How do you vertical fish your jigs

I bought some new Bobby Garland soft plastics the other day, pretty much a few different bags of the baby shads in electric chicken, silver sparkle, orangish color and a bag of black w/yellow slab slayer. I was using a 1/8th jig head and while I got a handful of bites nothing seem to really want them. I was in 11-14fow, and the water is always cloudy/stained and only about 2ft of clarity. I had the most amount of bites using the silver color. I'd let it sink to the bottom, and give it a couple quick, short slight jerks and let it sit for a few seconds then repeat. I could see there were a lot of fish right by it (fish finder) but again nothing too interested. Is a 1/8th oz. jig head too big?

I personally use 1/16th or even some 1/8th jig heads with soft plastic trailers about 99% of the time. My favorite set up is #4 pound, Hi Visability Yellow Stren fishing line and a slip float rig.
Set the depth and swim near the bottom or at a mid depth range very slowly.

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One of the more important things I think to getting your jig slammed by a crappie is keep your jig near some kind of structure....
The sayn "you ain't crappie fishn unless you get hung up every now & again" has held to be at the top of my success.....

If fish are attracted to your jig but not biting, sweeten the jig with a Crappie Nibble. When this stops working, sweeten the jig with a waxie.

CrappiePappy has written an article on "Vertical Casting". I've been using the same method for about forty years. It works!

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Originally Posted by deathb4disco

CrappiePappy has written an article on "Vertical Casting". I've been using the same method for about forty years. It works!

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Here's the article : Crappie Pappy Article

Other than using this method, if I were to encounter the same situation you've described, I would probably downsize my bait & jighead. If I had them, I might also consider adding some "meat", as Badgerloader suggests.

Their "interest" in your bait may have been more "curiosity" than a desire to feed on it. Their close proximity to the bottom could also be a sign that they were in a neutral/resting mode at the time, possibly from weather/water conditions. :dono

The shallower crappie that are holding in the structure are the more aggressive fish.

If I see that fish are hanging between 7-12 feet I'll drop my jig down to 7' and hold it still, then move it around the the other side of the tree. If no bites then I drop it 2' deeper and repeat, and then drop it 2' more to 11-12'. There is usually a quicker bite at the shallower depths and a more subtle bite if the deeper fish hit.

I use 1/16 oz if I'm fishing down to 10-15'. I fish standing timber in 5-30' of water, but I almost never fish deeper than 15' even in the deeper water. If crappie are holding shallower than 8' I generally use a 1/32 oz jig head.

I use a 12' jigging pole and 4lb mono.

If I start getting bites at 7-8' deep, that is generally the depth that I'll get bit all over the lake/cove whether I'm in 8' of water or 28'.

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Originally Posted by shipahoy41

I personally use 1/16th or even some 1/8th jig heads with soft plastic trailers about 99% of the time. My favorite set up is #4 pound, Hi Visability Yellow Stren fishing line and a slip float rig.
Set the depth and swim near the bottom or at a mid depth range very slowly.

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How do you fish a slip float in 11-14' of water??

You really don't have to do anything, but drop it down and try to hold it still. Next to standing cover or laydowns is even better. Above the thermocline of course, been limiting out 83 deg. water 9' deep in standing timber.

"How do you fish a slip float in 11-14' of water??"
He uses a rubber bobber stop that slides up the line when it gets back to the top of the bobber it stops. I use the string type and it just winds back up into my reel with the line.

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Originally Posted by scrat

"How do you fish a slip float in 11-14' of water??"
He uses a rubber bobber stop that slides up the line when it gets back to the top of the bobber it stops. I use the string type and it just winds back up into my reel with the line.

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Thanks, I will try that.

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Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

Here's the article : Crappie Pappy Article

Other than using this method, if I were to encounter the same situation you've described, I would probably downsize my bait & jighead. If I had them, I might also consider adding some "meat", as Badgerloader suggests.

Their "interest" in your bait may have been more "curiosity" than a desire to feed on it. Their close proximity to the bottom could also be a sign that they were in a neutral/resting mode at the time, possibly from weather/water conditions. :dono

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Nice article. Thanks. I do have a question. How in the world do you hold your boat so still to be so still with the jig bringing it back up? When I am over a brush pile, I seem to move around too much to fish a jig the way you are describing it but may just be me. I might be able to do it during a very calm water day but that doesn't happen much around Ky LK.

I keep line tight (in contact with jig ) . Sometimes they want it still and at times they like it moving . Main thing is keep it up off the bottom . I use 1/8 oz jig heads with larger tubes . You can control fall or depth with a jig pole vertical fishing . They tend to prefer moving horizontal or up to a bait. Most say they usually don't feed down .

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Originally Posted by tncrappiebass

Nice article. Thanks. I do have a question. How in the world do you hold your boat so still to be so still with the jig bringing it back up? When I am over a brush pile, I seem to move around too much to fish a jig the way you are describing it but may just be me. I might be able to do it during a very calm water day but that doesn't happen much around Ky LK.

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LOL !!! .... yeah, I know what you mean, believe me. When I wrote the article I was without a boat and fished out of my buddy's Tracker TX17 ... and it wobbled quite a bit with even a little bit of wave action. I now fish out of my boat, a 16' ProCraft that it appears has quite a bit of flotation, as it also is affected by light wind/wave action.

Best way I can describe "how" I attempt to hold my rod "still" (as it relates to keeping the jig "still") ... is that I loosely hold the rod/reel in my hands and let my body absorb all the boat movement, keeping my rod tip at the same spot as best as possible. To be honest, Vertical Casting is not really a method for heavy wave action that bounces the boat around very much. But then, deadsticking, or even slow vertical jigging aren't either :Doh: (IMHO) And faced with those conditions & not able to find calmer water (with fish present), I'd be more likely to be casting my jig as my primary method. Secondly I may try trolling cranks or jigs ... or even using the Drop Shot method if the fish were concentrated around a piece of cover or a small area.

4 lb test in shallow water and finicky fish ....1/32 oz and a crappie nibble and don't wait for a bite ...watch for the line to slack
most of the crappie I ketch never actually "bite" and or thump it unless they are some kinda frisky .....
they ambush it and sit with it in them crappie lips and don't run off with it like other fish do very often ....
folks that wait for crappie "bites" don't hammer lips near as much as those "watching" the line do ....
that would be my 2 cents on it

Thanks everyone for the tips and advice. My set up is a 4.6 ultra lite Ugly Stik with 4lb trilene and a 8ft BnM jigging pole with 6lb. and I think I'm going to invest in more dark colors as well, where I go a lot seems to always be a cloudy, yellow/green color with about 2ft of visibility. The area is pretty much a flat bottom bay with a few drop offs but no real structure to speak of. I'm finally going to make the trip to the "new lake" I've been talking about Friday, it's an old glacier formed lake and supposed to have all kinds of drop offs and structure...we'll see. Thanks again

First, it's impossible to hold a jig still in a boat, near motionless is the best you can hope for.A lot of the time that's just right. Boat movement from wake or wind and just being human imparts a little action. Fall rate is also important. If they don't want it on the bigger head, keep dropping the size til they do. One day I started with an eighth and the bite improved as I went all the way down to 1/64 and it was almost a fish on every cast. Also when they are finicky I sometimes don't lift the rod tip to twitch the jig, I drop it an inch and hold it there. It's a more subtle movement that sometimes is just right.

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Originally Posted by tncrappiebass

How do you fish a slip float in 11-14' of water??

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Set your rubber bobber stop so the jig is about two feet off the bottom. A slip sliding float system can be set in depths up to 24 feet.

I have proved to several folks that there is no such thing as a motion less presentation . I tell them to stand on the ground and hold a jig pole with a jig on the line as if fishing . Try to hold it motionless . It will jump and wiggle no matter how hard you try . The magnified motion on the long rod ,increases all the movements . That will make heart beats and breathing move the jig not counting when boat moves while fishing .

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Originally Posted by shipahoy41

Set your rubber bobber stop so the jig is about two feet off the bottom. A slip sliding float system can be set in depths up to 24 feet.

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No disrespect intended, Ship ... but, I don't think there's any maximum depth limit for a slip float rig.