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Author Topic: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........  (Read 929 times)

Offline Liter Of Cola

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Just got a flasher this year and have been breaking it in good.  

Been trying to jig up some togue and found a lot of fish today. (FOUND not CAUGHT :)

Was over 40 feet of water and they were moving in and out a lot right tight on the bottom.  I'd get my jig down there and they'd invariably chase it.  Lots ot them would come up 5-10 feet when I was dropping it down, some of them kept following it up and chased my jig 20-30 feet up off the bottom (Marcum adjustable zoom is awesome).

Anyway, I only got 3 of them to bite and caught two of them -- not great considering I was playing around with them for several hours like that.

I tried about everything I had -- both tipped with a sucker tail and not tipped.  Large sewdish pimple, smaller swedish pimple.  2 sizes of airplane jigs.  White tube jig (got one bite on that -- the one I missed).  

The two I caught came rocketing up and flat slammed the swedish pimple as soon as it dropped to within 5 feet of the bottom.  But any time they started to chase and didn't immediately take, I couldn't get them to hit for anything.  Tried different speeds of jigging, tried long pauses after lowering the jig.  Generally I was trying to keep it just above the fish when they were coming up.

Is that typical for jigging togue or are there some tricks for triggering that strike that you guys have?

Offline fishingsurveyor

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #1 on: Feb 05, 2011, 09:12 PM »
are you sure they were all togue. It almost sounds like some of them were small yellows. They will look and follow but not bite if the jig or bait is to big happened to me all last weekend up to moosehead downsized and whacked em

Offline Liter Of Cola

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #2 on: Feb 05, 2011, 09:16 PM »
That could be, I did think of that but hadn't brought anything much smaller to put down there.

Offline fishingsurveyor

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #3 on: Feb 05, 2011, 09:22 PM »
What I have noticed is that a togue will show up a a fairly thick yellow or a thin green line yellows always will be a thin yellow line unless there a multiples

Offline TheOutdoorsman

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #4 on: Feb 05, 2011, 09:24 PM »
Togue can be funny like that sometimes.  I've seen days when they only hit it on the drop, or only hit it on the twitch, and even some days when they would only hit it if I reeled it as fast as I could.
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Offline ICEDINN

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #5 on: Feb 05, 2011, 09:30 PM »
Ive noticed some days they just dont bite ! Read the back of the pimple package Ive found the best action happens a foot of the bottom then I drop it to the bottom bouncing it off the bottom a few times raising no more than 2 feet thats were you see them thats where they will take it and some days its just not going to work no matter what you do ! Thars why its fishing and not catching Good Luck ! Remember what you do every time you go out and after a few years it will produce when others dont !

Offline woodchip

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #6 on: Feb 05, 2011, 09:50 PM »
When you have a day that they are not taking good i like to use a circle or english bait hook with a weight a foot from the hook . bounce the bait (cut sucker or smelt) they usally take hold on the way down.  Woodchip

Offline chillywillie

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #7 on: Feb 06, 2011, 05:01 AM »
The past two weekends have been like that for us.  The majority of the fish we caught were actually caught with the jig not moving.  They will come up 2 or 3 feet off bottom and look at your jig for 20 or 30 seconds.  One little wiggle and then they'll hit it.  Some of them just attack though.  I've had jigs 10 to 15 feet above bottom on the way down and a togue rockets up from the bottom and hammers it.  I had a couple of those yesterday.

Offline fishingsurveyor

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #8 on: Feb 06, 2011, 05:38 AM »
The past two weekends have been like that for us.  The majority of the fish we caught were actually caught with the jig not moving.  They will come up 2 or 3 feet off bottom and look at your jig for 20 or 30 seconds.  Onr little wiggle and then they'll hit it.  Some of them just attack though.  I've had jigs 10 to 15 feet above bottom on the way down and a togue rockets up from the bottom and hammers it.  I had a couple of those yesterday.

You getting them on those new jigs you just purchased

Offline chillywillie

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #9 on: Feb 06, 2011, 05:54 AM »
No, I haven't tried those yet.  The fish won't stop biting on the old ones so I haven't had a chance to try anything new :o

Offline fishingsurveyor

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #10 on: Feb 06, 2011, 05:55 AM »
No, I haven't tried those yet.  The fish won't stop biting on the old ones so I haven't had a chance to try anything new :o

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Offline saltyshores

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #11 on: Feb 06, 2011, 06:05 AM »
If the lake has whitefish in it, I have often had them move in and look at the jig, but not take it while I am jigging for togue. Whitefish can be fussy and also have small mouths that are soft, so I have lost them a lot, too. I use a portable digital fishfinder and when I start to jig, the bottom often appears very flat but within a few minutes, the bottom shows lots of bumps that are usually whitefish, with some togue mixed in. It sure fires me up to see that the fish have moved in, but sometimes it's hard to trigger a bite.

Offline blktrk4man

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #12 on: Feb 06, 2011, 06:39 AM »
Yeah, sometimes they just don't feel like biting, I danced a jig right in front of a togue for 1/2 hour, I think I finally ticked him off cause he finally bit, keep at it and keep changing up jigs and bait till something works.

Offline Liter Of Cola

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Re: Question for anyone who likes to jig for togue.........
« Reply #13 on: Feb 06, 2011, 11:35 AM »
The past two weekends have been like that for us.  The majority of the fish we caught were actually caught with the jig not moving.  They will come up 2 or 3 feet off bottom and look at your jig for 20 or 30 seconds.  Onr little wiggle and then they'll hit it.  Some of them just attack though.  I've had jigs 10 to 15 feet above bottom on the way down and a togue rockets up from the bottom and hammers it.  I had a couple of those yesterday.

Much appreciated.  The ones I did get did exactly that.  Was letting it down and they just came screaming up and it was a no-doubter.

 



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