You guys Jigging Maine waters

[woodchip]

Yesterday out jigging for 3 hrs ! the wind picked up from the south so i left early. But yesterday i noticed for my first time this winter the fish were up off bottom a ways and biting good. the other days this winter the fish were right on bottom . and a very slow easy bite. I cant remember a winter as this one.

[Jim_C.]

I was out jigging on Thursday.  Yes, the fish were aggressive.  It was crappie and big yellows early, then whites.  Lots of fish suspended fish well above bottom and willing to zoom up and grab a jig.  I marked some fish 10 feet under the ice not far from a 110 foot hole.  Good times   I would have missed out on a lot without my flasher.

[Anomaly]

I always love suspended fish!!! So often anything up in the water column is hunting, or at least very willing to bite!!! My Marcums are set to full water column beside 10' bottom zoom. Love to see fish come in high!! This one came in at 10' under the ice in 40' of water.. Reeled up... Fish ON!!!

[eiderz]

Suspended fish are generally the best biters. Mud monsters can be difficult. Like woodchip, I've had trouble moving fish off the bottom this year. Had a couple of good days last week, I don't recall if Thursday was one of them. I rolled my sled a week ago and rung my bell, so I probably don't recall much of anything clearly.    Rookie move, heading in from cusk fishing. Going dead slow trying to turn on glare ice, caught the carbide on a rut and over she goes. The old body is hurting. Helmet saved me from a hospital visit.

[woodchip]

Sorry to hear of your rollover. not fun .My flasher has full column and zoom on bottom area also My biggest togue have been just under ice ,when togue feed they wound a lot of smelts which float up under ice . the big fish know that and swim along with their Dorsal fin against ice and clean up all disable wounded smelts . so i have found that put your bait down a foot or so just under ice  does work . Ive caught several over 10lbs over the last 50 years.

[Steve H.]

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That's a tank!  Great job getting that up and out with that jig rod.

[Seamonkey84]

I’ve had very little luck jigging this year, like you said, lots of bottom hugging fish. Doesn’t help most of my days off have been clear blue skies, but hope that changes today! About to head out again, finally some cloud cover and dropping baro pressure

[woodchip]

For a good day jigging . early in Morn  when you look out at your bird feeders and see birds feeding heavy, That means it will be a good fish bite when you get to your jigging hole. Its been a proven fact for me over the last 50+years!!!!!

[Jack978]

For a good day jigging . early in Morn  when you look out at your bird feeders and see birds feeding heavy, That means it will be a good fish bite when you get to your jigging hole. Its been a proven fact for me over the last 50+years!!!!!

Paying attention to what the animals are doing is a good indicator.  They don't have GPS or an internet connection, but they seem to know when it's time to eat without electronic assistance.

[Seamonkey84]

Well the fishing wasn’t great when I went out last mon (26th). We had several flags where we were, but 2/3 were missed strikes or missing bait. We were using md and lg shinners to try to avoid perch flags, while we jigged to try to find said perch, unsuccessfully. Even jigging the holes we had flags at didn’t produce. Still didn’t even get a small pike, but we got a couple nice 4-5lb bass.

[woodchip]

That is one reason i like using my Flasher .it shows me what is down their and depth of fish.

[Seamonkey84]

Yea… even the panoptix didn’t help much. Barely seen any suspended fish all season. Panning around, can’t really see them if they aren’t off bottom or moving towards/away from you causing the bottom to move.

[woodchip]

Ive noticed over the years that when theres a heavy wind the bite is always slow , if you look at water in your hole if you see the water moving up and down from wind pressure  ,  fish get spooked with pressure like that. always better off home working on firewood .

[woodchip]

Ive noticed over the years that when theres a heavy wind the bite is always slow , if you look at water in your hole if you see the water moving up and down from wind pressure  ,  fish get spooked with pressure like that. always better off home working on firewood .

[lowaccord66]

Yea… even the panoptix didn’t help much. Barely seen any suspended fish all season. Panning around, can’t really see them if they aren’t off bottom or moving towards/away from you causing the bottom to move.

You can with a slight setting adjustment.  If you are using the first gen panoptix, the setting is called "bottom fill"itll help you see the bottom clingers better.  Livescope it doesnt matter I can see them on bottom pretty clear.

[Seamonkey84]

Thanks for that tip. Yes I have the ps22, not the livescope (what I call HD version lol). I got out for just over an hour this morning before work and tried it out. When m I turned on the bottom fill, it made it a lot easier to filter out the noise on the bottom. I was set up for trout and not in the right areas for panfish, bummed that I still didn’t see anything swimming around in the immediate area at the time.

[Bottle_O_Moxie]

I've noticed the same thing this season, the fish are right on the bottom and very reluctant to rise and take a bait while jigging.  In the last three weeks I've fished four different ponds - one in Damariscotta, one in Windham, one in North Anson, and one in Willimantic.    My Garmin Striker 4 was along for each trip and each time I saw fish laying on the bottom and would only come up two or three feet to look at a bait then quickly sink back to the bottom. 
Four different ponds, 20 different depths, several different types of bottom structure/condition, different times of day, many different types of jig, both with and without real bait on the jig - - - but all the same result.    Not much biting going on and not any fish in the upper column. 

I haven't had a season like this one before.   Seeing fish but not catching any.
 It's been kind of odd.

[Wolley]

Crushed em last week. 25 in about 1.5 hours one day. Couple days later 30 more. More than I want to clean. Left them biting both days. Too bad it's over

[LINGUINI]

stew  hope you are ok now

[eiderz]

stew  hope you are ok now

I'm OK. Rattled the old noggin, but not dead yet. Missed seeing you and the guys this year.

[woodchip]

Jigging is not done.   Jig off your Boat!!!

[Seamonkey84]

Jigging from the boat is just not the same lol. Well, unless you have spot lock then it can be awesome hehe. This is prob the next big upgrade for me, GPS and control system that works with a basic trolling motor
https://tbnation.net/products/autoboat-gps-trolling-motor-anchor-system