Question about gills?

[High Tide]

Sitting watching football, and reminiscing about gill fishing and wanted to get your opinion. I never considered using two baits at once until this year.  Didn't really even think about it, because I didn't want to disturb the action, however I countered that by using a very light fly on top and a heavier jig on the bottom separated by 12"s of line. The reason I considered it was because I was fishing in 5 fow of water with 3' of weeds, and I was catching them by jigging high, and then lowering the bait slowly, then they'd wack it (sometime they'd hit it when it was falling only a foot below the ice.  Lastly, I was sight fishing, and noticed that the hogs were drawn to the natural fly every time, but almost always hit the jig-spike.

Does anybody else use two jigs/flies at once, and do you experience the same results?

[FelixD]

I have used one bait usually something bright to draw them in then sent something down to get a hit on a real tuff bite i have let a fly slowly drift down and when they suck it in WHAM.

[portageredneck]

i use two at slough just about everytime i go...i'll use 16 or 18 fly and not cut tag end off my polymer knot and tie tear drop or something 6 or 8 inches on the end..usually put mousie on top and wax on bottom and thump the bottom with the heavy jig and pbly 80% are caught on small fly...i also do this while crappie fishin but with minnow on bottom jig and it gives top bait action too from minnow swimming...not an expert by any means but it does well most of the time...don

[bubbagill]

I have done this on occasion for iced gills and crappie.  My setup is a 12 or 10 gill pill, ratfinkie, or something that fishes horizontal on the botton and an unwieghted fly on up the line have experimented with length of the dropper line and have almost always had the best luck at around a foot apart.  Once and a while on a really tough bite I have used a weighted fly on the bottom and a bare size 12 hook with a spike or small bee moth on it, and believe it or not he bare hook will hold its own in a really tough day.  I do this almost all the time for panfish in open water hillbilly style with the 16 foot grandpa cane pole in deep water same scenario weighted fly on the bottom and bare hook hanging horizontal on top.  In all honesty though this method works good but it has its time and place, it can be too much sometimes and I have lost a lot of fish doing it having two hooks and the vex cable working against itself can be a trick,lol, but I have seen it work enough times to not abondin ship with it.  I have interest in the replies to your question HighTide as I am trying to find a succesful method in using a dropper for the hook on spoons like Northland maybe a single hook or just dropping the treble away from the spoon, I love these spoons but they do bind up sometimes so I am looking to get away from that happening.  I also have even used two lead heads on the same line with decent hook ups like a gill pill on the bottom and a size 16 or 14 horizontal lead head on top.  For me the biggest thing to this method is making sure your line is centered up in the hole when landing a fish so that the top hook does not hook the ice and losing the fish off of the bottom hook when giving slack out to unhook the top hook, gets tricky at times, and sure takes a minute to get used to seeing it on the vex, I catch myself jigging up my own bottom hook at least Once every time I run this setup, lol then saying dogghhhh, thats the bottom hook goofball.

[High Tide]

Great replies, I look forward to more feedback.  Bubba, great info, thanks! As for perch, when I use a tandem rig for perch, try the waterwiggler fly from Orvis 12" above your perch jigs (for me
it's a purple Bro's Blood Worm or a TicToc) it really draws them in. Furthermore, if you get the Sportman's channel, look for Infisherman's Critical Concept, then look for the dropper segment for perch... Great info!   
 

[wax_worm]

I have done it for perch, but not for gills.  I see no reason why it would not work just like a drop shot does for bass.  Instead of using a dropshot weight for bass, put a 1/4 or 3/8 oz 3" or 4" tube as your drop shot weight and you may be surprised how many bass you catch on the lure on bottom that most just use a weight.  Same concept....smaller lures.

[A- bomb]

been running tandem bombs for years!
what i have found from running a hot color and a natural color below it is that if they stare at the hot one and you raise up the botm one you can convert about 25%. so it does help with it....
However
when i run hot up top and a SMALLER size as a dropper, and raise that up it goes up to 60% converting. so for me on a tandem rig size is what triggers more than color. i always run a black, skinny #16 as a dropper with a spike when i do. 80% of my fish come on the dropper. the boms maller and larger both drop at the same rate so it avoids tangles! and keeps the action

[chevy hillbilly]

i found success with it fishing flats, or coverless areas. However, i didnt really fish different baits or colors, i just used the bottom jig as a base drum so to speak, so i could really pound the bottom, kept it good and stirred up, and yet keep another jig a foot or so up and dancin around. Cant say exactly how much my catch rate went up, but it did improve. I dont do it all the time, but as mentioned above, definately has a time and place.

HB

[scuba268]

I do it alot especially at the strip pits. I will put a minnow on the bottom hook and about 18" up, a second hook with a grub or mousie on it. The swimming minnow moves the 2nd bait around. That way I dont have to jig quite as much.

[stag]

I do it alot especially at the strip pits. I will put a minnow on the bottom hook and about 18" up, a second hook with a grub or mousie on it. The swimming minnow moves the 2nd bait around. That way I dont have to jig quite as much.

Now thats an idea I haven't thought of before....good tip !

[Hog Daddy]

I have hard enough time managing one bait, let alone 2 on the same line. I am afraid I would be hanging one into my flasher cord, or catching the second on the edge of the ice.   I have fished beside people who do this, but never felt they did any better than i did with my one bait. I would probably only try it if the bite was slow, or I was trying to get a very tiny fly down quickly.   If in real shallow water and weeds, I would suggest spending some time dancing that jig /fly right under the ice...before lowering to the top of the weeds or into them.  Pounding the bottom with bigger jig and stirring things up might be a good thing to try as well .

HHD

[HighPockets]

My buddy always uses 2 jigs at one time and has caught one on each jig many times. He always has the heavier jig on bottom. If he is fishing with minnows it is on the bottom with the beemoth on top for extra movement.

Code: [Select]

http://i1231.photobucket.com

[HighPockets]

My buddy always uses 2 jigs at one time and has caught one on each jig many times. He always has the heavier jig on bottom. If he is fishing with minnows it is on the bottom with the beemoth on top for extra movement.

Code: [Select]

http://i1231.photobucket.com

Wanted to send you a picture of him catching two at once but just haven't figured out the posting picture thing yet. Hard to teach and old dog new tricks. lol

[Jigmup]

You don't catch enough bluegills that you need two jigs on a line? JK...I've done it a bunch when finesse jigging eyes in streams. If it works why argue it?

[HighPockets]

Hopefully this worked. I don't like my wife's mac.

[HighPockets]

Here is two at a time!!

[High Tide]

You don't catch enough bluegills that you need two jigs on a line? JK...I've done it a bunch when finesse jigging eyes in streams. If it works why argue it?

Lmao, talk about the pot calling the kettle black, being that you probably catch more walleye than anybody on the Indiana board in a giving year, but yet your still using a double rig for eyes! Just looking to add another tool to the bag 

In regard to the minnow on the bottom, I would think when you set the hook on the top jig the minnow would come off, or get his bell rung after a few hook sets.

High pockets great pic, I grew up on Lake Michigan, wacking double jumbo's many times, always fun! However,
my goal is to increase the likelyhood of making lookers become biters without becoming counter productive.
especially during a tough bite.

Thanks again for the replies, gonna run some test real soon, and will keep you posted.
 

[Jigmup]

Touche...LMAO
Heck I'm thinking of the fish, give em a chance!

[Fishking83]

Used to fish with some guys up in Michigan who could flat out catch fish through the ice.  Probably the best ice fisherman I have ever fished with.  They only used this setup if they were fishing deeper than 20 fow.  They always had a jig on bottom and fly up top.  They said it is very importatnt on the length of line on the fly.  Too long or too short and they said it is a waste.  The said the only drawback was that if you got a fish on the bottom jig that when you were walking your fish back often times the fly hook would get caught on the ice before you could get the fish out of the hole.

[High Tide]

Used to fish with some guys up in Michigan who could flat out catch fish through the ice.  Probably the best ice fisherman I have ever fished with.  They only used this setup if they were fishing deeper than 20 fow.  They always had a jig on bottom and fly up top.  They said it is very importatnt on the length of line on the fly.  Too long or too short and they said it is a waste.  The said the only drawback was that if you got a fish on the bottom jig that when you were walking your fish back often times the fly hook would get caught on the ice before you could get the fish out of the hole.

are you talking about snelling the fly, or the distances between the fly and the jig?

Mark, I'm always thinking about the fish... And how to get him to bite!