Vertical Casting-a revisit.

[Cane Pole]

Crappiepappy coined the phrase Vertical Casting and I want to revisit and let us expand this a bit. He also wrote a good article about Vertical Casting. (here's the link http://www.crappie.com/crappie/conte...ppiepappy.html).

Most of us do some type of vertical fishing, be it floating minnows/jigs or tight lining etc. It is fairly easy to figure out the depth of your bait if you use bobbers, but jig depth without a bobber is a swag.

The way I set my jig depth is I drop it to the bottom, take out slack, then crank it up to the desired depth (where I think the fishes are or where I may have seen them on the sonar).

Cranking to the desired depth is determined by the reel. I usually test the reel by letting out a little line, then crank one (1) turn on the reel to see how much line is reeled in. This is a good measuring stick here. Knowing the crank to line intake ratio enables me to crank up to the desired depth. All my reels are the same breed/type so it is easy for me to switch poles and not have to rethink cranking ratios..Simple is good sometimes.

Once I reach the desired level I wish to fish, I seldom if ever twitch my wrist to move the jig. I leave it still, but I do move the pole horizontal a little bit. The reason I do this is because this is what I have observed minnows doing. Most of the time minnows are hovering in the horizontal or moving in the horizontal. When spooked, they dart off in the horizontal, not the vertical. For this reason, I don't do a lot of wrist jerking/twitching which, in turn, causes vertical movement. Maybe I been watching minnows around my boat dock too long...ha

I hope Fatboy reads this. I can't remember if I told him about this or not.

What say anyone? How do you set depth?

[frank lawhead]

If I,m fishing deeper than 10 ft -- [mine jigging poles all 10 ft.] I hold the pole vertical and bring bait to the end of pole --- anything deeper I have the poles marked 1ft. in front of handle and go from there
not real science but works for me

[Barnacle Bill]

I thought vertical casting was when you let go of the line too early and it goes straight up then straight back down and hits you on the noggin.

[Darryl Morris]

I've always relied upon my fishfinder to tell me the depth range the fish are holding. Then I go straight to that depth without going to the bottom, risking getting hung up before I get a chance to catch a fish.

Using the length of the pole is my key to measuring the depth. I use 10'er's on all my slip float rigs. I also use pink fingernail polish and mark a spot 5' from the tip. As you move the bobber stop up or down the line, you can pull the stop back to the butt of the rod, know that you have 10' of line to the tip and then adjust the desired amount hanging off the tip - ie: 10+5 more and you know your fishing exactly 15' deep.

When tightlining a jig with no float or stopper, measuring your depth can be just as accurate. I use 11' poles for jigging, so when I bring the jig back to the butt and use a permanent marker to mark the line just in front of the reel, I've got a visible mark that is 20'. Put that mark at an appropriate place in your rod and you know how deep you are fishing.

This can be so precise that when you fish with Mr. Jerry Blake and ask him how deep he is fishing, he might reply something like, "Oh, 15' 3 and 3/4"s." LOL, or with our good friend Jim, "Exactly 30-foot" no matter how deep he's really fishing. Nothing like fishing with best friends, LOL, LOL.

[Jerry Blake]

Hey Tom:

I mark my line with a black permanent marker. I use an 11-foot jig pole and when I stick my jig in the butt of the pole and reel the line till it's just snug and mark my line right in front of my reel I have a 20-foot mark on my line.

We fish tall, heavy cover so for me it's easier to just drop down to the depth I'm wanting to fish rather than drop to the bottom and reel up.

Right now we're catching some fish over 30-feet deep so after making one mark at 20-feet that's about 6-inches long I let my line out to the tip of my pole and make another mark (about 3-inches long so I know which is which) in front of my reel again so I have a mark at 30-feet. If I'm going to fish 34-feet deep I let the 30-foot mark out until it comes down to about mid pole, which is 5 1/2-feet from the tip. Then with a my rod tip a foot or two from the surface I'm fishing right around 34-feet deep. I can also bring the mark up onto my pole a measured distance so I know how far shallower than 30-feet (or 20-feet) I am fishing.

In cold, damp weather I have to remark my line every hour or so but if I make my marks in warm, dry weather they last most of the day. Of course if you break off and loose some line you have to make new marks but we seldom break jigs off when vertical jigging because we use "get-er-offers" to get them loose when hung up.

I don't do a lot of up and down movment when vertical jigging either. I do raise my rod tip up and down to change depths but usually keep the downward movement as slow as possible, keeping the line tight between the rod tip and jig. I run the line lightly between my index and middle finger on my pole hand so I can feel the slightest change in pressure indicating a bite.

When get a bite I take a quick look at where my mark is compared to the tip of my pole after setting the hook but before reeling so I know how deep - within a few inches - I was fishing when the fish hit.

[Darryl Morris]

P.S. Tom your right about moving your jig horizontally. A minnow doesn't swim vertically, so why should your jig. On the other hand, every once in a while I will give it the slightest twitch trying to mimic an injured baitfish to entice a bite.

[drifter106]

For some time now we have been fishing pretty much the same environment. Fish have been holding anywhere from 8 to 15 ft in 26 ft of water. It has been a common practice that when you catch one you immediately get out the magic marker and mark it on your line (I usually mark it at the first or second eye from the reel seat). Many a time the crappies seem to like that vertical fall (catch a lot at the 4 and 5 o'clock hour...if 6 is straight up and down). Something about that 1/16 hair jig, on the fall, that really attracts the crappie. Also, slowly raising or lowering your pole, generally a foot or 2...SLOWLY, will make that crappie hit. Bigger ones have a tendency to just suck it in. Sometimes you don't feel it but see it in your line. Dam, think I just convinced myself to go tommorrow even though the winds gonna blow!

[LBM]

For me the most accurate way at finding a given depth is by watching my jigs on the graph as they descend the water column. If I see fish marks on my graph running at 18 ft I position my pole so the jigs will descend in the transducer cone and let line out till the jigs are at the same depth or slightly higher than the fish marks on the graph.

Some days my Lowarance X97 will show the jigs very plainly and sometime not. Don't know why it varies since I very seldom change settings on my graph.

Another way I position the baits or jigs at a given depth is first by letting the jig just touch the water while holding the rod tip at the distance from the water that I will be holding it while fishing. I open the bail and hold the tip of my right index finger on the front edge of the reel spool which keeps line from comming off of the spool. With my left hand I grab the line at the front edge of the spool and pull line off of the spool the distance my left hand can reach. I pull the line at approximatly a 45 deg angle from the rod since my arm reach distance is greater than the distance the first rod guide is from the reel. I then let the line loose with my left hand while still holding my right index finger on the front spool edge allowing the jig to descend that distance from the end of my rod tip with out allowing more line to come off the spool. In my case that distance is apporx 3 ft. If I want my jigs at 18 feet I repeat the process 6 time. If I want it at 20 ft it would be 6 full length pulls and on the seventh pull I would only pull off approximately 2 ft of line.

Once I have determined the depth I want to fish at I can accurately get my baits back to the given depth I was wanting to fish at. It doesn't matter what rod length I'm fishing with I will get my baits back to the same depth each time using this method.

Also with this method I can keep concealed from other boats just how deep I'm actually fishing by going though the very same motions but instead of pulling line off of the spool I would be sliding my left hand up the line and actually pulling the line back through the rod guides and be actually pulling the jigs in closer then letting go of the line for the jig to fall back to the depth it was. The motion is the same but an observer couldn't tell that I didn't actually let any line out. Oh well thats just some of the devious thoughts that can run through my mind while on the water. Since I'm not a competitive tournament fisherman if someone asks me at what depth I'm fishing I will tell them.

[drifter106]

For me the most accurate way at finding a given depth is by watching my jigs on the graph as they descend the water column. If I see fish marks on my graph running at 18 ft I position my pole so the jigs will descend in the transducer cone and let line out till the jigs are at the same depth or slightly higher than the fish marks on the graph.

Some days my Lowarance X97 will show the jigs very plainly and sometime not. Don't know why it varies since I very seldom change settings on my graph.

Another way I position the baits or jigs at a given depth is first by letting the jig just touch the water while holding the rod tip at the distance from the water that I will be holding it while fishing. I open the bail and hold the tip of my right index finger on the front edge of the reel spool which keeps line from comming off of the spool. With my left hand I grab the line at the front edge of the spool and pull line off of the spool the distance my left hand can reach. I pull the line at approximatly a 45 deg angle from the rod since my arm reach distance is greater than the distance the first rod guide is from the reel. I then let the line loose with my left hand while still holding my right index finger on the front spool edge allowing the jig to descend that distance from the end of my rod tip with out allowing more line to come off the spool. In my case that distance is apporx 3 ft. If I want my jigs at 18 feet I repeat the process 6 time. If I want it at 20 ft it would be 6 full length pulls and on the seventh pull I would only pull off approximately 2 ft of line.

Once I have determined the depth I want to fish at I can accurately get my baits back to the given depth I was wanting to fish at. It doesn't matter what rod length I'm fishing with I will get my baits back to the same depth each time using this method.

Also with this method I can keep concealed from other boats just how deep I'm actually fishing by going though the very same motions but instead of pulling line off of the spool I would be sliding my left hand up the line and actually pulling the line back through the rod guides and be actually pulling the jigs in closer then letting go of the line for the jig to fall back to the depth it was. The motion is the same but an observer couldn't tell that I didn't actually let any line out. Oh well thats just some of the devious thoughts that can run through my mind while on the water. Since I'm not a competitive tournament fisherman if someone asks me at what depth I'm fishing I will tell them.

You must fish Melvern or Pomona...or both. LOL

[Bridges]

I thought vertical casting was when you let go of the line too early and it goes straight up then straight back down and hits you on the noggin.

I thought it was you stood up and casted.