I'm just trying to figure out a way to save some of my jigs.

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Alot of it is experience...say you are trolling double jigs a 1/16 on top and a 1/32 on bottom at 1 mph and your in 15ft water and go over a hump that is 7ft deep and all your rods start dragging then you know that that combo will run around 7ft deep at 1 mph. Just have to experiment with speed and jig combos as you troll and after a while you will have a "feel" for how they should run.

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Originally Posted by doodlebug

I guess this is another newbie question that will be obvious to most, but I'm having a little trouble with it. The question is how much line to let out when I'm tight-lining. If I mark the fish at a depth of, say, 12 feet and am trolling around 1 mph, how much line do I need to let out so that my jig will wind up at the 12 ft. mark. Even with the slow trolling speed, I know that my line is going to be pushed back some, so I've got to allow for that by letting out a little more line, right? So far I've just been estimating, but I'd like to get a little more accurate if I can. Thanks fellas for your help.

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are you "Tight lining " aka PUSHING at 1.0 mph???? As stated in ur post???? If so...way too fast for pushing! .6-.7 max with at least 1/2 oz trolling sinker....BUT IF YOU REALLY MEANT PULLING ...AKA LONG LINING ...DRAGGING JIGS....

You have to tie several sizes on...find a clean bottom flat...go from deeper to shallower and document what size jig hits bottom first ..then so on and so on...till you have a good idea of run depth...use same line on all rods..constant speed ...you'll get it....And alway always....PULL 1-3 ft ABOVE THE FISH!!!!

if you are hanging up and loosing jigs try some light wire hooks .

If you are referring to longline trolling then the method golf pro mentioned above is what you need to do. Lot of variables like speed, type of jigs you use, line, how far your cast is etc. To answer your question if I was in your situation and the fish were 12ft down I personally would pull like a single 1/8th Oz jig on some rods and even a single 3/32 Oz or 16th and 32nd together on some other rods trolling at .9 or 1mph. Pay attention to which ones the fish are biting the most and switch to that size jig. Hope this gives you a starting point.

Make sure when you get all this figured out that you continue to use the brand of jig heads and jig bodies that you used to figure all this out!! LMBO. All jokes aside there are so many variables that it will take a lot of trips and experiments before you get it figured out. One time while at Blackshear I was trolling the same speed going up the lake as going down the lake but every time I went down the lake my jigs would drag the bottom. I finally realized they were generating and pulling the water so fast that it was pushing my jigs to the bottom. EXPERIENCE will be your BEST teacher.

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Originally Posted by EARL KITCHENS

Make sure when you get all this figured out that you continue to use the brand of jig heads and jig bodies that you used to figure all this out!! LMBO. All jokes aside there are so many variables that it will take a lot of trips and experiments before you get it figured out. One time while at Blackshear I was trolling the same speed going up the lake as going down the lake but every time I went down the lake my jigs would drag the bottom. I finally realized they were generating and pulling the water so fast that it was pushing my jigs to the bottom. EXPERIENCE will be your BEST teacher.

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that is what mom said, Experience is the best teacher You can go wrong with mom

Sorry I haven't answered sooner, I've been gone for a few days. Thanks for all the responses. I'm talking about "pushing" from the front using a spider rig. According to my GPS, I was trolling about 1 mph, and that was about as slow as I could go. I figured I needed to go slower so I just bumped the trolling motor on and off trying to slow down that way, and that is when I started getting hung up a lot. I started taking up some line and that helped, but I just wasn't sure how deep I was. I can see now that this is going to need a little experimenting, but that will require me to go more often. Least that's what I'm going to tell my wife.:biggrin