What bait?

[stripernut1]

What bait do you wish you could be more proficient with and gain more confidence in using? Mine would have too be spoons especially vertical jigging.

for the last several years (since cumberland was lowered to work on the dam) me and missus stripernut have absolutely clobbered the big kys vertical jigging in the heat of the day in the middle of the summer. i cant remember ever having a technique or pattern that would yield 25+ fish in 2 hours, but this stuff was crazy, when you get the first fish to go it was on. the underwater ridge breaks with stumps or rock piles were the key. now the lake level has been raised back up and those spots are a little over a mile deep lol, and hold ZERO fish, i have graphed and graphed with no luck. im certainly not an expert on the subject but what i have found with vertical jiggin is this....you graph 75% of the time and fish 25%. locate the fish suspended on some sort of structure with deep stuff very close by, and schools of bait . the vertical jigging varied from day to day, some days you would need to rip the spoon 6-7 feet and let it flutter back down, some days you would just twitch the rod tip to rasie the spoon a foot or so, the fish would tell you what they want. also one thing became very clear over time, the brighter , hotter sunnier days were the ticket, the fish were more tightly concentrated on the deep structure and were more competitive and the bite would start quicker and we would catch more fish in a shorter amount of time. cloudy dreary overcast days were usually a bust.
also 8lb pline flourocarbon line seemed to make a difference over mono.
vertical jigging spoons is probably the hardest technique ive ever dealt with, its not the actual mechanics of lifting and dropping the rod, its spending time on the graph, lots of time on the graph, and more time on the graph lol.
best of luck to you

[dac244]

for the last several years (since cumberland was lowered to work on the dam) me and missus stripernut have absolutely clobbered the big kys vertical jigging in the heat of the day in the middle of the summer. i cant remember ever having a technique or pattern that would yield 25+ fish in 2 hours, but this stuff was crazy, when you get the first fish to go it was on. the underwater ridge breaks with stumps or rock piles were the key. now the lake level has been raised back up and those spots are a little over a mile deep lol, and hold ZERO fish, i have graphed and graphed with no luck. im certainly not an expert on the subject but what i have found with vertical jiggin is this....you graph 75% of the time and fish 25%. locate the fish suspended on some sort of structure with deep stuff very close by, and schools of bait . the vertical jigging varied from day to day, some days you would need to rip the spoon 6-7 feet and let it flutter back down, some days you would just twitch the rod tip to rasie the spoon a foot or so, the fish would tell you what they want. also one thing became very clear over time, the brighter , hotter sunnier days were the ticket, the fish were more tightly concentrated on the deep structure and were more competitive and the bite would start quicker and we would catch more fish in a shorter amount of time. cloudy dreary overcast days were usually a bust.
also 8lb pline flourocarbon line seemed to make a difference over mono.
vertical jigging spoons is probably the hardest technique ive ever dealt with, its not the actual mechanics of lifting and dropping the rod, its spending time on the graph, lots of time on the graph, and more time on the graph lol.
best of luck to you

Thanks for the tips.