Tap Dancing your jig through cover or structure

[crappieandbassman123]

Whats the best way to work a jig/lure through the cover for crappie without getting hung up all the time?

[RetiredRR]

crappieandbassman123, you opened the door and the first thought is "cut the hook off".......LOL
But, that is not what you wanted to hear, so I'll tell you what I was taught by my favorite crappie
fisherman, uncle John. He has passed, but his knowledge fishin' brush piles will be with me as long
as I maintain a memory. First thing he would do is cut a piece of copper wire 7 inches long, flatten
both ends and smooth the cut ends with a file and drill a small hole in each end 1/4 inch from the
ends. Place a swivel in one end and tie your line to the swivel. On the other end tie on another
swivel and a short (12 inch) length of mono (weight of your choice) and then your jig or hook and
minnow. IF you get hung up, drop the line and the weight of the copper wire will dislodge the hook
and your free to proceed your tap dancing in the brush. Each time you get hung up and you realize
your not hooked with a fish, drop the line and allow the weight of the wire to dislodge the hook again
and you keep on fishin'. Hope this helps. It works for me.

[TeamCSJE]

My favorite method of fishing is flippin' into brush and working every square inch of the cover. My method is to take whatever plastic grub I am using and texas rig it on a regular 1/32 oz. jig head (hook size is a #4 sickle hook). If the brush is shallow, I will take a #4 Aberdeen hook and rig the plastic grub texas rig with no weight and let it very slowly sink. This technique has worked awesome for me for crappie and bluegill. I also use 8 lb test braided line (2 lb test diameter) and I lose very few rigs with this set up.

[CrappiePappy]

Whats the best way to work a jig/lure through the cover for crappie without getting hung up all the time?

I use these :


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...y/jigheads.jpg

Crappie.com member Grousefly makes them for me .... 1/32 & 1/16oz ballheads with fiber (brush) style weedguards or the plastic Y guard style. The Y guard style is my favorite, and I got Grousefly (Paul Mullins/ P&S Custom Tackle) started making them back about 10yrs or so. They've become relatively popular among the members ... so much so, that other jig making members make them, as well.

Here's an excerpt from a post I made, concerning "how" I work a jig thru cover, & try and keep from getting snagged :

"Even weedless jigheads can/do get hung-up, occasionally. Here's a method I learned, that can keep you from hanging up and/or freeing your weedless jighead from a snag (before it hangs into it):

One thing that I haven't mentioned lately, that goes along with casting over submerged wood, even with a weedless jighead, is what I call "taking a bow" to avoid getting hung on a branch. Even weedless jigheads can & will get hung, sometimes. This can be avoided, to an extent. When retrieving the jig, usually the line will swing back to you ... and you will notice it at the point where it enters the water (it will continue to get closer to you, as you reel in). When it stays in one spot, as you reel in, that indicates that the line is draped over something submerged in the path of your retrieve. As you continue to reel, eventually the jig will come in contact with that obstacle. As it does, and when the rod tip starts to bend down, a lot of people tend to try and "jerk" the jig over it. That works, sometimes, but quite often - they get hung. I try and avoid getting hung in the cover I'm fishing, so as not to have to break off - disturbing the cover, losing the bait, or alerting the fish to any unnatural conditions. I do this by "taking a bow" - with the rod tip.

In essence - I wait until the jig comes in contact, and the rod tip starts to bend ... then I drop the rod tip about 6" towards the jig, and in one fluid motion raise the rod tip up towards me about 12". This is not done fast, like a jerking motion ... but, more of a slow drop and lift motion. What this does (or seems to do) is allow the bait to fall away from the obstacle - then when you lift it back (twice as far as you let it fall away) the head of the jig "bumps" the obstacle, and "hops" up overtop of it. Well, most of the time, anyway. The reason I don't drop it down 6" and then lift it up more than 12" - is that I want the jig to clear the obstacle, but remain in the general area. I will work a tree top over, with this method, bumping and bowing and hopping the jig over multiple branches. Another reason I don't pull the jig back more than 12", or reel it back in (once I've cleared the branch) ... is because I've had numerous occasions where I've had a fish hit the jig, once it cleared the obstacle and started coming back towards me. In fact, it's happened often enough that I almost "expect" to get a hit, when "taking a bow" over a branch."

The "other" method I use is "Vertical Casting" ... and here's the article explaining how that works :

Crappie Pappy Article


... cp